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.
