“A Call within a Call.”

An abandoned railway car is transformed into a chapel; a hunger for the Word !


Some thoughts on “a Call within a Call.”

I don’t presume to answer any of the questions I pose in this article, because only God knows the answers!

Just as background for new readers: as a single girl, I felt called by God to become an Officer, and to work in a country where the Army hadn’t yet been able to re-open its work - that would take another 12 years or so. Subsequently, I married, and we served as Officers together for a few years in the UKT, until, mainly for health reasons, we had to resign, and our circumstances now are such that I/we will never be able to return to Officership. Not being an Officer didn’t bother me too much while we worked in Caring jobs, and not going to the country to which God had called me didn’t bother me while we were Officers. So it was OK by me, but was it OK with God (?) , because I still wasn’t doing what He had called me to do. By the time the work re-commenced in that country, I had already begun to be troubled about not being an Officer, which became even more acute to me when the Army recommenced work in that country.

I can console myself with 2 things:

1) God’s Will will still be done, in spite of us – Sven and others who have written went and did the work I was called to do. His Plans won’t be frustrated, although other people won’t do exactly the same things in exactly the same ways as we would have done
.
2) Having read about the work in that country from those who did it, I realise that I had no idea at all of what working there would involve, and how it would be, and to be honest, I really don’t think I would have coped. However, maybe by then, after years of being within the perfect will of God, I would have been enabled, by perfect trust in Him, to do so.

That leads me to another thought. Commissioner Dudley Coles in his recently released book, “Leap of Faith” – which I thoroughly recommend – tells of a Canadian couple who answered the call of God to serve in an Asian country, but changed their minds en route while staying overnight in England. They had become increasingly fearful about going, but once the wheels of administration started turning, were too afraid to say so. I can’t imagine how that would be – all the Farewells, etc., having told everyone you’d answered the call of God to a specific country, then you change your mind/ don’t feel able to go, for whatever reason. I can empathise with that, and to say they couldn’t go now, must have taken courage. They were repatriated, and he - rightly – doesn’t identify them, or tell what happened after that. The inference is that they returned to an Appointment in Canada. I wonder where they are now, and what they’re doing, and are they still Officers?

Earlier in the book he tells how missionary Officers early in their term can feel tempted to get the next boat or plane home, but lack of money, pride, and logistical/geographical concerns prevent it – plus trust in God, and a sense of His specific Call to them. I remember that a previous writer on the “Formers” site who went to Russia said something similar.


Former
UKT