It is God who works in you

Have you ever had the experience of saying, “Yes!” to praying for someone or something our Lord Jesus Christ has placed on your heart, and then having the veil lifted just a little to see how God used your willingness to say, “Yes!” to connect-the-dots and answer that prayer in an amazing way?

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The young missionary from Burkina Faso, West Africa, Jay Shafto, had a table display set up at a small mission fair in my hometown. After speaking with him for a few minutes about his family’s need for a teacher for their three young children, I agreed to leave my name and contact information and take their photo prayer card and lift them up in prayer every day. Beginning in November of that year, I faithfully began to pray for them daily. Just two months later, in January I received a phone call from Jay’s wife, Kathy Shafto. The minute she identified herself, I shrieked, “I prayed for you and your family this morning!” She thanked me for praying for their family, and she asked if I would be willing to make copies and distribute a flyer that she had created with a job description for the teacher they needed and their contact information. I was more than willing to do such a small thing. I made 50 copies of the flyer and distributed them at my local church and continued to pray for them every day.

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A few months later, I received another phone call from Kathy Shafto, in which she excitedly told me that God had used me as “His willing vessel” to connect them with Elsie McCall, a dear 65 year-old single woman who attended my church. Elsie had picked up one of the flyers I had copied and distributed at our church. She responded to the call to Burkina Faso, West Africa, as one of the first people to serve with the International Mission Board’s Masters Program which gives people who are 50 years and above the opportunity to work alongside career missionaries for a two-to-three year term.

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During her time over many years on the field, Elsie homeschooled the Shafto’s three children, Madelyn, Robby, and James. Through her teaching, Elsie was able to free up Kathy Shafto to minister along with her husband, Jay, through women’s and literacy ministries among the Bissa people of Burkina Faso. The Shaftos refer to Elsie as an amazing answer to prayer, and so do I.

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“The neat thing is that it was a whole God thing,” Kathy Shafto said. “I felt God was calling me to be involved in full-time ministry. So, the only way I was going to do that was if I had a teacher. Without Elsie, I would not have been able to do that.”

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While some of Elsie’s friends enjoyed retirement and more time with their families, Elsie—a single woman who jokingly calls herself an “unclaimed jewel”—said when she read the flyer I had distributed at our church indicating the Shafto’s needed a teacher for their family, she was ready for something more. That desire to still be useful led her to help the Shafto’s through overseas missions work in Burkina Faso, West Africa—a move she calls “coming home.”

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Elsie has said, “When I go to America, after about three weeks, I’m ready to come back to Burkina Faso. As long as I stay healthy, I’m going to stay here.”

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Elsie was one of the first people to serve with the International Mission Board’s Masters Program that gives people who are 50 years and up the opportunity to work alongside career missionaries for at least a two-to-three-year term.

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When Elsie saw the flyer about the Shafto’s need for a teacher, and contacted them, she was the church and communities ministries director for South Florida Baptist Association in Lakeland, Fla. At the time, she felt God might be leading her somewhere else. Elsie said, “I loved my work, my boss was excellent and the two women I worked with were excellent. But after four or five years, at times, I reached a point where I’d say ‘OK, I’ve reached a plateau. Now something’s got to change.’ I think God brought the flyer Beth Miller distributed at our church which described the Shafto’s need for a teacher using the Masters opportunity into my life because He knew I was ready.”

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Elsie often says she hopes her love for missions inspires her friends in the United States to find their role in overseas missions, too. “I try to challenge them that if I can do it, they can, too,” she said. “God has called some of them to stay where they live and be missionaries there, but He has called some of them to go around the world and be missionaries.”

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During her time on the field, Elsie homeschooled the three children of missionaries Jay and Kathy Shafto, who worked among the Bissa people group. For years, on any given weekday morning, bicycles of the children—Madelyn, Robby, and James—could be found parked outside Elsie’s modest house in the capital city of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Through her teaching, she freed up their mother, Kathy, to minister through women’s and literacy ministries among the Bissa. The Shaftos refer to Elsie as an answer to prayer.

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Though Elsie contends missions is for all people of all stages of life, she said being single has given her opportunities to move more freely to where God calls her to go.

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“I know some people my age won’t [participate in overseas missions] because they have grandchildren and children they don’t want to be away from,” she said. “And being single, I don’t have that.”

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McCall admits that being a missionary in West Africa was not what she had envisioned for her life years ago. But she is content with where God led her.

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“Up until I was in my early 20s, I thought I would get married and have five or six children,” McCall said. “My life has been very, very different than I first thought it would be. It’s good. I’m not complaining.” And being the oldest missionary on the team, McCall said she has stepped into a mentoring role for younger missionaries that she enjoys. Many of the locals refer to her as “Ma Ma.” Because of her age, they usually sit her in the “place of honor” when she visits their village and serve her first during meals.

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“I have a friend who is younger than me, and she hates being called Ma Ma,” Elsie said. “But I like it very much.” There are challenges that come with the job, Elsie admits. Learning the local language has been more difficult than expected. Smiles and gestures just aren’t enough to establish solid relationships, she said.

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“You can’t ask them about their family,” she added. “You can’t really witness very well. It’s the first time in my life I felt totally incompetent.” Though Elsie said she would like to have more opportunities to share her faith, she feels comfortable in her teaching role.

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“I am part of evangelism,” she said. “I’m just indirectly involved in it.” One of Elsie’s friends back in Florida called her a hero for going into overseas missions. It’s a label she finds comical.

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“I have to stop and tell them, ‘I have a lot of food to eat. I have electricity. I have a lot of friends. I have new experiences almost every day,’” she said. “You know, if anything, I have a better world than they do in some ways.”

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I am still in awe at how God answered my prayers for a teacher for the Shafto family. It gives me hope in my prayer life today, even when something seems impossible or very unlikely, I’ll say to myself, “Nothing is impossible for our God—remember how He used your prayers and willingness to copy and distribute the flyers, to connect a sweet missionary family to the teacher for whom they were praying.” The memory of this amazing divine intervention and answered prayer has strengthened my faith and my belief that trusting God means looking beyond what I can see to what God sees. God already saw Elsie as the answer to the Shafto’s prayer, and He used my prayers and willingness to copy and distribute the flyers as His way to connect-the-dots to get Elsie to Burkina Faso. What an awesome God we serve!  

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Philippians 1:3-6 The Message … “Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God. Each exclamation is a trigger to prayer. I find myself praying for you with a glad heart. I am so pleased that you have continued on in this with us, believing and proclaiming God’s Message, from the day you heard it right up to the present. There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.”

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Philippians 2:13–For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose.

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Look Up—meditate on Philippians 2:13 … pray to see what it reveals about the character of God.

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Look In—as you meditate on Philippians 2:13 … pray to see how you might apply it to your life. Be propelled to ask galvanizing questions about your discoveries: "Because God is_________, I will_____________."

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Look Out—as you meditate on Philippians 2:13 ... pray to see how you might apply it to your relationships with others. Let the nature of God impact on every relationship, for your good, and for His glory.