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| Our family with George Verwer, founder of Operation Mobilization |
I was asked to share my testimony a couple of days ago and as I shared I was reminded of amazing things that the Lord has done in my life.
When I was 15, something amazing was happening in Italy. The Doulos was going to stop by different ports on the Italian coast. What is the Doulos? It's a ship, built in 1914 and years later bought by a mission agency, Operation Mobilization (OM). The Doulos was one of two ships that would travel around the world filled with missionaries and enter different countries to share the Gospel. Onboard they had the largest floating library in the world and because of this they were even able to enter countries which were sometimes closed to the Gospel. OM would only bring the ships around Europe every ten years, or so we were told. So the fact that it was in Italy was an amazing event. The closest port to us was Naples, so my church rented a bus and all who wanted could pile on and go see this historic event.
I was excited to go with the others. It was an amazing experience, but one thing that changed my heart that day was a mime performed at the international event.
In the mime God was giving His very best for me, Jesus, but what was I giving in return?
I started crying because even if I was a believer I was living this new life not giving Him my very best. That day the Lord put on my heart the desire to be a missionary and I thought one day I will be one of the members of the Doulos.
So I started to learn English because that was the language spoken onboard and I contacted OM in Italy and I found some amazing people that would send me encouraging notes and council as the time to go to field would come at some point.
I was 15, so there was a long way to go.
One piece of advice that I was given was to start serving within my home church and my home town. If I wanted to be a missionary abroad, I needed to first learn how to be a missionary at home.
I was excited to go with the others. It was an amazing experience, but one thing that changed my heart that day was a mime performed at the international event.
In the mime God was giving His very best for me, Jesus, but what was I giving in return?
I started crying because even if I was a believer I was living this new life not giving Him my very best. That day the Lord put on my heart the desire to be a missionary and I thought one day I will be one of the members of the Doulos.
So I started to learn English because that was the language spoken onboard and I contacted OM in Italy and I found some amazing people that would send me encouraging notes and council as the time to go to field would come at some point.
I was 15, so there was a long way to go.
One piece of advice that I was given was to start serving within my home church and my home town. If I wanted to be a missionary abroad, I needed to first learn how to be a missionary at home.
I start serving the church in every way I could and I was part of every evangelistic campaign my church would put together.
I was blessed by being a member of a church which had a passion for evangelism so I was taught how to share the Gospel and we had one outreach event after another throughout the year using many different methods. The elders of my church also had a heart for missions so they decided to plant a church in a town nearby where there were no evangelical churches. As a church we would go every Sunday evening and have an outreach. People from the church would follow up contacts during the week. When we had the first believers, the church rented a place to be used for church meetings and then my church elders/pastors found a missionary to move to the town and take care of this new group of believers. That too had a great impact on my life.
I attended a two year Bible program within my church and in the meantime I was waiting. Waiting to be sent out as a missionary. My leaders were of the opinion that I couldn't go as a single woman, and even if at that point they had realized the Lord had put a passion on my heart for Italians they preferred me not going alone.
The years of waiting were hard. I knew this was what the Lord had for me but I couldn't understand the waiting. The pages of my journal were full of "but why oh Lord... ?" " ...when?..." But I never stopped serving and never stopped being involved in mission events. I would take my summers off from work to go evangelize with short teams, I would help in the winter and any time I could.
As I look back I can say I am grateful for that waiting time. I know now that the mission field is tough and you need big shoulders and a hard skin to make it trough. I am glad I went into a mission field with a husband that could be my strong companion in difficult times. I am especially glad that I didn't try to kick the door open when I didn't want to wait, instead I am glad I waited for the Lord to open the door, because when He did it was in His perfect timing.
My favorite verse was and still is
Jeremiah 29:11
"for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."
Even today as we look at our future and we try to figure out what is the next step that the Lord has for our lives we have to rest in Him and know that He has perfect plans and will open doors at the right time, His perfect time. There is no better place to be that in His perfect plan!
