Hello dear Friends and Family…
As you know, I have postponed the WR until summer 2019 to be able to get really ready and prepared for such a life altering event in my spiritual life. I am so excited for this journey, that it is hard to put into words.
When I applied for the world race in March, I was very sad that none of the routes left seemed to have opportunities to go to some countries my heart has always longed to visit.
I want to share with you my heart a little today and then finish up telling you all the countries I will end up travelling to.
When I first got saved, I had a heart for missions and evangelism immediately. The Burden for the lost was imminent and urgent to me and I was a very uncompromising and forceful. I felt I had no time to listen to people telling me their beliefs or what path they found themselves on – Instead they needed to hear what I had to tell them! I had only 2 minutes with you therefore we cannot waste precious time! Because MY message alone can and will save you. Not you telling me your non-sense. I probably scared many a unsuspecting person and repulsed them too.
That eventually toned down some, I now know that I was very arrogant – but I meant well. I think the memory of escaping Hell only a few short months ago was still eched on my heart and mind so vividly, and the fact that I didn’t know anyone outside my family who would not go to hell made it impossible for me to be silent about the Good News.
I answered a call to be a missionary in 2010. I was still a baby in the faith but I also thought I was God’s gift to mankind. I had so much to learn! How to serve, how not to serve and to let go of false teachings and to replace those with the truth of the pure word of God, for instance. Also that to be spiritually prepared is equaly as important as to be physically ready to respond to the missions God might call us to. How to work as a team and to accept grace just as much as to grant grace to unbelievers and believers alike. I grew tremendously during my four years at Friend Ships and look back on that time with a lot fondness. Naturally most lessons were not pleasant as you went through them, but you always feel so excited after passing a test and feeling a tiny bit more mature in your walk with Christ. And humbeled too, seeing that He has just begun that process in my life and will see it through to completion.
I also was so hungry all the time to know the next step. “God! Where to next?” I must have prayed that a hundred times a week. Never quiet satisfied with where I was. Compassion and Mercy being my first spiritual gift, I tried to jump at every and any cause that pulled at my heart strings (and they all did…), from being a Bible Smuggler, to bringing the Good News to Iran, everything was covered at one point or another. And patiently God would lead me until I hit the “No”, the closed door. Everything I must add that is, which had nothing to do with children. Because at the time I was convinved I did not like them. Why they kept crawling on me and not leaving me alone when I did not want them, was also a mystery. The more God pushed children on me, the more I pushed back.
I got words from prophets telling me I’d work with chidlren, (which I chalked off as mistaken as well) and even when Go himself seemed to indicate I would work with them, I would get angry and ignore the signs.
I got to a point when I hit 10 different closed doors, that I surrendered my whole will to the Lord and decided to delight myself in him – and to let him show me the desires of my heart in stead. I would stop asking “where to next” and delight in serving him where I was stationed. It was in 2012 when I came across the book “Kisses from Katie” but I did not actually get the opportunity to read it until 2013, half a year after surrendering my will to God. If you haven’t read this book, I strongly suggest it. It is by far my favorite, still, to this very day.
I remember reading it and as I did so the ache in my heart grew more and more until I felt I could bear it no longer. I just had to work with children. Orphaned children. I could not see meaning in anything else. Nothing else could mean that much in my own life. Taking care of children and seeing them come to know Jesus is what God created me for.
I am still not sure how this will look in my life exactly and I imagine that it could look differently in various seasons of my walk with God, but incidently, I will be working with children always. The burden of the orphan spirit which pleages the body of Christ and the world in general, is a fight for which I want to dedicate my body, sould and spirit.
Somehow God is using the World Race as more training ground for me to be a better and more effective servant. I pray fervently that after this long season of healing and rest, I will finally get to go on the mission field fulltime again.
And this brings me to telling you the 2019 JUNE ROUTE for which I have signed up for!!
We will go through these countries (I am putting a heart behind the ones I have always wanted to visit):
Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Morocco <3, Etheopia, Djibouti, India <3, Nepal <3, Myanmar <3, Thailand and Indonesia….
I honestly expected the cost for the route to be diminished some, due to the fact that we are early applicants (in some races the difference was very high inded) and that felt convenient also as to why God would ask me to wait.
However – even with the discount of being an early applicant, this route will be higher in cost. And I still trust that God will move peoples heart to help me go on this trip. God is asking for more faith, even now and that honestly just makes so much sense….
In waiting I will get to go to so many countries I have longed to see and I pray that there is a nieche where I am to be at home to serve the Lord permenantly.
Thank for reading this post, thanks for praying for me and supporting me and loving on me during this whole experience.
Pray
-that I will be prepared both physiclly and spiritually
-for fundraising ideas and help raising funds
-for faith and my spirit not to be crushed by doubts
Love,
Angelika
