My spiritual mentor and pastor, Linda Randolph, told me one night at church, “Angie, I think about your very different and unconventional upbringing and all of the ministry and travel you’ve been able to do and I know that God has such a hand in using all of that to bring the glory to His Kingdom. I can’t wait until you realize why God has given you the blessings you’ve received and what you are going to do with them in your future walk with the Lord.” I think Linda’s right. I feel like God has continually been preparing me for this 11-month mission trip my entire life and it took someone I know and love pointing that out to realize it.
Ever since I was three months old, I have been so very blessed to travel internationally. I’ve been to 40 different countries, 5 of the 7 continents and it’s my goal to minister to people on every continent before I die. My mom formed a solid passion for traveling during her time at Harding University (a Christian college in Arkansas) and her school choir traveled around Europe for an entire summer. She and my dad met in medical school and she introduced him to traveling, and after a few trips to Europe, my dad fell in love with traveling just as much as my mom did. After that, they decided they would spend their money on two things: 1.) Furthering the Lord’s church through local church support and supporting missionaries and 2.) Traveling together!! After fifteen years of being happily married…they decided they wanted to have kids. However, starting a family didn’t stop my parents from traveling one second! Right after I was baptized in my church in the month of July (I was born in May) my parents had us all on a plane to Switzerland. This passion for travel and adventure has ever stopped and obviously, traveling is something I enjoy more and more with every adventure I embark upon. All of the vacations we’ve gone on, all of the cultures we’ve experienced, all of the people we’ve met have been INCREDIBLE. But none of it even COMPARED to the amazing adventure, joys, and complete bliss I receive when I am apart of missions.
I went on my first mission trip right after I graduated high school. I was watching the news and on it they were talking about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and all of the suffering, death and damage it had brought to the people of the south. My heart broke. I kept thinking of that quote “we are blessed to be a blessing” and I knew that I needed to go and help in any way I can. I found out a few weeks later that our youth group at church was going to go to Gulfport, Mississippi and do roofing, yard work and relief work for the victims of Katrina. I was one of the first to sign up. I knew that God had laid it on my heart to go and He had worked it all out so I could go serve His people there. God’s got such a great way of doing that. 😉 While we were down there I fell in love with the people of Gulfport, the hospitality of the church we stayed at and it’s congregation, and the magnitude of work God can do in you in only one week if you let Him. I remember a particular house we did yard work for. We worked for two days straight to clean up a single mother’s yard and after all the blood, sweat and tears…the mother came outside with her kids and with tears in her eyes she said with the deepest form of gratitude, “Thank you!!! I can’t wait to have my friends over for a barbecue!!” I cried a little bit, because I knew we were able to do something for someone that they were unable to do for themselves. We were able to help out another single mother who had twin boys but instead of yard work, we were able to completely re-do her roof for her. She and her boys were so happy when we were done and it was so rewarding seeing her and her twins at the church potluck that following Sunday! I knew God wanted me to continue pursuing ministry outside of my home church…I just didn’t know exactly what that would look like….
After a year of Bible College, I was the furthest from the Lord I have ever been in my entire life. I grew up loving the Lord and loving to go to church and participating in worship/VBS/youth group/etc. At Biola University, I felt so pressured and forced to be apart of as many church and ministry opportunities as possible. We had to go to chapel almost every day…if you didn’t, you’d have “chapel makeup’s”. You needed to find a home church near Biola…if you didn’t, you’d miss out on fellowship outside the Biola community. I felt like I was trapped in a “Biola bubble” and there was no escape. The people surrounding me in my major didn’t help either. Everyone was always competing and trying to “out do” each other through mission trips and Christ-like acts. I never felt good enough or driven enough compared to them, and they reminded me of it daily. It always made me think of the Pharisees every time I would go to lunch with certain people in the ICS department. I was starting to resent the church and I knew that if I’d stayed at Biola any longer than a year, I’d really begin to lose my faith as a Christian. I was broken, confused, and very depressed the whole “Bible college academic path” didn’t work out. 🙁 I came home to Greeley, Colorado where I was accepted to the University of Northern Colorado and I immediately felt all the bitterness and hate towards the hypocrisy of the church lifting from me. I was around genuine Christians and humble believers again, and I am so thankful that God brought me out of the situation I was in at Biola back to First Presbyterian Church. I began being passionate about worship, teaching Sunday school and singing in the church choir. I was surrounded by an intergenerational congregation (which I missed TERRIBLY being out at Biola) and I wasn’t constantly hanging out with only college kids.I guess I never really found a balance I was happy with out in California. I do miss the few friends I made at Biola terribly, but I know God has me at UNC for lots of very good reasons.
