How Do You Know You’re Called to Missions?

Katie Back Salmon • Aug 18, 2016

How can you know you’re called to missions? Especially when the very concept of “calling” can seem vague, mysterious and even painstaking to figure out?

Sure, it’s nuanced. But confidently knowing your missionary calling is not impossible, either. Read six workers’ unique testimonies of how God called them to serve.

Open Doors

Scott and Susan Downing were determined not to become missionaries. But God led them to a place of surrender.


“Our calling to missions started by Susan and I both saying that we would never be missionaries , and that kind of got God’s ear,” says Scott Downing, a worker in Chad.

Scott and Susan both grew up as missionary kids in Africa but never considered a life of missions for themselves. It was through a devotional study by Henry Blackaby that God began to challenge the Downings to surrender these plans.

“Henry Blackaby asks in the devotional, ‘When was the last time that you heard God speak?’ And neither of us could answer that. … That kind of sent us on a journey, and everywhere we went, all we heard was, ‘Surrender to full-time, faith-based missions.’

In obedience, the Downings reached out to missions agencies and received information from TEAM about Chad. Scott says, “[The report] was pretty doom and gloom, you know. Dark. You’re stranded. You’re flooded out in the rainy season. There’s no food. It’s 120 degrees. And we were really excited about that!

“So we pursued [Chad], and we told God, ‘We’re pretty ignorant. If this isn’t your will, you’re going to have to slam doors in our face and not just close them gently. We’re moving forward for Chad, and if you don’t like that, please show us. And 11 years later, he keeps opening doors.”

Homesick for an Unknown Home

A challenging short-term experience pushed Roberta Peabody to understand God in a new way. By the end of her trip, she was ready to serve in Japan full-time.


Roberta Peabody met her first missionary when her pastor’s brother, a Christian worker in Japan , visited her congregation. He later invited Roberta on her first short-term mission trip to teach English in a Japanese church.

“ I remember very clearly, it was a very difficult summer because I was in the big city, and it was hot. And I went thinking I was so proud of myself because I was going, but then, I couldn’t communicate! I didn’t speak a word of Japanese.”

To bridge the language divide, Roberta had a translator to help lead her English class. One day, she asked the translator to pray with her before class. Roberta was deeply homesick, physically sick and overwhelmed by her inability to communicate. As they prayed, each in their own language, Roberta had a revelation.

“As a young Christian, that was the first time that I really got it that God understood both of us — without any confusion, without any need for translation. So I returned home from Japan, homesick for Japan .”

God continued to confirm Roberta’s calling to Japan, and she has found her home and ministry there for over 25 years.

Trading Small Ambitions

Brent Preston loved growing up as a missionary kid in Papua, but that didn’t mean he was going to follow in his parents’ footsteps.


Brent Preston grew up in what he calls, “a young guy’s paradise.” Brent’s parents served as missionaries in the jungles of Papua , and he fondly recalls days of fishing and hunting and water skiing on mile-wide rivers.

Less fondly, he remembers tough financial times and the hand-me-down clothes he had to wear to boarding school. He says, “I hated wearing clothing that was out of style, so I thought, ‘You know, I [love] what my parents did, but I [am] going to be a rich Christian.’ ”

So Brent pursued his education in the United States — sights set on affording the lifestyle his missionary parents never could.

At a graduation ceremony, Brent observed something peculiar to him: “The president of the school was given a new suit by the graduating class. And I thought, ‘Why is this guy being given a new suit? Can’t he buy his own suits? He’s the president! He gets the best wage on campus!’”

Later, Brent discovered the president of his university bought his clothing at thrift stores so he could give more money to missions. “The very clothing that I didn’t want to wear, he wore on purpose,” Brent says. He realized, “This guy is living for eternity, and I am not.”

Brent noticed that for many of his classmates, missions was off the table due to fears of travel, other cultures or unfamiliar foods. He remembers thinking, “I don’t fear any of that. … I’m not afraid of foreign foods. I’m not afraid to learn another language. I’ve been away from home my whole life. Why shouldn’t I go?”

“ So I gave up my small ambitions. … I was nineteen years old, and I decided to be a missionary.”

Short-Term Trip, Long-Term Vision

Seeing God worshiped in other cultures on a short-term mission trip gave Hannah long-term vision for the nations.


