It's Not My Story

Guess what?

I never wanted to be a missionary.

*gasp!*

I know. I know... But it's true! I don't come from a long line of faithful missionaries. I didn't grow up reading missionary biographies and dreaming of far away lands. In fact, it's quite the opposite.

From an early age, I can specifically remember thinking, "God, please don't ever let me be a missionary. That is just not for me." Adventure. The unknown. Unfamiliar places. Leaving friends and family. These are things I don't seek out.

But God. Oh, but God.

He already had me walking on a road that was going to be full of experiences involving missions... from low-income neighborhoods in Chicago, to orphanages in Mexico, to high school students in Ukraine...Little did I know I was already on the path that would one day lead me to full-term service in overseas missions. God graciously allowed me to take one small, manageable step at a time knowing that this was the way to make my will His will.

Another confession.

I never wanted to do foster care.

I've had a heart for adoption for many, many years and hope to adopt children one day, but foster care was never a consideration for me.

I've always been an dog lover, and when I was a child, I learned about those seeing-eye-dog programs where dogs are raised and trained to be service dogs for blind people. For the first year of those dogs' lives, they live with a foster family who teaches them basic obedience and gets them used to being around all kinds of people. At the end of the year, the dogs are given back to the training program. Even as a child, I knew that foster care was not for me because I would be heart-broken giving up a puppy after a year, much less a child!

But God... 

Over the years, God has been teaching me that our children are not our own. He has given me opportunities to work alongside and learn from other missionary families who are involved with short-term emergency foster care in Mbarara, develop a relationship with my dear friend Laura who also cares for abandoned children, and cross paths with families here in the States who are involved with and passionate about foster care.

The little girl whose heart broke at the thought of giving away a puppy now spends free time time learning about foster care in Iowa. (Iowa alone has 4,000 children needing a foster family.) 

Fifty percent of the population in Uganda is under 18 years old and there are 2.5 million orphans* in Uganda (please visit this website to understand what that number actually means). And though my heart would certainly ache each time a foster child moves on, I now know that God goes before these children, advocating and fighting for their hope and future. He sets the lonely in families who will teach these babies "to exchange that inch-deep love for the unmeasurable, unending, my-heart-would-never-mend-if-I-lost-you love." Because that is the kind of love that each child deserves. The kind of love that Christ modeled for us and continues to pour out on us day after day.

And that's why I am planning to return to Uganda to serve vulnerable mothers and children.

And that is why this isn’t my story.

It’s God’s.