A core value that we hold as Associates within IDEAS is that of work as “holy calling.” We do not divide work and ministry into categories of “secular” and “sacred.” Rather, “holy calling” means that butcher, baker, or candlestick-maker, we participate with our Creator in his work transforming lives physically, intellectually, and spiritually, and not just at the individual level but also at the community level, where we function as members of society. 

With this understanding and as followers of the One who came into the world to save it, we may ask the question: “When does the pursuit of this holy calling cause us to cross boundaries all the way to communities or countries not our own?” Are we “called” to cross a globe connected in many ways already, even as more and more members of that globe stream across it to us?

From the Prophets on forward, there have been people who have boarded ships or planes bound to distant destinations with a burning in their hearts, their skill sets in their hands, and – for some in the “old days” – their coffins in tow. That is “vocation.” 

Many of us reading (and writing) have experienced the direct opposite: “flagellation,” if you will. That is a tradition, sermon, or personality which suggests work abroad as some sort of higher and holier rung to our holy calling. By doing so, it manipulates our thinking with something more akin to guilt than to conviction. (Since becoming an “overseas worker” myself, I’ve spent a lot of my time combatting this “holier than me” mentality in the minds of many people partnering from home.)

“Fascination” is another motivator. Images and stories in the news or on our screens, an experience of food or culture, or a meeting with someone exotic and enchanting can captivate us so much that we develop within us a restless compulsion for discovering more of that “other” place and people.

Maybe our job has already carried us across borders, and we find ourselves from home on a tour of duty, as a traveling representative with a business or in a humanitarian capacity. Our “rotation” has landed us in a new place.

My own story of “causation” begins as a third culture kid (TCK) hoping to escape the discomfort of living and working in my birth country, which I neither knew nor liked. Initially, I determined to do neither by virtue of a decision made long before by my parents. It wasn’t until late high school that I realized my determination might need some evaluation. Was I, like Jonah, fleeing to one foreign land to avoid another? 

Following in the footsteps of our Master, there is always the question of the “next step” from the spot on which we find ourselves. If, however, the question of “How do we know we are to work overseas?” has somehow been forced out from among our current motivations and circumstances to direct, or, perhaps, challenge the path we are already following, then our process of discernment must be the same as ever: “differentiation.”

We lay the question side-by-side with our vocation, fascination, flagellation, rotation, or previous determination and ask:

• “Together, do they agree with Scripture?“
• “Is there counsel or consensus from our believing community?” 
• “What personal candle of conviction has the Holy Spirit lit within our heart?”

What is the next step for us, for you, for me in this life-long holy calling with God?



About the Author: Kimberly is an IDEAS Associate and agricultural specialist. She works alongside local farmers in rural North Africa, giving them access to resources, techniques, information and hope. Enjoy other blogs by Kimberly, such as The Impact of One.