When Hannah went on her first short-term mission trip in high school, her worldview changed. As she experienced life and worship in a new place, she began to see how God worked in other cultures outside of her own. This stirred in Hannah a zeal to give her life to what God is doing around the world.

Hannah then went on to live out her missions calling in North America by serving as TEAM’s manager of short-term ministry. Annually, Hannah and her team send over 100 short-term missionaries to contribute to the global church.

Hannah says, “Being a part of that sending process is what excites me. It’s so much more than our individual stories. It’s how God is weaving together the world and other people and cultures. I love being able to see how he’s using so many people to demonstrate that and to be an extension of the church everywhere.”

Gradual Understanding

Sally Kauffman can’t tell you the exact moment God called her to be a missionary to Japan. “It was just a slow, steady understanding,” she says.


Six months into Sally Kauffman’s short-term mission trip, she was homesick, experiencing culture shock and desiring to go home. But as she continued in ministry, God called her to missions — gradually.

“In my case, it wasn’t just like a knock on the head or anything like that, but … over the course of two years, the Lord just kept impressing on my heart, day after day, ‘You’ve been given so much. You need to share.’ It was just that simple. … So it was just a slow, steady understanding in my case.”

More than three decades later, Sally is still sharing the gift of Christ with the people of Japan.

A Dream Come True

Becky Martin knew as a small child that she wanted to be a missionary. Finally leaving for the mission field was a dream come true.


“God’s unique in the way he deals with each of us, and … I really wanted to be in missions from the time I was a little kid. By the time I finally, 28 years ago, left for [South Asia], it was like a dream come true in a lot of ways for me,” says Becky Martin, a worker in South Asia.

Becky grew up in a family and local church where she says, “Missions was just part of being a Christian.” So she pursued a degree in nursing with the intention of using her skills on the mission field.

Regarding her decision to serve in South Asia, Becky says, “It was a process.” She began by choosing a sending agency , TEAM. Then, she looked for a country where physical and spiritual needs were great. A country in South Asia fit the criteria.

Nearly three decades later, Becky continues to see God confirm the missionary calling He gave her as a girl.

Bridging Dissonance: Finding Connection in Music and the Gospel

By Emily Sheddan • 18 Jul, 2024
TEAM worker Luke Standridge and his fellow musicians use music to build connections to faith in Japan. In music terms, dissonance creates movement or even suspense in a song. It invites tension. That tension is what helps grab our ear’s attention and the interchanging of these notes with pleasant melodious parts is what makes music such a delight. In a similar way, God is using music to grab people’s attention and catalyze Gospel impact in the largely unreached nation of Japan. TEAM Global Worker, Luke Standridge moved to Japan in 2019 with no clear direction on how he was going to use his passion for composing music while doing ministry. However, after Luke got involved with a local church and began developing deep friendships, the Lord opened unimaginable doors for Luke that in time, coordinating his creative skills with sharing the Word. “People Need to Come to Japan!” Growing up as one of ten kids in a family that was heavily involved in ministry and missions, Luke never considered that it would one day be a part of his own journey. In 2016, via a Japanese language learning class in Indiana, Luke and his brother had the opportunity to travel to Japan. Hearing, learning, and using the language in the context of Japanese culture was the goal. While it was Luke’s first international trip – even his first trip on a plane - it was also his first time hearing about the spiritual condition of the Japanese people. “And just through that, God did a huge 180 change on my heart,” says Luke. “More people should come here as global workers. People need to come to Japan!” The call God was laying on Luke’s heart is echoed when looking at the spiritual landscape of Japan. The nation is home to the second largest unreached people group in the world. It is one of the most difficult places for the Gospel to take hold and grow. Japan is also home to a deep and rich culture that prizes creative arts from pottery to ink to music to anime – a fact that would help Luke find his niche in life and ministry. God’s Guiding Hand In the short three-month timespan of that first trip, Luke found that opportunities came naturally to share about life, and people’s curiosity for Christianity grew. “I left Japan knowing I just had to come back,” Luke shares. “Even if I didn’t get back to the same area, I knew Japan was where God wanted me to be.” The Lord is good all the time and all the time the Lord is good. His plans do not fail. Luke returned to Japan in 2019, and less than a week after arriving, he was put in touch with a renowned composer in Japan. The composer saw some of Luke’s music and invited him to help write the music for a beloved in-country animated show. But God wasn’t finished yet! Fast forward a year, and more connections and opportunities allowed Luke to help with music for Pokémon - a franchise that has brand recognition around the world and was being developed into a TV series in Japan. Luke recalls how the Lord began using these connections in the production world to open doors for Gospel conversations. One night while having dinner in downtown Tokyo with famous artists and composers from all around the country, Luke was asked about his ministry-focused visa. This was a rare opportunity in a setting with people otherwise uninterested in Christianity. Luke shares, “The whole time I could see God’s hand in guiding the entire thing.”

