God Uses the Willing | 神使用愿意的人

This past May, I had the privilege of returning to Honduras for my second missions trip through Living Hope. During my first trip in 2025, while we were at the work site. On Day 1, a child was speaking to me in Spanish, and I couldn’t tell what he was saying. Someone nearby told me he was telling me the Gospel story. That rattled me; that someone could be telling me the story that has shaped the foundation of my life and I didn’t recognize it. So, the next day during our bus drive, I processed every bit of Spanish I had learned through school and taught myself how to tell the Gospel story with those guided colored bracelets. Throughout that week, I’d share the story with a handful of the children. 

Going into this year, I didn’t know what to expect. I was prepared to serve in any of the groups, VBS or not. And it turned out God was going to keep me right where he had me last year. I learned unexpectedly on Day 1 that not only would I be part of the VBS program, but that I would be leading the program in place of my pastor. “Okay God; let’s see what happens.” So again, on another long bus ride, I processed many different phrases in Spanish of things I could say to coordinate a large group of kids, because leading a group in a different language is way different than telling a single child a story in a different language. 

I thank God for throwing me into the unknown and unexpected, underqualified but willing. What a humbling blessing it is to be able to stand in front of a handful of people leading a program in their language, when they could 100% do it better than me. And they graciously give me this opportunity to grow, serve, and do my best. 

There aren’t many opportunities at home where I’m thrown into a position where I feel wildly under-qualified. But what a necessary experience it is to realize that God simply uses the willing. He doesn’t need us to have any special skill set. He simply needs us to say: 

“Yes!”

今年五月，我有幸第二次参加了通过 “新希望”宣教机构组织的洪都拉斯短宣之旅。在2025年的第一次短宣中，第一天我们在施工工地时，有一个孩子一直用西班牙语对我说话，而我完全听不懂他在说什么。旁边的人告诉我，他正在向我讲述福音。那一刻，我深受震撼——那个塑造了我一生信仰根基的信息，有人正在对我讲述，而我竟然没有意识到？！第二天，在前往工地的巴士上，我努力回想自己过去在学校学过的每一点西班牙语，并且学会了如何借着那些彩色福音手环，用西班牙语讲述福音。那一周，我把这个福音故事分享给了好几个孩子。

今年出发前，我完全不知道神会怎样带领。我已经准备好在任何岗位上服事，无论是不是儿童圣经夏令营（VBS）都愿意。结果，神再次把我安排在去年所在的服事团队。更令我意想不到的是，第一天我才得知，不仅我要参与VBS，我还要代替牧师带领整个课程。我心里说：“好吧，神啊，我们就看看你要怎样做。” 于是，在又一次漫长的巴士旅程中，我开始反复练习各种西班牙语表达，思考有哪些话可以用来组织、带领一大群孩子。因为，用另一种语言带领一整个团队，和用另一种语言向一个孩子讲故事，是完全不同的挑战。

我感谢神，把我带进未知和意料之外的环境中。虽然我觉得自己资格不足，却愿意顺服神能够站在一群人面前，用他们的语言带领整个聚会，是一份何等谦卑又宝贵的恩典。其实，他们每一个人都百分之百比我更适合、更有能力来做这件事。然而，他们却满有恩典地给我这个机会，让我尽自己最大的努力去学习、去服事。

在美国，我几乎没有机会被放在这样的位置，一个让我如此明显感觉自己能力不足的位置。但我发现，这正是一个非常必要的经历。因为它让我明白：神所使用的，只是那些愿意回应祂的人。祂并不需要我们拥有什么特别的技能或过人的能力，祂只需要我们愿意对祂说一句：

“我愿意（Yes）。”