A PLACE IN THIS WORLD
FROM KALIKA PESKE, SHORT-TERM MISSION WORKER, WHO WORKED WITH NATE AND RHODA JORE, OUR AFLC MISSIONARIES IN UGANDA
It’s amazing where God leads. Before the age of 12, my family had lived in 11 different houses in locations spread across four states, three countries, and two continents. Finally we settled for good in northern Minnesota and there I expected to stay for a long time. But, upon graduating from college I somehow found myself applying to—and then attending—a small Christian college in Nebraska. After four years of undergrad work and two years as a teacher (in an Iowa farm-town), God led me to my farthest location yet: Uganda, Africa.
From November 2008 to May 2009 I served with the Nate and Rhoda Jore family—helping with childcare and schooling for their three children, as well as volunteering in a local orphanage, helping organize and set up a community library, and tutoring a Ugandan woman in the basics of using a computer. Because I had long been interested in overseas mission work, I was excited for the opportunity that this short-term experience would give me to test the waters of life in another country.
In Jinja, Uganda, I had opportunities to meet and mingle with all sorts of missionaries—and learn first-hand about the ups and downs of overseas work. I adjusted to the ubiquitous stares of people on the street as I, the muzungu (white person), passed by. I tasted new foods like matooke and rolex—both of which I discovered were extremely tasty! I got used to shopping for produce in the open-air market, sleeping under mosquito nets, and taking it in stride when the power went out. I killed rats, mice, and cockroaches in the house, and didn’t bat an eye when cows or goats ambled along next to me on the street. Sure, there were things I missed back in America, but overall life was pleasant and the thought of doing such a form of missionary work long-term would not have been disagreeable.
But, it’s amazing where God leads. From my first month in Jinja, I felt clearly that the next place God wanted me to go was back to America, for what I didn’t know. I felt God calling me to be a “missionary” in America. At that time I didn’t exactly know how that would look or what my “mission field” would be. I prayed both the prayer of Jabez, “expand my territory [my sphere of influence]” and the prayer of George Mueller, ‘Lord, where do you want me to be your missionary?” And God answered.
In the fall, I’m enrolling to go back to school full-time for my master’s degree, and a job opened up on campus to be a resident director in the dorms. God is going to use me, it appears, on the mission field of an American college campus—talk about a place that needs God’s light!
In Jesus’ parting words to his disciples, “…and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth,” the only reason he began with Jerusalem, and spoke of concentric circles moving outward (Judea, then Samaria, then the ends of the earth) was because Jerusalem was the place where the believers were! It was—at that time—the epicenter of the church, and that logically meant the work would move outward from there.
But today? Where do you find the believers? In Uganda, Kenya, Morocco, and South Africa. In Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Peru, and Guatemala. In China. Thailand. New Guinea. The Netherlands. Slovakia. Albania. Iraq. The United States. Wherever you have a Christian, you have an epicenter for mission activity!
It took going to Africa for me to realize the need for dedicated, mission-minded people that are willing to stay right here in America. I’m a missionary. God has led me to be a witness among college students in a mid-size Midwestern town. Where has God led you?
