I am going to continue with 'God Stories' this year.
God has called me to participate with HIM in His mission in this world through the unique way He has created me - and I believe that is helping individuals realise their full potential in Christ.
At this time it is through Transformational leadership - guiding leaders in an ongoing process of transformation that produces character; the will and the wisdom, passion and perseverance - mediating His presence to a hurting and broken world. This kind of leader is able to do the right thing at the right time in the right way because they are increasingly attended to the Spirit of Jesus within. (taken from reading Ruth Haley Barton - one of my favourite authors).
One of the ways I am doing this is being very vulnerable and writing these 'God stories' - my own God stories. Later I hope to share many different stories from people all over the world. But the purpose is to encourage and inspire you to be everything He created you to be - to realise your full potential - because the world needs you.
I was sitting in a green, red and orange room. It was so different than anything I was use
to. I was scared. I didn’t recognize anything. It was all so foreign to me. I couldn’t call anyone; I didn’t know
anyone. I couldn’t go anywhere; I didn’t
have a car and if I took the bus what would I say…..I couldn’t communicate with
the driver. Why was I here, had God
played a trick on me?
I was in Budapest, Hungary; that is Eastern
Europe. I had not known that a couple of
years ago. I had no idea where Hungary
was. I just thought hungry meant one
thing; you wanted to eat. Seriously, my
geography was bad.
I had been in this country for about 2 weeks. I had never felt so alone. But some way, somehow I knew God was with
me. I certainly didn’t understand, but I
had come a long way with God…..I trusted in Him in the midst of the
feelings. Maybe He had played a trick on
me? Did that line up with His character? I was still learning. I didn’t know.
The team of
people I had come with was on the other side of the city. I didn’t know what to do. I sat there with tears running down my face
for a while. I am really not sure why,
but I started to sing; praises to God, any song I could remember about God and
how great He was. I heard a ringing
sound. Was that the phone? I had been told that my phone was out of
order and would be for a while. I stood
up and looked for the phone. I had not
really been interested in where it was because I couldn’t speak to anyone
anyway. I found it, picked it up and
carefully said hello. There was much
static, but after a few moments I heard a friend from home. She yelled into the phone, it was hard to
hear, but she said, “Teresa, I was thinking about you. I am praying for you. I miss you.
How are you? I tried and tried to
get through, couldn’t, but finally I did.
I love you Teresa.” I sat there
crying so hard, I couldn’t see. It was
wonderful hearing her voice. The
connection did not last long, but oh what a gift. I hung up the phone and continued to sing and
praise God. I believed with all my heart
He had just said to me that He loved me and He was with me.
The whole idea of missions was so interesting, but
so scary for me. When I first sensed God
may be calling me to go to another country I said, “No way!” But I had learned so much about God and I was
trusting Him. I finally said to Him “If
you want me to go into some kind of missions, to leave my home and family, you
will have to make it so clear to me. You
will have to give me the desire to do this and it be greater than my desire to
be here, my job (I was still a flight attendant and I loved it!), my home and
my family.” Also I liked my salary. I could do what I wanted to do, when I wanted
to do it and I didn’t have to worry about money. I wasn’t rich, but I had more money than I
ever had before.
That had been 5 years
before this time of sitting in the orange, green and red apartment. I become involved in a counseling ministry from
my church. I wanted to know and
understand more and more about my identity in Christ; about how I had been
meeting my own needs in life in my own way.
I wanted to let go of these things and grab hold of what God had for
me. This took time, prayer, revelation
and patience; but over time the desire to go out in the world and tell people
about all I had learned was stronger and stronger.
I remember the first
time I heard the word Hungary and it didn’t mean I wanted something to
eat. A friend of mine told me she was
going on the ‘mission field’ to a place called Hungary. I said, “What? Where is this…India? You can’t go there. How will you do that?” She did though and because I could fly free
with the Airline, I decided I would go see her.
