Hi, my name is Pam and I am a grateful believer and follower of Jesus Christ. By profession, I am a science teacher. This blog will allow me to journal as I fulfill the calling that my Lord and Savior is leading me on. Jeremiah 29:11 says “For I know the plans I have for you”, says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” (NLT) I know the Lord has called me to do HIS work in international missions and this is my story.
Why be a missionary?
I truly believe that the Lord has been preparing me for this journey most of my life. My dad was in the military and so I grew up all over the place, moving about every 2 years. I did grow up going to church every Sunday, but I didn’t really know what it meant to have a personal relationship with the Lord until I was in my 30’s. After my marriage fell apart, I was searching for my purpose in life and trying to figure out who I was. During this journey, I began reading the Bible again and eventually started going back to church.
I was drawn to a church near my home and as I started attending, I could feel God’s presence in the people there. I began asking lots of questions as I tried to figure out what I believed in and reconcile those beliefs with all the science I had learned in school that I thought contradicted the Bible. I prayed and asked God to help me in my unbelief. Now, the more I learn in Science and the more I study the Bible, the greater my belief that they don’t contradict each other, but support each other. I am frequently asked how I can be a scientist and believe in the Bible and I answer, “How can I be a scientist and NOT believe?”
In the fall of 2001, I realized that I had never accepted Jesus as my personal Savior and I had never personally accepted His sacrifice on the cross as payment for my sins. It was a gut wrenching realization, because belief the HE existed, belief that he was crucified, died and rose again, wasn’t the same as truly understanding what HE did for me. He died in my place, so I could LIVE. That is when I gave my life to serve HIM. In that moment, I told God how sorry I was for all the sins I had committed and asked Him to forgive me. I felt like God was in the room with me and giving me a giant hug. I gave my heart to Him that day and the rest of my life to serve Him.
Over the next few years, I prayed for God to make me into the person He created me to be, not the person that life’s hurts had made me become. I was healed of my broken heart from the break up of my marriage, healed of all the life hurts and I turned to the Lord to cope instead of using the coping mechanisms that I had used most of my life. Now, I depend on Him to meet my all my needs, instead of things, people, or accomplishments. A lot of the healing came from a Biblically based recovery program called Celebrate Recovery, which has taught me biblical principles to live by. Now I live each day through God’s power and not my own, because I can do nothing without God, but with Him all things are possible.
Two years into this journey, in the fall of 2003, God revealed a new purpose for me. In a moving encounter, He called me into missions work. Our church had a missions focus and was about to start preparing missions trip to Russia. That was the first of 4 trips to Russia and two to Costa Rica. I knew after the first trip that this was God’s purpose for me and I hoped one day to be able to do it full time and not just as a summer trip.
The trips to Russia focused on ministering to orphans in Shuya and Smolensk. We also worked closely with local churches there. The trips to Costa Rica were to San Ramon, where we ministered in some of the poorer areas. On all of the trips we did VBS with the kids and tried to bring hope into their lives through the love of the Lord. These trips reconfirmed that this was the Lords purpose for me and every time the end of the trip came, I wanted to stay. But I just couldn’t figure out how to do it fulltime. I knew how hard it was to raise money for a single mission’s trip and didn’t think I would ever be able to raise funds to support me for everything for a long period of time. Then there was my job teaching middle school science. I just couldn’t see myself not teaching science. I knew that God had also given my gifts and talents in teaching and a passion for Science and it would break my heart to give that up. So I knew that I had to find a way to combine the two.
Missions and teaching Science!!! What an awesome opportunity God has given me! I have finally found a way to combine the two. The Lord led me to the Network of International Christian Schools (NICS) which has 20 schools in 16 different countries. I will finally be able to teach and do missions full time and in one of the most awesome places a Biologist could ever want to be, Kenya Africa!
C heck out the How You Can Help Page, if you would like to support me in this journey.
This blog will allow me to share what the Lord is doing at West Nairobi School, where I will be teaching middle school science, and what He is doing through me in Kenya. I will begin my journey July 2010 and I hope to update this blog on at least a weekly basis.
Thank you Jesus for this opportunity to serve you and spread the good news of who YOU are!
Dear Pam, I just found your blog and have enjoyed reading it. I am, yes, MeLeesa’s mother. Life is full of those “partner’s in crime” who walk with us a while on this earthly path–I am thankful you are with MeLeesa! God bless you. Rest assured you are in my prayers, too.
donnah
hi Ms.Higgins its me lina how are you in kenya we all miss you