I grew up going to church but it wasn’t until college that I truly understood the gospel and forgiveness of sins that I received through the death and resurrection of Jesus. During my time in college, I was involved in a campus ministry that had the focus of sharing our faith with people who didn’t know God. I agreed that it was important for people to hear the gospel but deep down I thought that the only people I should share my faith with are those who don’t believe in anything or God. I thought this because I personally believe so strongly in my faith that if someone of another religion were to tell me about their beliefs I would listen, but never change what I believe.

However, one day I got to hear the story of a man who was born and raised in Kazakhstan and was a Muslim background believer. One day when he was walking the streets he heard a man speaking about Jesus. He had never heard this name before and was interested in learning more about who Jesus was. As he learned more about who Jesus was he eventually became a believer. When he finished sharing his story I felt God speak to me and tell me that He is the One True God and that if I were to tell people about Him, they would believe in God and stop worshiping their false idols.

God Opened My Heart to the Nations

That was when God completely changed my life. He opened my eyes to the world, my heart to the nations, and gave me a vision of telling others about Jesus who wouldn’t have the opportunity to hear otherwise. God forever changed my heart and as I learned more, I began to explore ways to go to the unreached so that they would have an opportunity to hear about Jesus.

As I worked to finish my degree, my heart continued to grow in desire to move overseas to tell others about the One True God. I didn’t know when I would go, what that would look like, or where it would be, so after I graduated I taught 3rd grade for two years.

As much as I loved teaching, I still felt God calling me to drop everything and go to the nations, and I couldn’t ignore Him. However, this was a very difficult decision for me to make. Ultimately, what led me to leave teaching was Jesus. Jesus had a career in carpentry, but He left his career to do full time ministry when he was older. Knowing this, I thought to myself that if the example that Jesus gave was to leave His career to do ministry, I should be willing to do the same.

Being Led to Indonesia

With that, I knew that I wanted to go in a way that was worthy of the Gospel, so while I was teaching, I also was a part of a missions training program. Through this program is where I learned about Indonesia and how it’s the fourth most populous nation and the largest Muslim country. While Indonesia is a spiritually dark place, they are very spiritually open to hearing and learning more about Jesus. There are millions of people here who are hungry to hear about Jesus.

With the millions of unreached people in Indonesia, I realized that the harvest was plentiful but the workers were few. There are 275 million people here who still worship false gods and need to hear about Jesus. I knew there was a great need there and wanted Indonesians to be represented around the throne of God in heaven one day (Revelation 7:9-10). That’s why I chose to move to Indonesia and be a worker among the lost. I went because God showed me the need of these people and not because I felt a specific calling there. Ultimately, I feel called by God to live a life honoring Him and sharing about Him wherever I live and whoever I am among. In this season of life it’s been living in Indonesia.

~M.