Available Where Planted

I had doubts that my 6 months in Western Asia would be worth it. I was tempted to believe that God couldn’t really use me in any way that was impactful. I had no clue how to speak the language, how to overcome cultural barriers, not to mention that I can’t even get around my home city without Google Maps! But I knew that God had called me to invest my gap year with the team there, and I decided that I would be faithful with the time I did have.

In this country, it’s rare to find nationals who know any English, so we spent two grueling months in language school. We prayed daily that God would multiply our efforts, and that we would be able to share the Gospel soon despite the language barrier. The language was so much different than anything I have ever heard or seen before, but we trusted that God would reward our faithfulness and use the small amount of language we did know.

As we continued to study and practice, we also prayed constantly an “impossible” prayer: that God would just bring a native young woman, our age, who spoke fluent English and had similar interests to us so that we could quickly build a friendship with her and lead her to Christ. We were reminded that God loves answering prayers, even the “impossible” ones.

Adel had just turned 18, meaning she no longer had to share the religion of her family. She had a dream where she met a man named Jesus and began to worship him. She wanted to know who this man is, but she knew no Christians in her city. She searched online and found a website that offers free New Testaments and was connected to our team soon after.

We quickly built a friendship with Adel. She helped us to practice our language and showed around, and we would answer her questions about the Bible. After just 3 weeks of friendship, Adel decided to follow Jesus!

We were able to spend the rest of our time teaching Adel how to pray, how to read the Bible, and how to share her new faith. Now, months later and thousands of miles apart, she is still living for Jesus, and I am reminded that God is not limited by my time, talent, or ability.