Anna* sits in Dawa’s* kitchen. It’s dark and cold. Rats run overhead, and the wind rattles the tin roof. She was there to share the Gospel with Dawa and others in the village.
The village, a three-day walk, is nestled in a high-altitude valley where the air is icy cold and most people herd Yaks, including Dawa’s husband.
Dawa is quiet at first, but soon starts to talk. The two chat for hours, and she shows Anna pictures of her kids in boarding school and of the entire village attending a big ritual at a local temple. