Just Another American Girl with a "Call" to Serve in Africa

If there’s anything that I struggle to grapple with when I tell people what I am doing in two short weeks, it is in hearing the most common response:  “Wow – you must really have a calling.”

The response is one that truly makes me reevaluate the stigma surrounding when Americans travel to Africa. It gives the false pretense that in order to have a “calling from God” or to serve the Lord – one must travel far away from family and give up their previous life.

How quite contrary is the truth. If my decision to travel to Zambia in a year gives the pretense that one must go far to serve – I am selling Christ short in spreading the true Good News.

WE ALL HAVE  A CALL – to love and share the Good News.

When I was graduating I was deciding whether to serve with St. Paul’s Outreach, an amazing Catholic Outreach Ministry on college campuses or with the Dominican Volunteer International.  One day I printed off both applications and took them to Adoration to pray before the Lord and fill out both applications. After filling out the application for DVI, I picked up the application for St. Paul’s Outreach and realized it had printed off blank pages where the application should have printed off. It was in that moment I decided I’d take steps to apply for DVI and asked God to please interfere if He wanted me somewhere else. It was a choice between two very good opportunities – often is the case in ministry. But it was by no means a direct “calling” from God saying, “Christine go to Africa.” (How much easier that would have been.) But we were granted free will and to make our own decisions for a reason.

The call isn’t to travel. The call is to love wherever you are at. The call is to be the best person you were created to be. The call is to share with the world your unique gifts and talents wherever you are and in whatever you are doing.

It would seem as though my beliefs contradict my actions – if I don’t believe you need to travel or go far to love and serve God – I am often asked, “Christine, why can’t you serve the poor in America?”

I could say for own reasons – I’ve always wanted to travel to Africa and experience life in another culture. God has graciously provided me with an opportunity to do just that while still being able to live out the true “call” of discipleship – which is to love.

This past week I was blessed to travel to St. Paul’s Outreach Headquarters in Minnesota during a road trip with one of my very best friends, Stephanie Shoenfelt - a woman who is constantly challenging me in my faith. I felt very moved and inspired being there with my peers who have chosen to live out their "call" by giving of themselves to this ministry. I couldn’t help but tear up a little while being there because had I applied and been accepted - I could honestly see myself serving with St. Paul’s Outreach…or I can see myself staying in my job now as a dietitian at a free health clinic for my brothers and sisters in Columbus…what a beautiful gift that God gives us good options to serve  and live out the "call" - options that aren’t bound by location…

St. Francis de Sales said, “Serve God where you are and do what you are doing.”

If I am leaving this country and not serving and loving God in my workplace in Columbus, my
community, my studies, my family – it matters not what I do in Africa. It matters what we do every day, every moment – wherever we are – to share the call to love. The call isn’t where you go – the call rests and lies in who He is and who He enables you to be and do  - wherever you are today.

Blessed Mother Teresa said, “It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give up a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start.”

Let us all live out our own call – our shared call – our call to love.