It's A Calling...

“And... He saw... James and John... and He called them... And they immediately... followed Him.”
Matthew 4:21, 22 (KJV)

A few days ago, I was reflecting on the day, when the sudden inspiration for poetry came to me and the opening lines of a poem began rolling over in my spirit. I went to my computer and began writing. The poem to your right is the result. I felt I was to share it with you in this newsletter.

A few days later, it occurred to me that I have never shared, in a newsletter, how God called me to foreign missions ministry, and that I should share it with you now. I hope it will be a blessing to you.

I’LL NEVER FORGET

I’ll never forget the day the Lord called me. It was during a Sunday morning service. I was in the sanctuary with my parents (because in my day the whole family worshiped together in the sanctuary).

I was eleven years old.

One of the missionary families our church supported was with us that day to report on their work in southern Mexico, near the border of Guatemala. Their fifteen-year-old daughter had been asked to sing because she had a beautiful voice. She stood at the pulpit and began singing,

“The name of Jesus is so sweet.
I love its music to repeat.
It makes my joy full and complete.
The precious name of Jesus.

Jesus, Oh how sweet the name.
Jesus. Every day the same.
Jesus. Let all saints proclaim
His worthy praise. Forever.”

Then…she began singing it in Spanish, and when she did... Oh my! Something happened inside me! I was transformed. I saw a multitude of faces. All kinds of faces. Different from my own. Different colors. And my heart longed to go to them. 

At that young age, I did not understand what had just happened to me; but, I was never the same after that. Every time another missionary came to the church, I wanted to go with them – wherever that was. Every time there was an alter call for people who wanted to consecrate their lives to the Lord, I went forward. Every time the church sang, “All to Jesus I surrender,” or “I’ll go where you want me to go dear Lord,” or “I’ll say yes, yes, yes” I sang from the depths of my being; meaning every word.

As graduation from high school was approaching, I told my parents I wanted to go to Elim Bible Institute, a Bible school in upstate New York, that had a very strong missions program. My parents were not willing for me to be that far away from home, so I went to Southwest Texas State Teachers College to become a teacher. 

But the call had not left me. It never left me. It was still there.

My preparation to become a teacher was not a new idea to me. From the time I was four years old, I wanted to be a teacher. When I played with my dolls, I did not play mommy and baby. I would line all my dolls and stuffed animals in front of the pillows on my bed, and I would conduct school. They were my students. I was their teacher. That playtime simply revealed what God had created me to be.  

A few years after college, I took a new job in Houston, Texas, and began looking for a church. I was not familiar with any in Houston, so I asked the Lord to lead me to the one He wanted me to become a part of. One bitterly cold Sunday morning, I walked into another church that I knew nothing about; still trusting the Lord to lead me. As I opened the front doors of that church, it was as though the Holy Spirit met me with a big, warm blanket and wrapped me up in it. I entered, walked across the foyer and opened the door to the sanctuary. When I stepped inside, I walked into the tangible, sweet presence of Almighty God, and I knew I was in “the place” where He wanted me.

To my surprise, it would there that I would meet the man I was to marry. Raymond B. “Bud” Cassidy. He was the Associate Pastor and Minister of Music.

 It wasn’t long before we started dating. Then came the day he proposed marriage to me, and he said “…but before you give me an answer, you need to know God may call us to Africa someday. Would you be willing to go?” During all our dating, he had never said anything to me about a call to foreign missions ministry, nor had I told him of my same call. But there it was. Orchestrated by the Holy Spirit. And, of course, my answer was “Yes, I’ll go to Africa with you.”

I was twenty-four years old when we married. Thirteen years after God called me. Bud was twenty-eight, and also thirteen years after God called him. I was a Texas girl. He a Michigan boy. He had been in Texas only a few years. Hmmmm. 

For the first sixteen years of our marriage, we ministered in America as pastors, and as administrators and instructors in two small Bible colleges; both of which are now closed.

Then, at last! In April 1979, we were extended an invitation to go to Ghana, W. Africa, for the purpose of establishing a Bible Institute to teach and equip Ghanaians for the five-fold ministry. We accepted.

That was twenty-nine years after the call. But it was right on time. His time. 

All the intervening years were necessary years of preparation. The work God wanted us to do in Africa came with requirements. The first of which was successful experience in the ministry. How could we teach and equip others for a ministry we had no experience in? The second one was maturity. We were in our forties when we went to Ghana. Had we been younger, the Ghanaians would have never received us. They would have thought of us as a “small children.”  

Now it is thirty-nine years later, and there’s much more to the story. But it all began with a call.  What’s more…I am so glad He called me.

Because there are over 4.4 billion people in the world who still need Jesus, I remain

Yours in missions,

Mary Ann Cassidy