It's hard to believe that it's already been a year since I took this leap of faith and resigned from my teaching position. I have never regretted it for one second. This has been the best year of my life! That's not to say there haven't been challenges, but even in the challenges I somehow knew that everything would work out. God was - and is - in control! Thanks to each one of you who have been praying, encouraging and making financial donations and sacrifices to make this all possible this year and in years past. I say this and mean it with all of my heart: May God bless you immensely!
Here's the paper. Maybe I'll try to add a few pictures for you to spice it up a bit - Enjoy!
“Wherever I send you…”
Kristin Wolford
14 Angelfish Ave Avon, MN 56310
GC 501/502 (September School)
Personal Statement
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| From left to right: Kristin, Mandi Natvig, Ciri Smith and Soo-Yong Yoon Dominican Republic 2006 |
In June 2005, I returned from my first mission trip to the Dominican Republic. After spending the morning writing in my journal and reflecting on all that had happened in the last ten days, I was speechless. How was I possibly going to explain what I had just experienced to my family and friends: extreme poverty, sickness, people with faith like I’d never seen or known possible, the power of the Holy Spirit, voodoo, casting out demons, praying in tongues, baptism by submersion, and being “born again?” These were not things we talked about in my family or in the Lutheran Church that I attended throughout my childhood.
How was I going to share with my family and friends? When they asked about my trip, I wanted to say more than “We built houses, played with kids and had a really good time.” I prayed that God would give me the words and the courage to talk about what really happened on this trip.
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| Pastor Michael Binder Maybe it would be a lot easier to hear God if He used one of these when He spoke to us! |
While we were in the D.R., I had a conversation with my pastor, Michael Binder, on the topic of hearing God’s voice. In this conversation, I was very frustrated and remember saying, “What’s the point of praying about it?! God never answers anyway.” My pastor wisely responded, “I think sometimes we don’t hear God speak, because we don’t slow down and take the time to listen.”
So, the day after our return I lay on my bed, praying and reflecting, asking God for courage and boldness to share about Him. I laid there so long I was almost falling asleep when the word “Jeremiah” popped into my mind. I thought, “What in the world?! Where did that come from?” It took a few more minutes before I recognized that Jeremiah was a book in the Bible. Then it hit me, maybe this was God speaking to me! I quickly opened my Bible to the book of Jeremiah, and this is what I read:
The Call of Jeremiah
4The word of the LORD came to me saying,
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
6 “Alas, Sovereign LORD,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”
7But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. 8Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 1:4-8 (NIV)
These verses have given me courage, comfort and confidence on many occasions. This was the first time I had heard God’s voice, and I will never forget the commands and promises these verses contain. God used this passage to encourage me that day to speak boldly about Him regarding the things I had learned on our mission trip. There have been many times since that because of the promises contained in this passage I have found the courage to speak on God’s behalf – the first day I visited and spoke in the largest prison in the Dominican Republic, for example. It took an extra dose of boldness that day to address the men for the first time. In a way, this passage has become a covenant between the Lord and me. He promises to always be with me and to rescue me, and I promise to say whatever He commands and go wherever He asks.
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| July 2007 (I think) "The Fab four team" Kara Dykert, Melissa Rodriguez, Ezra Melhaff and Me Distributing food to people in Km 16 with the SHALOM youth. |
On these short-term mission trips, we spent a lot of time in Haitian refugee villages, building homes, teaching Vacation Bible School, leading Bible classes for youth and adults, building relationships, sharing the Gospel and pouring ourselves out for weeks at a time. During the last year and a half, we spent a lot more time working together with the youth from a local church, hoping to contribute to their development as leaders and to equip and empower them to carry out the work when we left.
After working several summers in a row in the same communities, I contemplated our effectiveness. I wondered if we were really making any difference. In and through five years of mission trips, I knew that I had been transformed. Each year I learned and grew so much because of these trips. I was always challenged, stretched and pushed far outside my comfort zone, but I wondered about those we had been serving. They had new houses, but what about their souls? Were we really having an eternal impact in the lives of these people?
