You may know that a key part of my call to the mission field was working as a volunteer for the South Asia Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Chiang Mai, Thailand. AGM is a week-long conference for all the field personnel in a given area. It is a chance for missionaries to come together for business meetings, for health checks, to fellowship with members of the mission family, and to worship and be fed in our heart language, for a change.
For three summers, I worked with the youth camp for the South Asia MKs during AGM. During my time with the South Asian missionaries, I was able to get to know field personnel at a new level. They became my friends and mentors. They taught me that missionaries really are just real people. In the middle of my second trip to AGM, I began to hear God saying that overseas missions wouldn’t be a vacation, volunteer thing for me anymore, but that this was going to be life for me for a while.
My first AGM as a missionary started yesterday. I’ve been to AGM before, but I’ve always been working, volunteering, supporting the missionaries who come to this week for much-needed rest and refreshment. This time, though, it’s for me. I’m one of the many who are tired. Who need to rest. Who need to hear English spoken without an accent. Who need to just be for a week.
It is sweet to be on this side of AGM. It is sweet to see how God brought me from volunteering in VBS, in schools, and in medical clinics ministering to nationals to serving field personnel, to being one of those personnel. And I can’t explain it; I can’t really even put words to it. But it’s amazing to be in this place, to hear God say, “I told you… I brought you here. I am on this journey with you. And I’m glad you’ve joined Me in this place.”
For three summers, I worked with the youth camp for the South Asia MKs during AGM. During my time with the South Asian missionaries, I was able to get to know field personnel at a new level. They became my friends and mentors. They taught me that missionaries really are just real people. In the middle of my second trip to AGM, I began to hear God saying that overseas missions wouldn’t be a vacation, volunteer thing for me anymore, but that this was going to be life for me for a while.
My first AGM as a missionary started yesterday. I’ve been to AGM before, but I’ve always been working, volunteering, supporting the missionaries who come to this week for much-needed rest and refreshment. This time, though, it’s for me. I’m one of the many who are tired. Who need to rest. Who need to hear English spoken without an accent. Who need to just be for a week.
It is sweet to be on this side of AGM. It is sweet to see how God brought me from volunteering in VBS, in schools, and in medical clinics ministering to nationals to serving field personnel, to being one of those personnel. And I can’t explain it; I can’t really even put words to it. But it’s amazing to be in this place, to hear God say, “I told you… I brought you here. I am on this journey with you. And I’m glad you’ve joined Me in this place.”
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