Life After a Year On Mission

I think my life from now on is always going to be segmented into three parts: Who I was before NET, who I was on NET, and who I am growing into each day after NET. I did not expect in any way when I walked onto training that the next ten months would forever change me. I learned so much about the Lord’s boundless love for His children, that He equips the called, that I am worthy of being loved, and that I am capable of so much more than I imagined when I let Jesus take my hand and lead me.

It was the best year, I experienced the love of the Lord in a way I never had before, Jesus showed me how he sees me and how he loves me for everything that I am. From every person I encountered to every moment spent with my team, praying, eating, laughing, I was able to fall in love all over again with the saviour of my life.

But it was only a year, and seasons changed. The Lord doesn’t want us to stay in one place forever. A call to return home and to studies was placed on my heart, and soon, I found myself sitting in a lecture hall in a secular university, surrounded by over 350 unfamiliar faces.

I remember asking myself at that moment:

“Okay, God, I could see You when I was on a year of mission, but where are You in this? Where are you in the ordinary?”

My life since getting off of NET hasn’t been extravagant. It’s been a lot of writing papers, late nights spent studying for exams, spending time with my family and friends, working… It has been far from a year of ministry, community, and team life.

But my year on NET set such incredible foundations for this walk of life I am now on. I can “live for more” in the day-to-day, too. My year showed me that everything (including work) can be a prayer when offered to God. Because of NET, I am so much more attentive to the true, the good, and the beautiful. I see the little ways in which He is continually revealing Himself to me: starry nights, giant belly-laughs shared with friends, smiling to the stranger on the bus, or chatting to the person in front of me in the queue.

It all matters, and it’s all His. Our invitation is to ask ourselves who do I want to be  after coming down from the peak of the mountain and being back in the valley

Jennifer Sonntag

NET Alumni | UQ FX Mission Team 2019