After teaching Sunday school for 7 years, I made my way to the Youth Ministry at FPC. Our church had always struggled in the Youth Ministry Department, with changing Youth Pastors and struggling programs, so all of the youth groups I’d attended during middle school and high school were at other churches in the Greeley community. Our church hired an amazing man of God, Donny, who has done a TREMENDOUS make over for the Youth Ministry program at our church. He truly has the spiritual gifts suited for a Youth Pastor and I, along with the rest of the church family, are so grateful that he and his wife Roxie decided to come and be a part of our congregation. Well, I began to work for Donny doing a Youth Ministry Internship at the very end of the Spring of 2008. I was sad because I had to leave teaching my three and four year olds in the preschool but I knew that teaching/mentoring middle school girls would be a lot of fun too. Turns out, I LOVE Middle School Youth Ministry!! Who knew it’d be a calling/spiritual gift of mine!?!? But it is. I am so thankful God brought me to Youth Ministry because now, after working as an intern for two years, it is something I want to pursue for a career after seminary school. The middle school girls I lead are so incredibly spiritually mature and deep and I love them like my own little sisters. Leaving the youth group at First Pres. is going to be one of the hardest things about going on the World Race. I will miss them all horribly. Now, going back in time to Summer 2008 I want to talk about my mission trip to South Africa…
After I started my internship with the youth ministry, I decided God was calling me to go overseas to Africa and spend time serving the Kingdom there. I found an organization online called “Thrive Africa” and I immediately fell in love with their ministry vision and Thrive Student Trip opportunity in July. I signed up and was accepted! After getting my rabies shots, filling out tons of paper work, and meeting the rest of my mission team in New York City, we were off to Harrismith, South Africa! I knew that God was going to use me and show me incredible things on this trip, but I had no idea what to really expect. I cannot begin to tell you how much more I fell in love with Jesus Christ during my time in South Africa. I fell in love with missions and the mission field and the missionaries that worked at Thrive Africa. Everyone I met was a living example of what Jesus calls us to be and I will treasure my time at Thrive Africa forever. It was in South Africa I truly experienced the Holy Spirit and the power of prayer. We were able to heal people of physical suffering in the name of Jesus Christ, bring people away from demonic oppression and to the Gospel, and one small group on our team even experienced God’s power to free a man of demonic possession. God showed me that He is still as powerful and mighty and fierce as He was in the Old and New Testament, and that was something I am eternally grateful for experiencing. Before this trip, I thought the things the disciples experienced were things I would never see in my lifetime, but God allowed me to see His power of healing and freedom. After building friendships that will no doubt last a lifetime and serving the Lord through relationship evangelism, prayer, and children ministry, I headed back to the US. However, I knew that God had a plan for my life involving missions. One of the last nights on the Thrive Africa mission base, we had a three-hour prayer session in one of the cabins. God spoke to me in ways I never imagined He could. I was on my knees praying for God to give me direction in my life and when I asked Him if I would be returning to Africa He kept speaking “Go. Go…” I knew the Holy Spirit was pouring over me and after my anointing, I talked with my dear missionary friend, Katie Tjarks, and she confirmed that God had a plan involving Africa and missions for my life. I cried more on that trip than I’ve ever cried in my life and I will cherish those few weeks in South Africa forever.
The summer of 2009 (this previous summer) I had the opportunity to study abroad with my best friend Heather Stauffer. We went to 8 countries in the Mediterranean for 2 and a half months through the “Semester at Sea” program. It was an amazing experience filled with unforgettable stories and adventures and I was able to study social work in the global world, human rights and social justice. My heart broke every time I would see an orphan, a widow in need or a child hungry. In my Social Work in the Global World class, we were asked to visit atleast two orphanages while on SAS. I went to an orphanage in Bulgaria and one in Egypt. The children there were so happy and full of joy even though they have nothing and I learned so much from them in the few hours I was able to spend with them. I wanted to work further in orphanages around the world, loving on children and being the hands and feet of Jesus in their lives. There was so much to be done in every country we visited an no time to do anything. We were only in port (the countries) for four to five days at a time and I knew that the next time I went abroad for more than a few weeks…I would want it to be missions-related and I would want it to be a much longer time in each country. Semester at Sea lacked the ministry aspect, which for me, is everything. It lacked the relationship evangelism and I wasn’t able to build relationships with the people I met in the countries we visited because there was no time. Time is a precious thing and I yearned for more of it. I will never forget the amazing summer I had doing Semester at Sea but I know that the World Race will be a thousand times better. God is at work at the World Race…and being a World Racer will allow the Holy Spirit to work through me that He was never able to on Semester at Sea.
Now I am about to graduate from UNC and turn 22. I’m a big kid now and after being transformed on the mission field in South Africa, and spending time as a Youth Ministry Intern at First Presbyterian Church in Greeley, Colorado…I know my two passions are with youth discipleship and mission. I know that 11-months on the mission field is exactly what God is guiding me to and it will change my life forever. I cannot wait to see how He will shape my heart, break me down, and build me up for His Kingdom and His glory. The World Race is the next chapter of my life, and I know without a shadow of a doubt, it will be the most amazing experience of my life. Thanks for reading my story!
working at an orphanage in Bulgaria Summer 2009 while studying abroad on “Semester at Sea”
my friend Brecca (our moms were in pregnant with us at the same time at our church) and my sister (my other half) and I (in the middle) in Israel at the Jordan River about to get baptized this previous summer (June 2009)
My friend Abby and I on the 2008 Thrive Africa student mission trip in Makwane township, Qwa Qwa, South Africa where we ministered to the Basotho tribe.
