When God Plans

Incredulous happenings mark the ministry of Jesus, highlighted by more than 30 miracles. As disciples of Jesus, some of us have experienced events worthy of headlines. Most of us, however, lead ordinary lives—nothing spectacular, just days filled with trivial events steered by our choices and bookended by waking up and falling asleep. Yet even the ordinary is divinely orchestrated when the heart is open to God’s calling.

James was an information technology student in Kenya who, on a whim, applied to an advertisement for a digital evangelist that had randomly popped up on his screen. Months later he received an email leading to volunteer service at Adventist World Radio’s Center for Digital Evangelism (AWR CDE) in the Philippines. A year into his service James felt called to change careers and become a pastor, but this was financially impossible.

After hearing James’s testimony at a Friday vespers program and getting to know him, Pastor Robert Caderma, president of the Southern Asia-Pacific Division, felt impressed to arrange for a scholarship for James at Mountain View College. Today James is studying to be a pastor. His story exemplifies what happens when people, organizations, and plans align with God’s plan, when decisions are made within the context of missions. For James, these elements were in play:

Even the ordinary is divinely orchestrated when the heart is open to God’s calling.

Information: Whether someone actively searches for a place to serve or algorithms direct assignments to someone such as James, online platforms such as VividFaith offer mission-focused service opportunities in the Adventist Church.

Opportunity: Increasingly, individuals from the global south are becoming missionaries in other countries as organizations become more open to diversity. AWR CDE volunteers, for instance, represent more than 20 nationalities.

Integration: The church is adopting a more global mission perspective. Whereas the scholarship James received would typically have gone to someone local to the division, Pastor Caderma states, “I decided to support James because his unwavering commitment to spread the gospel and serve others aligns with the mission of the church. His impactful work and dedication to community outreach demonstrate his potential as a future leader.”

The Adventist Church is a movement of people who are saying yes to missions! As of the writing of this article, 16,203 have registered in VividFaith to continue in the footsteps of J. N. Andrews and others. But they need places to go, projects that need their service, and there aren’t enough openings! It is time to create more mission opportunities and watch God at work. Whether through technology or people, be it happenstance or deliberate, when the response is yes to God’s call, missions unfold in amazing ways.

As Ellen White writes: “Let every worker in the Master’s vineyard study, plan, devise methods, to reach the people where they are. We must do something out of the common course of things. We must arrest the attention.”*

* Ellen G. White, Evangelism (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1946), pp. 122, 123.