19 Kids and Counting's Jill Duggar has a lot of fond memories of her childhood, and one particular memory she recalls with great joy is reading about the lives of great Christian missionaries.
"Growing up, my parents kept many biographies of great Christians around the house for us kids to read. I loved reading about missionaries who did great things for God in other countries and oftentimes wondered if God might take me outside the USA at some point for ministry purposes," she shared in The Dillard Family Blog.
Jill experienced that opportunity during her teenage years, when her father Jim Bob took her and some of her siblings to El Salvador for some short-term missionary work. "My heart was immediately captured as I saw the poverty and hopelessness a lot of people there were experiencing because their hope lay only in this world, not in a relationship with Jesus Christ," she said.
It was difficult for Jill to leave the place because she felt her work there was not yet done, so she prayed about it. God answered Jill's prayers and she was able to go back to El Salvador not only once but several times, and she even ventured to other places in Central and South America.
Jill added that Jim Bob and her mother Michelle have encouraged the Duggar kids early on to acquire as many life skills as they can in order to better share the gospel to others, and Jill did just that.
"I started teaching myself Spanish at home with the hopes of using this skill to communicate with friends and share the gospel of Jesus Christ!" she shared.
She also felt passionate about midwifery, so she also pursued midwifery training and education to become licensed as a Certified Professional Midwife. "My prayer in pursuing midwifery early on was to make wise use of my single years while gaining valuable skills that I may someday use on the mission field," she explained.
Jill said that she does not plan on practising when Baby Dilly finally arrives, but she knows the skills she has learned will benefit their family immensely and she hopes to maybe share her knowledge to others in the future.
