God's Handiwork in My Life

About 17 years ago it seemed everything was falling apart in our lives. We were unhappy with each other and unhappy with life in general. We had been married 7 years and they were filled with drinking, worldliness and ungodliness. At our lowest point a friend of ours invited us to “Friend Day” at their church. We actually agreed to go. We enjoyed it and for the next few months would go on and off but still continued our old lifestyle. One Saturday night I came home from being out with my girlfriends at the bar. My husband was gone and as I walked into the empty house, the Holy Spirit began His work in me. I began to weep and confess my sin to God and ask for His forgiveness. As my tears subsided I felt this peace over me that I had never had before.

The next morning I got up and went to church. I don’t know that I told anyone what I had experienced because I thought you had to “say the prayer.” When my husband got home I shared with him what happened and that I was not going to be drinking anymore. I told him that they were starting a new Bible study “Experiencing God” and would he come with me to it. He agreed and a few weeks into the study I “said the prayer.” Though I always knew it was that night that God gave me a new heart.

We eventually left that church and joined with another. There we served for 12 years. I was involved in youth ministry and women’s ministry. The one thing that impacted me most there spiritually was becoming involved with Precept Ministries and their inductive method of study. I don’t know how many years or how many books I have studied that way, but it helped me tremendously in my knowledge of God’s word.

As my love for God's word and the gospel grew, I realized the church we were at no longer filled the need I had. I wanted to leave but knew I could not without my husband so I began to pray that God would give him this desire also. I also began to pray a lot of things for him that God would bring to pass…that He would become the spiritual leader in our home and I had even began to pray for him to have a heart for missions. We visited another church in my husband's hometown and never looked back. God had placed us exactly where He wanted us to be.

I always had a heart for mission work. I went on some statewide mission trips where we shared the gospel with street women. I went to a Muslim province of Paris, France to do women’s ministry. Through all this Africa was always on my mind. I didn’t know why or how, but the desire was always there. I felt called to go even when I had no where to go. I learned that the church we had started attending went to Africa . I wondered if this would be how I would finally go and it was. But the “I” turned to “we” when God answered my prayer and my husband also had the desire to go.

The first year as I was standing before the Ngala women in Mozambique and teaching them, I thought, “I could do this for the rest of my life.” My husband also felt the stirrings in heart for the Mozambique people. God began to feed that desire each year that we were there. We began to pray that God might make it possible for us to serve there on a more permanent basis. 

In June 2011 we moved to South Africa and joined with Samaria Mission. God has continued to bless us in so many ways as we strive to fulfill His call. Yes, we want to share the gospel and disciple the men and women of Mozambique, but if God has a different plan or place that will be okay too. We want to do His will and not ours. Above all, we just want to be more like Christ no matter where we are.