eDOTer of the Month: Meet Jake
In August of 2009, my friend and co-Bible study leader asked me if I had ever considered full-time work in a ministry. I couldn’t get the word “no” out of my mouth fast enough. I had no intention of ever going into full-time ministry, no matter what the opportunity was. That was just not my plan.
About a month later that same friend asked me if I could look up some short-term mission opportunities for our Bible study. She sent me links to different mission organizations, and I began to sift through all of them to see if any opportunity looked like a good fit. Mid-way through looking up short-term opportunities, I got bored and decided to look up long-term positions just to switch things up a bit. I stumbled upon an instructional designer position with Greater Europe Mission that was located in Germany. This intrigued me for two reasons: first my Master’s degree prepared me to be an instructional designer, and secondly I took German for five years in Middle School and High School. However, I wasn’t intrigued enough yet to do anything about it.
For the next week, I could think of very little besides this missions opportunity. I didn’t want to move to another country, I didn’t want to be a missionary, I didn’t want to leave my family, and yet I couldn’t get it out of my head. I knew then that I needed to pray. I asked a few of my close friends to pray as well and within a week or so I knew I needed to look into it more. I got in contact with the supervisor for the position, and immediately I felt at ease. She told me that the little town where I would work was the same town I had visited, a few months ago, on a vacation in Germany. We drove three hours out of our way just to go to this town because my friend had planned on being a missionary at a school there.
I began to realize all of the things God had put in my life to prepare me to go to Germany and be a missionary with Greater Europe Mission and specifically eDOT. I took a trip to meet my future co-workers and immediately knew this is what I needed to do, but also it became what I wanted to do.