My Riskiest Move for God: Me, a Missionary?

Five Christian leaders tell what God did when they took a surprising step of faith.

By Tamara Munroe

Home is where my family is. My mom is my rock, my dad is my hero, and my two brothers are my heart. It has always been that way for me.

My family is everything. They are a big part of why it was so hard for me to pack up all of my things, board a plane, and fly an ocean away to Spain to embark on a new adventure.

But that”s exactly what I did, and it”s the riskiest move I”ve made thus far.

In 2016, I moved to Salamanca, Spain, to join the leadership team of En Vivo, Globalscope”s international campus ministry. En Vivo is a ministry that seeks to point college students to Jesus; and week after week, I have seen it do just that. In a cultural context where it is both uncommon and unlikely, I am seeing college students at En Vivo come to know Jesus intimately and choose to follow him. It is a privilege to support this community and to help encourage and equip these students.

And I cannot believe I almost said no to all of it.

In fact, soon after I said yes, I came up with a list of some really great reasons I should say no. I hardly knew Spanish; I hardly knew anything about Spain or Spanish culture; I had zero experience in campus ministry; and I had about 1,000 reasons why I didn”t fit the description of a missionary.

As it turns out though, those weren”t reasons to say no, they were just reasons I was afraid.

I was afraid because I felt inadequate, and it was possible I would fail. I was afraid because this context was unfamiliar, and I didn”t yet know what exactly I didn”t know. I was afraid because this adventure had the potential to expose my weaknesses rather than spotlight my strengths, and I didn”t know if my pride could handle it. I was afraid because I knew this would be hard and maybe even lonely, and my rock, my hero, and my heart would be an ocean away while I figured it all out.

I was afraid because taking a risk is scary.

Bold Steps
A risky move doesn”t always involve literally picking up and moving, like it did for me, but it does always involve stepping out and being uncharacteristically bold. It always poses an inconvenience on our sense of security and disrupts our concept of normal. It always pushes us beyond our limits and calls us to make sacrifices. It always requires us to get uncomfortable. It always forces us to admit our fears and then say yes anyway.

It demands we practice what we preach in our churches and actually have some faith in God.

As worried and afraid as I was, I saw moving to Spain as an amazing opportunity for me to love people and to trust God, and I was willing to take whatever risks that required. I felt compelled to get involved in the mission of Globalscope, and I believed that loving students was a worthwhile investment of my time, energy, effort, treasure, and talent.

So I took the risk, and so far, it has been a tough and trying, yet rewarding, adventure. It has brought me to a place well beyond my comfort zone and past my personal limitations, and it has allowed my faith and trust in God to continue to be cultivated in unfathomable ways.

This journey has reminded me of what God can accomplish both through us and in us when we are willing. It has served to remind me that, though it may not come naturally, I was made to take risks.

All Christ followers are called to take risks.

Tamara Munroe serves as campus minister with Globalscope Salamanca in Salamanca, Spain.