Student Missions: “Because I Said So”

Brandi Wilson with some of her students

(edited by Brisa Ramirez)

I love being in control. I hate it when I’m not. But If I could have a theme for my time in Africa, I would title it “because I said so.”

Why?

Sometimes God asks us to do things without giving us a reason. Or maybe something happens that we don’t understand. The point is: we aren’t in control.

The entire time I was in Kenya this seemed to be the case. To start off, my airport burned down the night before I was supposed to fly. Then, after I got there, the job I was given was not the job I had applied for. Finally, a month after I got there, a terrorist group from Somalia attacked only about 30 minutes away from where I was. People were being taken hostage for days.

Had I known any of these things before, I would never have made the decision to go. And I think God knew that. But God also knew that the things I would experience in Kenya were what I needed in order to grow closer to Him. So God didn’t let me see the future, and He didn’t give me reasons for going. He just convicted me to go, because He said so. And I’m so glad that I did.

A lot of the time I was put in situations that required me to lean on God alone because it was out of my hands. Like the night I slept with lions, which thoroughly scared me to death. Or the days where I would fall on my knees in my classroom out of pure exhaustion or panic. Or the time I learned how to be a nurse in 10 minutes and saw over a thousand children in one day.

But every day God taught me something new, and it was exciting to see God on such a personal level, and feel Him so close.

Sometimes we don’t realize how much we need God until He is all we’ve got. It’s time to step out of our comfort zone.

Sometimes we don’t understand why things happen or what God is doing. But sometimes it’s because it’s for our own good. God works on you just as much as He works on the people you witness to. If God is asking you to go, then do it. And if you ask why, you’ll probably hear, “Because I said so.”

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