During the three days I attended the Discovery Weekend for Go Now Missions, I learned a lot. I learned to trust in God, to listen to what he is telling me and to follow my heart. I went into the weekend with a feeling I was supposed to go to a specific place. If felt my heartstrings tugged, and I was certain God was telling me his will was for me to go share my story with orphans in Moldova. Because I went in confident and knowing where I was meant to go, it made my weekend slightly less stressful.
During the Discovery Weekend, participants attended a mission fair where we met and spoke with representatives from many different mission fields. After talking with most of the representatives, I felt more assured that I knew where God wanted me to go this summer, but I was still so nervous. I was scared I might be wrong. Maybe it wasn’t God telling me to go there but my own selfish desires, or maybe the sending team would not feel that I fit best with that assignment. Saturday night after selecting my top three choices, I was overwhelmed with emotions. However, right before worship, I heard “Trust in You” by Lauren Daigle, and God reminded me I had to trust in his plan and in my sending team to send me where I was needed. That helped me to relax and remember my faith always should be bigger than my fear because God knows what he is doing.
While worshipping, I once again was overwhelmed with emotions. It was such a humbling moment to hear 200-plus college students, just like me, calling out to God in praise. It made me think about how truly wonderful God is. I thought about how God will use each and every person in that sanctuary to spread his love and grow his kingdom.
I talked to a few other students about their weekend and found out how much Discovery Weekend touched everyone who went. I talked with Justin Thompson from Midwestern State University. Like me, Justin felt very confident in where he was meant to serve this summer. Justin told me that he “liked being able to go table to table and ask the representatives about their missions.”
“It was interesting to find out where they served and why. Hearing their stories about what God is doing in their lives was wonderful,” he said.
I also had the opportunity to speak with Deejay Moses from Howard Payne University, who went into the weekend having no idea how God would use her and even doubting if she should have gone at all.
“Discovery Weekend was game-changer for me,” Deejay said. “I showed up thinking I didn’t belong, I don’t know the Bible very well. All I knew was that I love Jesus and I wanted to be able to effectively share that with everyone I meet. The people at Discovery Weekend and my group really encouraged me and reaffirmed that I was worthy enough to be there. I didn’t know where I wanted to go, like at all. All I knew was God was calling me to his people. I told my group leaders to send me wherever, for however long, and I would be there. All I want is to serve, and I’m blessed to get that opportunity.”
The responses I received from other students go to show that regardless of how any of us felt going into Discovery Weekend, God moved in all of our hearts. From beginning to end Discovery Weekend brought a community of Christians together to worship, bond and try to open our hearts and mind to what God was saying. Thank you, Go Now Missions, for the opportunity to serve and to fellowship with other Christians. If I could use one word to describe how I felt at Discovery Weekend, it would be “loved.” Now it is our turn to go out and share that love with Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the Earth. Summer 2018, here we come.
Kayleigh Forbes, a student at Texas A&M University-Commerce, will serve with Go Now Missions in Moldova during the summer.
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