As a child, and even a teenager, I never had a dream job. I didn’t want to be a lawyer, policeman, doctor or professional stone-skipper. There were plenty of things I was good at or enjoyed, but nothing I knew I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
After finishing high school with some pretty good grades, college offers came around. I was given some pretty good options, including two different full ride academic scholarships for any course of my choice. As privileged a position as I was in, it didn’t help me at all. Now I really could do anything I wanted to do or be anything I wanted to be with my life. More choice left me with less direction!
As I agonized over this decision for a period of weeks, God met me with a thought from His Spirit, “What’s important in life? Is it important that I go to university? What for? What is really important in life?” As I contemplated this thought, I came to the conclusion that God is important; that to know Him and to have a relationship with Him has got to be the most important thing in the world. As I examined myself I acknowledged that I really did not know God very well and I certainly did not know how to read the Bible. “Of course,” I said to myself, “I’ll go to Bible school!” And so I came to NTBI.
It was through my first year of Bible school that I finally found direction in my life, and really it came through my growing knowledge of God. In classes, as we progressed through the Old Testament book by book, I observed how God interacted with mankind; I began to recognize His character. I was shown through God’s attitude and dealings with Israel that He is a relentless pursuer. All throughout history, God has just been reaching with outstretched arms toward mankind, pleading for them to turn to Him, and this is still the case today.
I am alive at a time in history when God is using His Church to bring all people to a saving knowledge of Him. This is what God is doing around the world today, and I have an opportunity to be a part of His great program. There are people groups who have no opportunity to believe the Gospel because they have no opportunity to hear it. I want to take part in bringing the Gospel to these people.
Now I know that I want to be an overseas missionary, involved in planting a church in an unreached people group. I finally have direction to my life. I know what God is doing today with this earth and I know my part in it. I’m so thankful for my time at NTBI in which God has given me truth to stand on and to base my life around.
Student at NTBI Jackson
