discovering missions - Southern Nazarene University

245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 136
136 Developing Tomorrow’s Missionaries
Say “Yes” If He Calls
The answer was NO. I was 16 and I didn’t want to be a missionary. I
wanted my own will. That led to another no. It wasn’t long before I
found myself very far from God. I began to make choices that were
to my liking. It was fun for a while, but it didn’t last. My reputation
was ruined, and I had lost many of my church friends. My heart was
empty. I was lost, and I didn’t even know how to admit that I needed
Christ to save me.
It happened one Sunday morning when my closest friend
stopped and said, “Claudia, I cannot agree with all you are doing,
but I want you to know I still love you.”
That touch of love was the turning point, for I had decided not
to go to college. I soon found myself a student at what is now Point
Loma Nazarene University, following a friend who hadn’t given up
on me.
It was at the close of the fall revival that I slipped into the dorm
prayer room. I locked the door, and I knelt down and began to pray.
I prayed most of the night. When I came out in the early morning, I
was a “new creature” in Christ!
That was the beginning of real joy! The Holy Spirit sanctified
me a few months later, and He so graciously gave me back the call
He had given me 2 years before.
I look back now on 32 years of missionary service. They have
been exciting and fulfilling. I continually find great inner peace in
doing the Father’s will. Would I choose to go back to a life of my
own will and sinful living? No! Never!
I almost made a major wrong choice in my life. It would have
taken me far from where I am today.
I count it a great privilege in serving Christ as a missionary. Say
yes if He calls you. You will never be sorry! 5
—Claudia Stevenson, missionary to Nigeria
Paul’s Macedonian Call
Sometimes people cite Paul’s Macedonian call (Acts 16:9) as an example of
a missionary call. The purpose of that particular vision, however, was not to recruit
Paul for missionary service. When Paul had that vision, he had already
been commissioned as a missionary by the Antioch church (chap. 13). When
the Macedonian vision came, Paul was in Troas in the middle of his second
missionary trip. The man from Macedonia in that vision was used to direct
Paul and his team westward toward peoples on the European continent.
People testifying to a missionary call have sometimes felt that God was calling
them to a specific place, somewhat like what happened in the Macedonian
call. Indeed, for much of the Protestant era of mission, it has been expected that
people testifying to a missionary call would also name the place to which God