By Christine Dail
My name is Christine Dail. My husband is a pastor at New Song Community Church in Aurora, Illinois. From the time my husband started at the seminary, he has had a tug for overseas missions. I, however, did not. My calling was in the United States in the community and with the people around me.
My husband would go on short-term mission trips and I would completely support him on those journeys. It was when he got back from Uganda that I started receiving the call to go. I never expected it to be one year after his trip. But when Lynn said it was a conference for pastors’ wives, the Spirit said go.
As I prepared for the trip, I was a little anxious. I had never been out of the U.S. and here God was sending me to the other side of the world. Because of my uncertainties, I started to lean on what I knew about how to prepare for the trip: being organized, making lists, etc.
Who was I to talk to these women about being a pastor’s wife? I haven’t figured it out myself. Days before leaving, I had a dream about an empty basket. I felt as if God was showing me this empty basket because He was going to place things in my basket on this trip. I was excited to see what He was going to show me.
In Uganda, I was amazed by how all my fears and anxieties about being in another country vanished. I watched my friends be transformed before my eyes. I saw God do amazing things. I spoke at a conference. Me! This shy person spoke in front of adults.
But what about the basket? Why did I have that dream? Where was my breakthrough?
It was when I got back that God revealed that I was the empty basket. God was emptying me of my need to control everything so He could reveal new things within me.
I think of the verse, “But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me (2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV).
He replaced my control with a boldness for speaking God’s truth, a willingness to be vulnerable before others, public speaking, and I’m even leading a women’s Bible study this summer.
He replaced my control with a boldness for speaking God’s truth
Is God asking you to take things out of your basket, and replace with His desires?
The next Women of the Pearl team will be leaving for Uganda on June 28, 2015. Please lift them up in prayer as they prepare for this amazing faith journey. Women of the Pearl is a ministry to women in Uganda, which looks to empower women through the Gospel of Christ and through education to bring glory to God. To learn more about Women of the Pearl, visit the facebook page.
