From Abuse to Missionary Service: A Testimony

The following was written by one of our ACTION missionaries, and is shared with you (with permission) for your edification and for God's glory:

I don't believe I can praise the Lord enough for getting me where I am at today, but let me tell you about it in a different way.

I don't want to give you facts, because what God did in my life is not just facts.

It's love, it's grace, it's forgiveness

It's freedom to make choices, and it's guidance

It's Himself on an intimate level, and then changing my heart to His will.

So let me tell you a story.

There once was a young girl brought up in abuse, alcoholism, and poverty. She was on her own when she was in high school, told that she would never amount to anything, called white trash, and ended up in one abusive relationship after another.

By age 35 she was to the point of giving up, even to death.

However, she is reminded, in a miraculous work, orchestrated only by God's hand, of the Jesus she accepted as a child, but stopped following because the abuse had taken its toll.

Then in a divine intervention, she is rescued from the miry pit that she had placed herself in.

Psalm 40:1-3, "I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth, Praise to our God. Many will see it and fear and will trust in the Lord."

Grateful for her life being saved twice, first eternally and then spiritually, she is content to serve her Savior in the comfort of her home and church.

Ah, but that wasn't acceptable enough for the Creator who formed her in her mother's womb; for those He gives much to, He demands much from.

Luke 12:48, "For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required – And to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask for more."

So, not long into her newly given life, she acquires a curiosity for the world outside her own. No commitment, nothing serious, just to see and experience.

And so in 1997 she embarks on her first short-term mission trip to Haiti. Why is it that the church mission trip planned at that time was to a third-world country, totally immersed in poverty, disease, voodoo, and sin?

Only years later would she have full understanding.

At first, the poverty of Haiti was unbelievable. Seeing the poor children and orphans put a yearning in her heart to help, but not so much to go. She did meet a teacher who pulled children from the street who were sniffing glue to suppress their hunger pains, and he had started an outdoor school for them under a tree, with a chalkboard and very few other resources.

She thought to herself, since she too was a teacher, she could do something like that --but Haiti wasn't the place.

So she went back home and got involved in missions and continued to work in children’s ministry, and considered doing Bible studies in women's prisons and other places for abused women--and life went on.

Three years later, a short-term trip was planned to Peru. It sounded exciting but the unknown created only images of jungles and boa constrictors and other scary things.

However, as she was growing in faith, she decided to turn it over to God. If He wanted her to go, He would provide the way and the means, and He did.

This trip was also a surprise, but in a different way. The country was beautiful! The area she spent the most time in, Arequipa, was gorgeous, with rocky mountains, perfect weather, and friendly people. She felt very comfortable there.

There was a ministry working with poor children (although, they weren't street children or orphans) and it was very familiar, like the work she was doing in the States, only in Spanish. However, she already had a start on the Spanish language as in her own classroom in the States she had many Spanish-speaking children. Peru felt good, she felt very comfortable and confident there.

And so she made plans -- praying through the process but almost positive that God wanted her there.

But just in case she was going by her own feelings, she committed it to God.

She knew 100% that God wanted her to reach out to the street children, orphans, or any abused/neglected children with the love of Jesus and let them know that someone really loved them, like she wished she had known as a child, but the place where was the question.

So she committed it to God, willing to go wherever He wanted her to work with children. Well, sort of -there was one condition. She didn’t want to go to Russia, China, or India. Why? No real reason - fear of the unknown - all three seemed like really dangerous places to be.

And so she prepared and went through the process to go to Peru and the door remained open for about a year.

A little over six months before she was ready to move, something happened, something unexpected.

Her heart became restless- delays in the move, changes of assignments, other things- she couldn't say for sure why the unrest.

God kept bringing Psalm 27 to her. She thought it was preparation for Peru…but over and over again she was reminded of verse 4: “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that I will seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.”

Finally, not knowing the reason, she put Peru on hold, to eventually withdraw from it altogether.

And she waited, not patiently at first, but she waited, and she inquired of the Lord…For three months, silence, until after much time with her Savior, she recommitted the journey to Him – not Peru – wherever.

Whatever He would have her do, she would do. Stay…or go…it was His will.

And in that quiet time she learned not to think about where to go or what to do, just to spend time with Him – a lesson she would need to learn over and over again, when there would be a time in the future when all there would be was God.

After those three months, and the commitment she made, a new country was brought to her attention – India. Everything from a new family in her school from India, an acquaintance that she hadn’t seen in years preparing to go to India, and one thing after another coming to her that put India in her mind and heart, until the passion and the love for the children and people grew.

Even a year before she was to go, more fighting broke out in India and foreigners were asked to leave. She fell to her knees begging and pleading to her God – “You have to send me to India.”

…a far cry from the girl who once had no desire to go there.

God did allow her to go and six months after she had moved forward with the process, she had her visa, 80% of her support, a place to go (perfectly orchestrated by God), and perfect peace in her heart.

The rest – is history of how a loving and gracious God can take a broken piece of clay and reshape it, use it, even with all its cracks, for His purpose to bring Him glory.