Connecting in a New Kind of “Neighborhood”

By Lorena de la Rosa and Suzanne Pearson • 13 Jun, 2024
Through creative arts and other forms of innovative outreach, “The Neighborhood” is creating connections to the Gospel and the love of Jesus. CONNECTION. It’s a common word with powerful implications. Dictionary.com defines connection as a joining or linking together; a relationship between people or objects that unites or binds them together. God has created each of us with a deep need for connection with Him as well as connection with others. Hebrews 10:24-25 speaks to this, as the writer exhorts, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” This God-given need for connection lies at the heart of a creative and innovative ministry in Japan known as “The Neighborhood.” TEAM Japan global worker, Kelly and her family created The Neighborhood as a place where connections are formed through creative arts, educational opportunities, and simply just providing a space for people to be together. A Family Calling The journey to the creation of The Neighborhood began over 5,000 miles away from Tokyo, in California where Kelly, her husband Jeff, and their five children were living. The kids were the first to sense God’s calling to missions, and asked why their family wasn’t serving in this way. How Kelly and her family came to TEAM is a God-story in and of itself. “God placed a TEAM Japan worker at our lunch table the same week that the kids posed that question to us,” Kelly recalls. “We had never heard of TEAM and so we thought, ‘let’s check this out.’ After that, God just kept confirming that we were supposed to be here.” After a period of fundraising and with much excitement, the family of seven moved to Japan in 2014. For the first five years, Kelly and Jeff served as a part of other TEAM ministry initiatives, but they began to sense a stirring for something new. Creating The Neighborhood Kelly and her family truly have a deep gift for hospitality, and regularly opened up their home to others they met in Tokyo. They saw a great need for people to have a place to gather and connect, and they wondered what doors the Lord might be opening for them to meet that need. “About a year before we were to return the States on home assignment, we were just really thinking about our future in Japan,” Kelly says. “We saw a need for people to have a ‘third place’ – a place that’s not home and it’s not work. They didn’t have a church community or any other place where they could meet people and just connect.” Kelly goes on to explain that in Japan, the culture is such that people don’t generally invite each other into their homes, but as her family did so, people embraced that opportunity. “This idea formed in all of our hearts of a student ministry center – a place where we can create community and learning,” says Kelly. “It was born out of what we were already doing in our home, but seeing how we could expand it and have better space.” God’s Provision What happened next is a true testament to God’s provision. Kelly, Jeff, and the kids returned to the States and began sharing their vision for The Neighborhood with their supporters and churches who responded generously. Upon returning to Japan, the search was on for the right space. “We had a Christian realtor that we told our dream to, and he just went looking for it,” Kelly recalls. When the realtor found a 5-story apartment building, he said, “It’s kind of out of your budget but it has what you need and want.” The Lord provided the funds and the family moved into the space in November 2019. They now occupy all but the ground floor, with living space for their family as well as classrooms, areas to study or hang out, and guest rooms for exchange students or others who need a place to stay overnight. The first floor is occupied by a pizza shop – a welcome amenity for the many groups and students who visit The Neighborhood. “It’s very convenient!” Kelly says with a laugh. The Neighborhood began to see lots of activity right away until the pandemic hit in early 2020. During the height of the quarantine, Kelly and Jeff used the time to redecorate the space and plant gardens outside the building. Then as the restrictions eased, they invited individual students or families over for meals and fellowship. It wasn’t until March 2023 that The Neighborhood was able to fully open again as intended. Kelly shares that despite the setbacks of COVID, the Lord continued to provide the funds to pay the rent.
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