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Letting go of a dream

Judilyn

Once Ej or Erin-Joy now Judilyn or Lynn .
Aug 2, 2003
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When I was a small girl God put in my heart that I would some day be a missonary. I held on to that dream for many years and through many trials.

But now I am letting go of that dream. I have faced the reality that it will never happen. I am disappointed. I am hurting.

I work full time in a childrens ministry at our church. Although I love children and I am good at what I do I feel as if I was born and trained to be an athletic swimmer who is stuck at the rodeo.


I can't really say for certain why I feel this way but the child is grown and the dream is now gone.
 

talitha

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Why don't you just go on a short-term trip? I don't see why you couldn't do that! On my first short term trip overseas, one of our team members had to be carried by another team member up stairs, even curbs, because he could not lift his legs high enough to step up. Another team member was a woman in her seventies. If they could do it, why can't you?

bless you
tal
 
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clonenomore

I will be a Clone No More
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wild01 said:
Why can't your mission field be where you are now. Look around your community, figure out where the true need for God is. Missionaries don't have to be in foriegn countries to do missionary work.

I agree. I read somewhere that the US was the new "mission field" -- that we have a bigger need for missionaries than most other countries. Based on my own experiences, this is true.

Why is this? I read in the book "Planting Growing Churches" by Aubrey Malphurs that we are now a 2nd and 3rd generation "unchurched" society. When I was growing up, there was the expectation that you would attend church, especiallly here in the Bible belt southeastern US. If you weren't in church, you hid so that no one could see you. Now, that expectation isn't there. Parents don't go to church, so their children don't go to church. People find all sort of things to do on a Sunday morning, and going to church just gets in the way.

Sometimes what we want and what God has planned for us are different. I am called to plant a church to reach those that have been alienated from the church -- because I was there once. I didn't feel the call to go to seminary. However, lately God has revealed that He wants me to go to get my MDiv from a seminary, and that's scary to me. It's not my dream at all to return to graduate school at 40 years old! My vision is to get going on the church plant, but God want to ready me through other ministries and education right now.

I said all of that to say this -- God may still want to send you overseas to spread the Great News. If so, the door WILL open. He may be preparing you now for that mission. But, keep in mind, He may want you to do mission work in your local community, because that's what's in His master plan. Leave yourself open to following God's plan, and ask for His guidance. You are in my prayers.
 
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Palatka44

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Jul 22, 2003
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You know that if you look at Moses you'll see that he got ahead of God and got into trouble. At the age of 40 God (through Moses' on actions) caused him to wonder in the wilderness for 40 more years tending sheep. Then at the age of 80 he was ready for God's work.
43 is not the age to give up on dreams as long as God is directing your course of study He will use you at any age.
 
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Highland Watchman

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I wonder... how do you define "missionary" - simply as someone who goes to another place to perform a specific task or to preach or what-have-you?

Well, in a way, Erin-Joy, you already are a missionary... to those children. And in many ways, you have been given that specific task for the time being, in preparation of what is yet to come.

God uses our experiences that we have in order to enhance our later ministry. Had Joseph not gone through slavery, prison, and administrative duties in both positions, would he have been prepared to become Prime-minister of Egypt, which went according to the dreams of his youth? Would Moses have effectively led the people of Israel if he had not been raised in Pharaoh's palace, or if he has not spent that time working with a bunch of stupid sheep, or even in meeting his God face to face? Would David have been as effective a king as he was had he not been raised a shepherd, or had God not brought him into Saul's presence to be unofficially trained by him?

My point is very much similar to what has been said before. Do not give up on your dreams, and cease asking why God would forsake those dreams (for I do believe that the LORD was the one who gave them to you). But rather ask how your present circumstances could lead toward and train you for your eventual task, which would be the fulfilment of this dream. And live in the moment, siezing each day for the blessings that God has given you at that point in the journey. For life is a journey and, even though it is great to have an end to journey toward, it is the journey that matters in the end...
 
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ZiSunka

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Jan 16, 2002
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Erin-Joy said:
When I was a small girl God put in my heart that I would some day be a missonary. I held on to that dream for many years and through many trials.

But now I am letting go of that dream. I have faced the reality that it will never happen. I am disappointed. I am hurting.

I work full time in a childrens ministry at our church. Although I love children and I am good at what I do I feel as if I was born and trained to be an athletic swimmer who is stuck at the rodeo.


I can't really say for certain why I feel this way but the child is grown and the dream is now gone.

I surely do not understand why you feel you can never be a missionary. I started a mission when I was your age.
 
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kidsminister

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Erin-Joy...

There are so many contemporary examples of people who didn't start on the mission field when they were 23 and fresh out of college!

Mother Theresa, for one! There's also a lady in Amsterdam (don't recall her name off hand!) who is 84 YEARS OLD and has one of the most powerful ministries in the area to the gothic punks and skinheads.

A lady who is a member of the church I used to attend is in her early 60's, and God didn't provide a way for her to be on the mission field until she was 51 years old.

Don't lose heart! If God has called you, He knows exactly what He is doing, and he may have somethign specifically planned for you down the road that some snot-nosed punk in their 20s could never do (I'm in my 20s, so I can say that, lol ;) ).
 
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