I had started flying international, so it was not a foreign experience
for me, but going to Eastern Europe was!
I took her all the things I thought she would be missing. I couldn’t wait to see her.
I stayed there for 3
weeks and at the end of my time, I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t know why or how, but some way I felt
that I would be back there. I was drawn
to the place and the people. I left very
sadly.
I continued to work with
the counseling ministry at my church.
One day the president of this ministry started telling me about taking
the ministry international. He had a
friend that was in this country with another ministry and he was praying about
going there. I looked at him and said,
“You are going to Budapest, Hungary, aren’t you?” He said, “Yes that is exactly where it
is.” I told him I was going with
him. He just looked at me, in my heart I
knew this was God and He had been preparing the way and me.
Sometime when I think
back, maybe the whole flight attendant experience had been about preparation;
seeing the world, meeting all kinds of people, exposing me to so many different
things and experiences. That little girl
from that small town could not have done this; that little girl that could not
write a check, could not put gas in her car or drive across town. But this woman that had been on a journey
with God could and I knew this was His plan.
Now God needed to show the president of this ministry.
The time drew near that
I would need to raise financial support to go over to Hungary. It was going to be for 1 year, but somehow I
knew it would be longer for me; I couldn’t put that in words though. I did a Bible study about raising money like
this. I had never heard of this before
and it felt very strange about asking people for money to help me. Tom, the president of this ministry told me I
needed to tell people what was on my heart, what God was doing and how they
could be a part of it with me. He helped
me to write a letter and I was to send it to 300 of my closet friends. This was a very scary time for me.
I remember telling my
family was the scariest thing. I knew my
mom would not understand and she didn’t.
She told me several years later that she didn’t think it would happen;
that I would never raise up the money I needed to go. I was given one amount, it came in; then Tom
increased the amount. He told me later,
he too was very concerned about taking a single lady to Eastern Europe. God had a plan; the money came in over and
beyond what I was asked to raise. Both
my mother and Tom could not dispute what God was doing. Mom gave me her blessing, but I could tell
she was so scared.
As I wrote my support
letter, I remember thinking I should send it out to many people that I had been
working with at the Airline. I struggled;
most of these people were not Christians.
They would never understand what I was doing. I was right; most did not. I had one friend, he was a co-pilot. He was married and I was friends with both he
and his wife. I sent him a support
letter. I had put it in his mailbox at
the airport. He got it the day he was
going on a trip. He told me later that
during the entire 4 day trip, he talked about this letter with the captain that
he was flying with. He told him about
this crazy thing his friend was doing and that she was saying she was going to
quit flying with the airline and go to this far away place he had never heard
of before.
My friend said he had
gone on like this for 4 days and as they were heading back home, the captain
finally spoke. He asked if he could
contact me. My friend told him that I
was not interested in dating, that I thought I was going to be a
missionary. My friend said the captain
smiled and said to him, “I understand that.
You see I too know this God she is serving and I want to help her with
what God is doing in her life.” My
friend said he just about fainted, but gave him my phone number.
This man called me and
we talked. I never met him personally,
but this man sent me 500 dollars and supported me financially for 5 years. After many years of my friend reading my
newsletters and keeping up with my journey in Eastern Europe, he contacted me
one day and told me he wanted to know about this Jesus. He and his wife had just had a child and if
there was a way of life he wanted for his child, it was the church.
I remember the day when
I went in to tell my supervisor that I was quitting the airline and going on
the mission field. He looked at me like
I was crazy. He said he had never met
anyone who would leave their job, their salary, their home, their family and
friends and do something like this, but he said he liked me and wished me well. It was hard to leave the airline; I loved
working with them.
I sold my house, gave everything away,
stored some things at my mom’s and left the United States. It was amazing to think that less than 10
years before I thought life was over and I didn’t want to live. It was less than 10 years ago when God said,
“I will take you on a different path.” I
was so excited flying over the ocean. I
had such a passion for what I was about to do.
