by Sandra Tee
It was December 2022. I had just returned from a mission trip to India when the thought of doing a longer missions stint crossed my mind. I felt a growing desire to sow into the nations in a greater and more sustainable
manner. However, I avoided thinking too deeply about it, assuming it was just another post-trip “high” I was experiencing.
It wasn’t until I heard a missionary share about his recent adventure with God during a spontaneous supper session with some church members that I gave a missions apprenticeship serious thought. As he shared the dangers, someone curiously asked, “When do you know whether it’s risk or recklessness?” While many things were said, I remembered him saying, “I am just loose change in God’s pocket. He can spend me as He pleases”, as beautifully quoted from John Wimber. I’ll never forget the burning sensation in my heart that night, while
also sensing a gentle nudge from God again.
Fast forward to 2024, I finished my last semester of university and took 2.5 months off to serve in Mae Sot, a city located at the border between Thailand and Myanmar. It was also around that time that news broke out again about the increasing influx of refugees crossing over. Unbeknownst to me, I was going to fall in love with this very community.
Never underestimate the "small and ordinary" moments that God wants to use in our lives.
Adapting to the new culture was a lot harder than I imagined. Language and culture aside, it was difficult to enter a community that had experienced a vastly different lifestyle from mine. How could I truly understand or relate to them? I knew I needed God to break through.
On the very first Sunday Service, I was unexpectedly asked to share a short testimony before worship. I was stunned and my mind went blank. As I came forward to share, a picture came to mind. I saw two different coloured hands covered with blood of the same deep red. I immediately sensed that the Holy Spirit wanted me to share about our shared identity in Christ and despite our differences, we are all unique sons and daughters born for purpose.
After the service, a church member shared how my sharing brought healing to her heart. As one who had an unpleasant working experience as a helper overseas previously, she believed that she was ‘less’ and always felt ashamed of herself. To think that a moment of attuning to the Holy Spirit could release such healing to a person’s heart humbled me. I was learning to never underestimate the “small and ordinary” moments that God
wants to use in our lives.
My heart was constantly full as I witnessed people getting saved, healed, and empowered as we shared meals in wooden huts, spoke at roadside mama shops, and had conversations while squatting in the fields.
Over time, as I spent more time with the people, it became more apparent that God was moving through
seemingly ordinary conversations about dreams, family, and pain from the ongoing war in Myanmar. My heart
was constantly full as I witnessed people getting saved, healed, and empowered as we shared meals in wooden huts, spoke at roadside mama shops, and had conversations while squatting in the fields. God was undoubtedly present, and I was just thankful to have been a part of it.
Though a short stint, my greatest takeaway was this: The Lord primarily calls us to Himself. His call to us each day is to remain faithful and obedient to His voice simply because it’s His dream we are living for, not ours. And if our pursuit of Him was never just about a specific vocation, country, or job, it means we can live missionally wherever we are! May we have the heart to see that He is at work all around us and simply start where we are.
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