Even though as a boy I’d read all of Eric B. Hare’s* stories, I don’t think it ever occurred to me that I could be a missionary myself,” says Myron Iseminger, a missionary serving in Lebanon.

In the late 1970s, Myron’s sister declared she was taking a year off to volunteer as an English teacher in Japan. After a year in college as a theology major, Myron proposed his own volunteer experience to the Middle East. It was a decision that would steer the rest of his life.

“I thought it would be really neat to experience the Bible lands,” Myron says. “Besides, I thought it would give me some helpful ministerial experience. But I received much more. That year, my worldview began changing. I saw another culture, another way of thinking. I went to my students’ homes and listened to their stories, saw their personal grief. I began understanding life from another person’s perspective. I realized it’s easy to judge groups of people until you meet them one-on-one and come to love them.” Myron began sensing the call to long-term service for God overseas.

At the time, cross-cultural pastors didn’t appear to be in high demand, but Myron concluded if the world church budgeted funds for mission, finance officers would be needed to manage those funds. When he returned to college, he added a second major in business. It was another critical turn that would determine the direction of his life.

The advice a church leader shared with Myron also weighed on his mind: If you want to serve in a foreign country, make sure the woman you marry shares that same vision! Myron’s wife, Candace, had never been outside the United States when they married. “But she was willing,” Myron says. Together, they waited for a job opportunity overseas.

One day, a General Conference officer told Myron there was an opening in the Middle East for a treasurer. Soon, Myron and Candace were settling into an apartment in the Egypt Field office. It was hard work but rewarding. “I enjoyed being on the frontline of mission,” Myron says. “I liked contributing where there were limited resources. I enjoyed seeing the difference I could make, even though it was challenging.”

Myron would later serve in a variety of church offices.

It all seemed impossible to a little boy captivated by Eric B. Hare’s stories, but he can testify, “If we’re open to wherever God needs us, He works out our life direction much better than we could ever plan it.”

* Eric B. Hare was a Seventh-day Adventist missionary and prolific author