Each fall, I went back to the classroom, teaching the quadratic formula and correcting homework and tests. Even though I had great relationships with my students and volleyball players – I really cared about them and knew God was using me to make a difference in their lives. Still, I was not content. I was hungry for more of God. I wrestled with these questions about the Dominican Republic, and I wanted to apply the lessons I learned from people in the Dominican Republic to walk by faith and not by sight. All of these things weighed heavily on my heart. After five years of teaching, it was time to take the leap.
In August 2010, I left my teaching position to spend a year in the Dominican Republic seeking God, His will for my life, and searching for answers regarding the effectiveness of our ministry there. For maybe the first time in my life, I didn’t have a plan other than to go, be available and trust God. I went on faith, convinced that one thing would lead to the next, which would lead to the next, and so on.
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| Teaching in the Gomez Rehab House |
A few weeks ago, I returned from my first year as a full-time missionary, and what a year it has been! I’ve had opportunities to learn from so many different pastors and ministry leaders in several different cities in the Dominican Republic. I’ve developed close relationships with children, youth and adults. I’ve been mentoring, equipping and empowering others to serve, to share the Gospel and be agents of change in their communities.
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| Teaching English in Guayabal |
I’ve led Bible studies, English classes and service projects for Dominicans. I’ve had opportunities to attend government meetings and to serve in prisons - teaching, preaching and encouraging the men inside and leading other teams of Americans and Dominicans to who want to visit and learn more about how they can help.
I’ve also been learning more about the education system – touring schools, meeting with teachers and principals and organizing conferences for teachers of public and private schools. I’ve served on mission trips with Dominicans to other parts of country, and I’ve worked with several mission teams from the US. I strongly believe in preaching the “Good News” with words and actions. I want to make sure that in whatever we do, we are actually bringing good news for people – helping them with needs they have today and giving them a message of hope and salvation for all eternity.
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| Liliana reading the Berenstein Bears in Jalonga 1. |
This summer I started a pilot program for a traveling library project. In this program, we have two teams of five people each traveling to certain poor Haitian communities. Each team travels twice a week to sing songs and give a Bible lesson, and then they spend at least an hour reading, writing and problem-solving. Those who are able to read on their own can select a book and sit down to read. The five team members work with the children and adults who are unable to read.
As I look through the chapters of our textbook, “Introducing World Mission,” I am tickled! There have been so many times in the last year that I’ve felt ill-equipped to be on the mission field. I’m looking forward to learning all that I can about missions: what does the Bible says about missions?, what does it really mean to be a missionary?, what is truly the goal of missions?, what are some of the challenges of missions and what are some effective strategies for overcoming them? I praise God for the opportunity to be a part of this program at Bethel Seminary.
It appears that God is leading me to full-time missions. If this is the case, I need to better understand the Word of God and how to teach from God’s Word in another language to a different culture. I also hope to learn the language of missions in order to better understand, develop and articulate some of the things I’ve been seeing and feeling over the last year.
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| Learning from Pastor Lidio. We are in the pastors' dormitory inside the prison. The inmate pastors are preparing lunch for us! These are pastors who are still prisoners. They have turned their lives around and are now leading other men to Christ. |
Most importantly, I hope to learn every day how to more effectively share God’s love with people wherever I am and how to appropriately communicate the plan of salvation to those who desperately need to hear it.
I don’t know what the future holds for me. I just read James 4:13-17,
“13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”
I am reminded to take things one day at a time. I intend to keep my promise to God: I will go wherever He sends me and say whatever He commands me, and I will not be afraid! This training at Bethel Seminary seems to be an important next step.
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| Team Time! Juice and Empanadas at the park. |
I believe that I will continue to work in the Dominican Republic for the next few years: uniting, equipping and empowering God’s people in missions. In addition to the local churches, orphanages and prisons, God seems to be opening doors in the education system in the Dominican Republic as well. I look forward to seeing how God may have me use my gifts as a teacher to glorify Him among Christians and non-Christians alike.
I have a sense that in a few years I may also be called to lead teams of Dominicans into Haiti to help people in need and share the Gospel. After that, I have no idea where God may send me. Wherever it is, I’ll be ready because I know that God will be with me, and whatever happens He will rescue me – “declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 1:8 NIV).
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