Inspired and Motivated by the Call to Go
“And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.” (Acts 20:22-24)
MESHING OF HEARTS
Even as a little girl becoming a follower of Jesus, at the age of 11, I knew I wanted to go places. God had given me a curious and adventurous spirit. Two of my favorite songs as a young girl: “God loves the little Children of the World” and “Jesus Loves me”. I would sing them over and over even before I knew Jesus personally.
As my mom prompted us to write letters to some of our relatives fighting in the Vietnam War, as a way to thank and encourage them I would ask:.
“Where are they serving”? “What is it like where they are”? “They are doing this for our country”!? “What’s that mean? Etc…
I remember one particular day my mother went out and got a small little Christmas tree in September to give to our church to send to these people living far away we called missionaries. “Missionaries”? Who are they? “September, Christmas tree?” What’s it like to be away from family at Christmas with no tree?
Questions rose up in my young impressionable mind. Each experience opened up my world to something far bigger than me. It would take me many years to understand what some of this meant.
My dad oftened traveled too. I would hear about the different locations he visited but I didn’t always get to go with him. It was during my college years that I finally enjoyed the opportunity to travel myself. I told God one day “I would be willing to go anywhere He wanted me to go” if only God would allow me to share Him with others.
As I read books of other women who had gone before in missions, I learned of the “MODERN MISSIONARY MOVEMENT”. By the middle of the 1800’s a “WOMEN’S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT” developed. A time where women saw they could be part of the Great Commission by going or by helping others go. Many women were heeding the call to go. It became a significant day for women to be involved so that others could hear the Gospel in places where the name of Jesus were not known.
Knowing the life these women were choosing wasn’t going to be easy and they fascinated me. I couldn’t read enough. The commitment to missions was for life. Today, transportation is much more accessible. Many took their coffins with them knowing they would die there. Wow! Could I commit myself to something like that?
What Motivated these women to do what they did?
It was by knowing God and His Gospel that many received a compelling call. Pioneers like William carey (known as the “Father of Modern Mission, who was from Europe and went to India), also inspired Anne Judson (first missionary wife out from America to Burma (called Myanmar today), her husband, Adoniram Judson and others to consider their obedience to the Great Commission of Matt. 28:18-20.
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
They took their calling and command from God seriously. They wanted to team up with God and His heart for the nations; wanting to be a part of what God was doing. Often willing to go against cultural norms. My heart was being meshed with their hearts and I wanted to be just like them!
CALLING OF THEIR HEART
In Ann Judson’s day, she was considered an “assistant” missionary not a “missionary” in her own right. (Leonard Sweet, 91 and Dana Roberts, 1). What does that mean? As an “assistant” missionary, women were considered marginal to the “true missionary work” that men did as it was phrased. Of course this caught my eye.
Dana Roberts in her book “American Women in Mission: A Social History of their thought and Practice”, says that history books from the 1800 era implied that women missionaries “were and are doers but not thinkers, reactive secondary figures rather than proactive primary ones.” to the great commission. (Roberts, xvii).
When you read this statement what are your thoughts?
The stereotypes of women in ministry at the turn of the 19 century, were “perceived as marginal to the central tasks of missions.” (Roberts, xvii) In other words, women were there to meet human needs, help others, “sacrificing themselves without plan or season, all for the sake of bringing the world to Jesus Christ” but not ones who were actually called “missionaries” who ministered the Word of God to the people in need of the Gospel. (Roberts page xvii.) We have come a long way since those days.
Even in the 1500’s down to the 1800’s starting with Katherine Von Luther: Martin Luther’s wife, the first minister’s wife in the Protestant movement came to be considered , a companion, or helper in ministry. (Sweet, 13). What motivated her to make a hard obedient choice against what was considered a cultural norm of her day? Her obedience to God’s call on her life ended up influencing many.
Ann Judson, was considered one of the best-educated woman of her day. She broke cultural protocal, too, due to the desires of her heart. She was one of the first women to be allowed to attend the well known Bradford Academy in 1812. The school was one of the first charted to allow women into their school, which was for men only. It was founded by First Church of Bradford, MI, and the American Mission Board, which sent the Judsons out as their first missionaries. (Roberts, 15).
