STEPPING OUT UNHINDERED- A MISSIONARY STORY

If you were to ask me two years ago, or even eighteen months ago if I would consider myself a “missionary”, I would have told you “NO!”. I love missions, I love short term trips, I love everything about cross cultural ministry. I studied abroad in nursing school in Haiti. I grew up overseas. But I was afraid of the label.

I would have told you then that I had the best of both worlds. I have an amazing job as a nurse in the Medical Center, and I get time off every year to be part of a medical team serving in Niger West Africa. I thought I had it made, until the Lord gave me the word OBEDIENCE for 2013. I was serving on a medical team in Jan 2013, and couldn’t escape offers to come join the team there full time. I love all things African, but have never felt called to the Sahara Dessert. So I wrestled with the Lord. “Ok, you have given me a heart for unreached people of Africa, but yet my only experience is in a country I don’t feel called to. What does all this mean?!” I would tell him this over and over, and beg for vision. I asked my Community Group to pray for vision and direction. An opportunity to go to Uganda in May 2013 fell in my lap. It wasn’t a medical team, but one that educates and exposes the reality of orphans around the world through Visiting Orphans. The Lord has always given me a tender spot for orphans and vulnerable children.

This trip was very hard for me honestly. I have dreamed of adopting one day when I am married. I have dreamed of going to meet my children with my husband in Africa. I knew I would be meeting orphans, and falling in love with them without a husband yet. Some of those dreams had to die. But oh my goodness how the Lord is so faithful. I had this Spirit feeling that this trip was going to be life changing because it was so different from all the other trips I had been on, and because I agonized over those dreams dying. So I walked in obedience. It was a hard walk, but when you are in a place of pouring out your dreams and hopes to the One who gave them to you, it is a sweet time of being held by Him.

My time in Uganda was incredible. I fell in love with the faces of the people, with the lush green landscape, with the smells of dirt and smoke, of livestock, and I felt the Lord say Welcome Home. I haven’t felt at home in the States since my family moved back from living in Europe. One day as I was sitting along the banks of the Nile, praying for vision, that I heard him say, “This is where I have called you in Africa. You were made for such a time as this. Now go. Don’t be afraid of the label of missionary. I have called you, and I am FAITHFUL. Walk in obedience of this calling.”

I returned to the states and continued to walk in this calling. I shared with my Community group over the summer what the Lord had said. I started telling more and more people, asking for prayer for provision for me to live there one day. He provided contacts in Uganda, so I began asking them if they knew of any organization that had a need for a nurse. The Lord brought me to Freda Luzinda, a child advocacy lawyer. Freda and her team of four social workers focus on improvements in the care and protection of vulnerable Ugandan children and their families, particularly institutionalized children (children in orphanages). I am humbled to be part of this team. With my medical background, I will lead health education initiatives and self-sustainability projects for HIV-infected mothers. Additionally, I will provide first aid for orphans and families referred for care and protection.

Through an incredible sending agency, Equip International, and an amazing US- based child advocacy organization, A Child’s Voice, the Lord has provided a way to merge my love for orphans, vulnerable women, and children with some basic nursing skills, education, and triage skills. My heart will always be stirred for the marginalized person, and A Child’s Voice shares the same vision. A Child’s Voice was born to raise support in the USA and to bring awareness to the work of Child Advocacy Africa.

This is where you come in. I wholeheartedly believe that TOGETHER you and I are a force for good for these marginalized women and children. Working with vulnerable children and families living in extreme poverty is emotionally, spiritually, and physically hard work, and I cannot accurately express the magnitude of prayer I will need. Your commitment to partner with me in prayer for the children of Uganda and for our ministry mean more than you know! Knowing that I have a cloud of witnesses fighting for me in the heavenly realm, enables me to be equipped and covered to fight in this realm for these precious women and children. Would you consider partnering with me in prayer?

Thank you for letting me share my heart and vision the Lord has given me. I plan to leave for Uganda by June 2014. I covet your prayers as I prepare to leave all I have known in the States to fight for justice for children trafficked into orphanages and families ravaged by HIV. May every heart know their Father and Creator!! I know the Lord will provide immeasurably more than I can ask or imagine this year (Eph 3:20).

As I prepare to leave the US, my new word is UNHINDERED. Pastor Curtis used it last week in his sermon, and it has sat deep in my spirit since. I want to serve Ugandans UNHINDERED; I want to love my family and friends UNHINDERED; I want to be present UNHINDERED while I prepare to live in Uganda.

My soul agrees with the words of Isaiah:
“Learn to do what is good. Seek justice. Correct the oppressor. Defend the rights of the fatherless. Plead the widow’s cause.” Isaiah 1.17

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives
and freedom to the prisoners;
to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor,
and the day of our God’s vengeance;
to comfort all who mourn,
to give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,festive oil instead of mourning,
and splendid clothes instead of despair.
And they will be called righteous trees,
planted by the LORD to glorify Him.”

Isaiah 61: 1-3 HCSB

Because I was once an orphan, adopted by the Most High,

MJ Cox
A Bayou City Fellowship Member

________

MJ is a courageous member of our church and one of 4 missionaries we plan to commission out this year! She spends her days in the neonatal ICU as a nurse and has faithfully been apart of the Heights/Oak Forest community group for the past few years. We as a church believe in her and are financially supporting her monthly. She is at about 42% of her funding. If you would be interested in financially supporting MJ or coming along side her in this next leg of the journey, than you can email MJ Cox. If you recognize her at church, introduce yourself, love on her and encourage her as we makes steps to go. Let’s honor her as she goes!- Alicia Divers- Mobilization Pastor

ABOUT ALICIA DIVERS

Alicia Divers is the Mobilization Pastor at Bayou City Fellowship. After spending two years in India working in the slums post-college, she moved to California, where she completed a Master's degree in Intercultural Studies. She split her occupational time there between university project coordinating and coffee slinging barista-ing. Her aim is to blend her academic and personal giftings for cross-cultural leadership in the rich ethnically diverse Bayou City and across the nations.