Call to the Ministry
Not long after I was saved, I felt God’s call to the ministry while memorizing a verse in the Bible. Isaiah 6:8 says, “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, here am I; send me”. It was as if God was speaking to me personally in an audible voice. I did not know anything about God’s call, nor did I understand God was calling me to full-time vocational ministry. I did the only thing I knew to do and gave myself to everything that needed to be done at church.
Later on I publicly dedicated my life to Christ and yielded myself to serve the Lord. One Thursday night in 2002, my pastor, Pastor Sossah, preached about Samson from Judges 13:5. The title of the message was, “This child shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines”. That night, I could not resist God’s call, and I responded to my pastor’s invitation to those who believed God was calling them to serve Him. I openly surrendered my life to serve the Lord. In addition to that sermon, the fruits of my ministry in people’s lives, the witness of my pastor and my brethren, and the burden in my spirit for the ministry have all persuaded me God had in fact called me to full-time Christian service.
It was clear to me I was called for the ministry; however, seeing the financial condition of my pastor, it was my desire to work hard to have money to not only help him, but also support my future ministry. I waited many years after publicly surrendering to full-time ministry. I was pursuing a plan. I thought would help support God’s plan for my life.
In 2009, my father was battling with sickness and could no longer speak. On October 29th, I went in to check on my father. While I was in his room he began crying out saying repeatedly, “I don’t want to go to hell! I don’t want to go to hell! I thought I will go to heaven! I don’t want to go to hell!” I fell to my knees in tears and began to call out to him and beg him to pray to ask God to forgive him of his sins and trust Jesus to go heaven. Unfortunately, he did not say anything else that night and remained speechless until the day he died, November the 2nd. Those heart-wrenching words are the last I heard from my dad. However dark that experience was, God used it to convince me of the suffering that my relatives and many others will face in hell. After that, I gave up my plans, and God guided me to the United States in 2011 to train for full-time ministry.