This begs the question: Why would Ann Judson, being an educated woman, yet considered “marginal and a secondary figure” want to go to the mission field in the first place? Was Ann’s motives to go overseas the same as her husband’s or did she go just because she was his wife?
As Ann Judson contemplated marrying Adoniram she wrote
“I am a creature of God and he has an undoubted right to do with me as seemeth good in His sight. I rejoice that I am in His hand–that He is everywhere present and can protect me in one place as well as in another… When I am called to face danger, to pass through scenes of terror and distress, He can inspire me with fortitude, and enable me to trust in Him… Whether I spend my days in India or America, I desire to spend them in the service of God and be prepared to spead an eternity in His presence…. I am quite willing to give up temporal comforts and live a life of hardship and trial, if it be the will of God… “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word”. (Luke 1:38). ( Deen, 172 )
Ann gives us a snapshot into the motivation and calling of her heart even as she faced the cultural norms and opposition of her day. Women were not allow to go overseas during the early part of the 1800’s without being married so for Ann to marry her husband was as much a part of the call as the call itself to go. It was taken very seriously.
SOMETHING BEYOND OUR OWN HEARTS
Much of early history didn’t write about women and their motives for going cross-culturally because what was written was by the view of the men of that day. So how do we know exactly what women were thinking about as it relates to their call? Again were they “called” like men in the traditional sense of the word? Roberts says in the early 19th century women wrote their “own gender based theories of missions for women” in their journals and in letters, “which revealed much rich thought world set of asumptions about women’s roles in the missionary task.” (Roberts).
We are safe to say from the beginning women in general were “as interested in missions as their male counterpart.” (Roberts, xii). However, because of the view of women in that day some also went against their own will. They were often forced to go or went because their husband’s went.
William carey’s wife didn’t share in his heartbeat for the lost world of India but went with Carey anyway. (refer: to Mangalwadi, and Candle in the Dark video). She suffered for it. Most of the women, however, did have a calling on their life and the difference it made! This was what often kept them serving, yielding much fruitful contribution to the glory of God, way after their lives ended. (John 15:8).
Women started their own mission agencies later on, where we read of single women who were then allowed to go and went compelled by God’s call just as their married women counterparts.
As I reminise, I see how God orchestrated my life even before I knew him personally. Like Ann when I prayed about someone to date and ultimately marry I wanted to make sure we both had the same calling. Therefore this has been our mantra as a couple from the beginning in any assignment God has called us.
When God called us first to the Philippines, God confirmed to me through Joshua 1:9 “Be strong and courageous be not fearful, dismayed or discouraged, for I will be with you whereever you go.” Together Jim and I agreed God’s leading in both of our lives.
So when life gets tough what will motivate us through the thick and thin? It has and I hope it will continue to be, the Gospel, God, Jesus HIMSELF who promised He will be with us whereever we go so His name can be proclaimed through us.
As I read Ann Judson’s story and others like her I am inspired by their willingness to go even when it might be against much cultural opposition. They took the Great Commission seriously, heeding the Call to go. God used them to change much of what we know of missions today. Their legacy lives on in our hearts and many have been called out. Called out because they were willing to give their life to serve God in ways that couldn’t have been easy, for the sake of the Gospel. Their calling was definitely motivated by something beyond themselves.
After reading this what is God saying to you…?
PERSONAL THOUGHTS: What are your thoughts after reading this blog? How important do you think it is for a woman to have a call on their lives, on mission for God? What might be your story that lead you or is leading you to heed the “call” to mission even against cultural opposition? Would love to hear any part of your thoughts or story…..
From One Pilgrim to another together on the journey,
“Consider how you may spur one another on towards love and good deeds….. encouraging one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:24-25 (NIV)
Suggested Resourses:
-Candle in the Dark 1998 cc Prime Video: Candle in the Dark )
-Deen, Edith, Great Women of the Christian Faith. (New Jersey: Barbour and Company, Inc.), 172.
-Robert, Dana L., American Women in Mission: A social History of their thought and Practice. (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press 1998)
Mangalwadi, Vishal, and Ruth Mangalwadi, TheLegacy of William Carey: A Model for the Transformation of a Culture.
-Sweet, Leonard I: The Minister’s Wife: Her Role in Nineteenth-Century American Evangelicalism (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1983), 13.