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Can you describe what changed in your life that led you to serve in full-time missions?

As long as I can remember, I have loved serving in my local church and my community. It was easy to serve in a familiar place and among people I already knew. Even so, when my youngest son urged me to step outside my comfort zone and explore international missions, I did. I went on a short-term trip. I returned convinced it would be best if I stayed close to home.

My issue wasn’t about leaving a comfortable US lifestyle. My issue was a fear about leaving my ministry comfort zone. I was afraid I could not be an effective witness in another culture.

The next year God sent me back out on another international mission trip. I filled my days doing the tasks given to me to do, tasks I could do well. These included helping teach English-as-a-SecondLanguage to a group of Spanish-speaking seminary students. I was relieved to learn the students spoke some English, which made my afternoons with them easy. I was in my comfort zone again—like how I felt when serving in the US! I could do this! I was proud! God, however, was getting ready to change my life.

On the last day in the ESL class, we were told the students wanted to pray for us. We were each paired with a seminary student who took us by the hands and prayed over us. It was powerful. Then we were told that the students wanted us to pray over them. No worries, I thought. These students speak English beautifully. I will pray in English. Easy.

But as it turns out, I would be praying for a new student. This was his first day, and he knew very little English. Instantly, I was outside my comfort zone. I was terrified. He was beaming from ear to ear, evidently anticipating what nugget of truth I might pass on to him and what I might say to heaven on his behalf. But I was so overcome by fear, I could not move. Obviously sensing my concern, he took my hands in his, held them tightly, smiled, and shut his eyes.

I began to pray out loud in English. It was all I knew. Soon he began to softly cry. Then he began to sob and dropped to his knees. He got it! By the power of the Holy Spirit who speaks for us, he got it! When we are without words, He becomes our interpreter!

That was a moment that changed my life completely. It was the moment that moved me from fear to faith. God said, “Remember, I am with you always—even when you are in the most unfamiliar, uncomfortable situations.”

I have always loved Jesus and have served Jesus for as long as I can remember. But I had never before taken Him at His Word: He would be with me, and He would be doing the work. That day, God changed my thinking from “I can do this,” to, “I can do this, but only because of the power of the Holy Spirit.”

At times, I am still far outside my comfort zone, but when I am afraid, I remember that God is always with me.

What do you wish people in the US could know about life and faith as you experience it now?

Looking back, God has been preparing me for a life of cross-cultural mission from the beginning. And for me, it was a rather difficult, giant leap. But in the end, it came down to one simple question: “How much do I love Jesus?” As I have trusted Him, He has never once failed me. There is great comfort knowing that God cannot fail.

Graham and Sharon Nichols work among the underserved children of Ecuador.