When a mission team heads out onto the mission field, you never know all that God is going to do.
As a team, we pray, we fast, and we prepare for the unknown. We make plans, but ultimately, we leave the results in God’s hands. We trust that He is already at work and that He is going before us, preparing the way.
And it never ceases to amaze me when He does just that—and we get to see it firsthand.
During house-to-house evangelism on one of our mission trips to Nicaragua this summer, we had the incredible opportunity to catch just a glimpse of how God works behind the scenes. He prepares hearts. He opens doors. He orders our steps. And His timing is always right on time.
Here’s the story.
The teams were set and separated. We prayed together, and then each team went its own way toward the homes that pastors and church leaders had selected for us to visit that day.
One team walked to the home of a woman whose heart the Lord had already been preparing.
As the team began sharing the gospel with her, tears started streaming down her face. She then shared something that left the team in awe.
She told them that she had recently had a dream.
In the dream, missionaries had come to her house. She didn’t know who they were or why they had come, but she remembered that they were there—and that she was crying.
Now, as the team stood in her home sharing the gospel, she realized that the missionaries from her dream were standing right in front of her.
She told the team that she had been waiting for them.
She was ready.
She wanted Jesus.
That day, she prayed with the team and received salvation.
Wow.
I know I will never get over watching someone receive salvation. There is nothing like witnessing a life turn toward Jesus. But I’m also continually amazed by the way God works—how He knows exactly how to reach each person and how He can prepare a heart long before we ever arrive.
Jesus tells us in John that the Father draws people to Himself, and this story gives us such a beautiful picture of that truth. Before this team ever walked down that road, God was already working in this woman’s heart. Before they ever knocked on her door, He was preparing the soil.
The team simply got to walk into what God had already been doing.
And how sweet it was to watch the seed of the gospel fall on prepared soil and see it come to fruition through her receiving salvation that day.
We often think of missions as going somewhere to tell people about Jesus. And it certainly is that. But missions is also about discovering that God has been working long before we ever arrive.
He is working in places we cannot see.
He is preparing hearts we have never met.
He is opening doors we didn’t know were there.
And He is faithfully going before us.
Stories like this happen all across the world. The Lord is moving even when we don’t know it and even when we can’t see it. We may not always get to witness what He is doing behind the scenes, but we can trust that He is working.
Getting to be a small part of what God is doing in the hearts of His people is one of the greatest privileges there is. It is incredibly rewarding—and it is the kind of experience that changes your life forever.
So, if God is asking you to go, don’t be afraid to put your yes on the table.
You may not know what awaits you on the other side of your obedience.
But you can trust the One who is already there.
He goes before you.
And I promise—you won’t be disappointed.
Comments +