Missionary Testimonies
People are called to missions in many different ways: in some cases, a calling is a singular event that stands out. Sometimes, however, a calling is more of a process. Here you can read accounts by missionaries describing their personal experiences. This may also encourage you to read biographies depicting in more detail adventures of how missionaries were called.
My call to mission came after 9-11. I knew something in my life and our country (USA) was wrong, but I didn’t know what to do about it.
I realized that I needed to make a lot of changes in my life for God to be able to use me in the mission field. I surrendered to God’s will for my life not knowing how that would look or what future God had in store for me.
Later I met my wife who was headed to Bosnia for her mission call. I knew I was called for missions but had not yet laid down everything for God. Through a series of alter calls for missions and hearing from God about my call for teaching and serving in the ministry it became clear, I would get married and we would go together to Bosnia.
Malcolm Duerod
I was 16 years old when I attended a YWAM Youth Camp. One day during a prayer time and after a missionary had spoken, I clearly heard God’s question “Who will go?” I strongly felt my heart say ‘yes”. At the time I didn’t know where to go.
Two years later, after graduation, I decided to spend a gap year on the mission field. I still didn’t know where to go. Around that same time my family and I watched a video about a ministry among Roma in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I was in tears and had no idea what was happening, but soon realized that I had found my destination.
After my year in Bosnia and Herzegovina I was sure that my mission was not complete. I received God’s vision of a kindergarten for Roma children and after studying in the US I returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina with my husband and our eldest daughter.
Corah Duerod
When Christ revealed Himself to me in 2006, I longed to make Him known to others as well. At the time I did not recognize that as my calling. I simply wanted to know Him better. I joined YWAM and was sent to Greenland. During my time there, I saw God’s power at work and felt his calling to serve the people of Greenland. This calling stayed with me for six years. Then my wife received a dream about Greenland and we decided to visit Greenland. We had peace while being there. We asked the Lord for a sign from outside our family. During our travel home, an unknown man approached us on the plane, asking us what we had done in Greenland. I told him that we wanted to live there to do mission-work. He was very moved and told us that this had been his exact prayer for many years! To us, this was God’s confirmation. In 2014 we moved to Greenland and we praise God as we see Him at work.
Peter de Graaf
I was ‘called’ into missions when I was 31 years old, mother of two, pregnant with No. 3. The call was very clear. My younger son Daniel and I were at a camp in England while Brad and Mark were ministering at a youth camp in Germany. An American preacher suddenly stopped during his message and said, “I am speaking to you – I want you to leave the land of your birth (Scotland), that land where you have never found satisfaction in me, I want you to be like Abraham and go to a land where you can’t speak the language, but where you husband now is.”
I’m so glad that He spoke to me personally since our first 2 years in Germany were really difficult. Today I can say with confidence, I know my reason for being here. I answered the call of God in my life I’m doing what He requires of me to the best of my ability.
Jane Thurston
When it became clear to us that every follower of Christ is called to be a witness for him, the question: “If we don’t, who will?” took on urgent meaning for us. We were inspired by missionary visits and a missions-minded intern at our church.
Eventually, we applied to work as missionaries in Cameroon. This process strengthened our resolve. Because we trusted God’s provision, Armin resigned from his civil servant job, and we “stepped out onto the water.” It was not until after we took this step that God showed us how and where we would serve him.
Armin and Patty Weißenfels
I spent my childhood living in different countries and learned to speak three languages fluently. Christians repeatedly approached me, saying that God wanted me to use my skills and experience in missions. But I resisted the idea. On the other hand, I knew that if God set the agenda, I would always agree. I value obedience. While my husband and I were pastoring a church, we had the desire to support the missionaries we sent out more effectively. My husband suggested we attend Globe’s missionary candidate school to expand our understanding of world missions. Each of us was 39 at the time. As the days went by, I clearly sensed that God wanted to send me and my husband to a country in Latin America. My husband was thrilled as he had sensed a calling for many years but had not told me about it up to then.
Marion Pestke
During a voyage to Germany from Scotland in January 1980, my teammates and I met in the ship’s “Quiet Room” for a “Quiet Time” with the Lord. For over an hour we prophesied to each other over a map of Europe using 2 Thessalonians 1 and 2. God spoke to us concerning evangelism and discipleship in a region of converging and diverging people groups. The Rhine-Ruhr industrial region of Germany is the crossroads of Europe with international ties. In the same way that the Thessalonians took the Gospel to Achaia, so would effective evangelism in the Crossroads of Europe lead to a world mission. While sharing this vision with youth groups in the area, one young man asked: Who will come and show us how it is done? After some struggle, I submitted to the Holy Spirit’s prodding and said, “Lord, I don’t know how this could happen, but if you can use me, then I am willing to go.” After the Lord called my wife in August of that year, we made plans to come live in Germany in 1981.
Brad Thurston
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