IMB Europe partnership: Take the first step

Editor’s Note: The BCNE has entered into a partnership with the European affinity of the International Mission Board. If your church is interested in participating in the partnership, contact Kimber Huff for more information.

I am thankful for the opportunity to share how God called me to missions, specifically to Poland. I will focus on the general calling and how we ended up in Europe.

My walk with the Lord began shortly after my eighteenth birthday. At the time I knew I wanted to be a veterinarian, this was a dream of mine since I was six years old. As I started college that dream did not change in my mind, but God was already leading me down a different road. I had a job in an animal hospital, gaining vital experience for the future and everything seemed to be on track. 

The summer after my freshman year I had the opportunity to take a five week trip to East Asia and experience what it means to live overseas and do cross cultural ministry. The main problem was that five weeks is a long time to be gone from work and when I spoke to my manager, there was no promise that I would have a job when I got back. This brought me to a point where I had to make a decision - I knew I wanted to be a veterinarian, but I could also feel a strong pull from the Spirit to go on this trip. 

I sought wise counsel from many brothers and they all encouraged me to be obedient to whatever the Lord was doing in my heart. After prayer and surrendering it to the Lord, it became clear that I needed to go to East Asia. That trip changed the trajectory of my life; it shaped me in a way I did not know was possible. 

“Be obedient in everyday things. When opportunities arise to live on mission whether it is locally or internationally, take those chances and allow them to shape you.”

I returned at the end of the summer and it was clear why the Lord took me on that trip. He used it to show me that He was calling me to missions, full-time and cross cultural. I will add that when I returned, I still had the job at the animal hospital and I worked there until the end of college, but that was the end of my time in the veterinarian world. Over the coming years the Lord shaped my calling through different experiences, such as seminary and the influence and encouragement of others. However, it was not clear that my wife and I would be going to Poland until about six months before we moved overseas. The whole time there was a calling to go, but with little clarity to where. I want to focus on that note, because I saw it in my own life and I see it in the life of many that I work with here in Poland. 

It is human nature to want to know what every next step will look like and have every little detail, but very often that is not how God works. My encouragement for those who either don’t know where God is calling next or maybe you know, but it is a broad calling, is to take the first step. Be obedient in everyday things. When opportunities arise to live on mission whether it is locally or internationally, take those chances and allow them to shape you. Allow God to use them to show you what is next. It may confirm for you where God is calling you or it may show very clearly that this is not the direction the Lord is leading. Either way taking that first step will help move the process forward. Sitting idly and expecting something to change will only bring frustration. 

I am so thankful that I took that trip to East Asia and didn’t allow my worries about a job stop me because it was the first step in the true calling the Lord had laid on my life. Seek the Lord and what He has for you in this moment and allow that to shape you, as the Father reveals His plans to use you for the advancement of His kingdom.  

Matt Meyer serves with the International Mission Board in Southeast Poland as Team Leader with his wife Shelby and daughter Millie.