We are no longer our own, but Yours...

We are no longer our own, but Yours.

Put us to what You will, place us with whom You will.

Put us to doing, put us to suffering.

Let us be put to work for you or set aside for You,

praised for You or criticized for You.

Let us be full, let us be empty.

Let us have all things, let us have nothing.

We freely and fully surrender all things to Your hope and service.

And now, O glorious and blessed God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer,

You are ours, and we are Yours.

So be it.

And the covenant which we have made on earth, let it be made also in heaven.

Amen.

After spending 3 weeks together with 28 other young adults, we were officially commissioned as missionaries with the United Methodist Church. During the previous 3 weeks, we spent time together in intentional community where we learned and grew together by attending training sessions every morning from 8:15am-7pm. We took turns leading the morning devotions with our prayer partners, we listened to each other tell their call story and how they got to be where they were at. Every call story was powerful and gave us a better understanding of who each other was and we all came from very different paths of life. Some had more struggles than others, some had more joy than sadness, but no matter where we have journeyed, we have all came together as 1 body of Christ, willing to give up our lives, our dreams, our goals, and ultimately everything to serve God.

The above covenant is the Wesleyan covenant prayer that we as a US-2 class and then the Mission Interns stated during our commissioning. If you truly read the words, then it says a lot and resembles where each of us have come from and where we are going. We are giving up our lives and have made a commitment to live simply when as college graduates, we could be making more money than we may be by doing ministry. But we have all answered the call of ministry on our lives and we are all journeying into simple living together.

We are one class of US-2’s and Mission Interns united by 1 God and that’s all we need. We are heading out to different areas of the world, some in the United States and some in other countries but we will always be united as a class and as Christians living out their lives for God. During the past 3 weeks, besides learning together, we have laughed together, we have adventured together, we have cried together, and we have become community together. A community that I hope nothing can damage.

We are off to serve for 2 years and we are glad to finally be officially commissioned as missionaries. It’s not always going to be an easy journey but with God by our sides, we can make it through and we will leave the 2 years of service as stronger Christians and with changed lives! 

I ask that if you are reading this post that you take time out of your day and pray for and support the 2013-2015 Young Adult Missionary class. There are many ways that you can support us and follow our stories. You can commit to pray for us daily, you can send us emails and words of encouragement throughout the 2 years that we will be serving, you can financially support us, you can follow our blogs (which I have a list of the other Young Adult Missionaries blogs on the left side of this blog so you can check out what’s going on with others), or you can support us in other ways that I may not have listed. So, how is God asking you to support us? Is it financially? (If so, please message myself or someone else that you would like to financially support and we can help you do that.) Is it through emailing a missionary (if so, please let us know and we can give you our ministry emails.) Or is it another way that God’s asking you to support us? We would love your support during these next 2 years and we would love to hear from you!

Peace and blessings,

Hayley Terrell