Dramatic stories of call abound in our sacred Scriptures.

The stories of God calling people to specific tasks are remarkable. Some, like Paul’s, are dramatic.

Others, like Matthew’s, require great risk. Still others, like Joseph’s, are twisting stories in which the person following God’s call feels disoriented and abandoned.

But what’s really remarkable is that God has a call for everyone—no exceptions. As Phil Lindell Detweiler, a longtime mission worker to Africa, says, “If we are followers of Jesus, we are all called to something. The question then is not, ‘Am I called?’ but ‘To what am I called?’”

These stories are examples of the ways God has called mission workers to service, and their faithful responses.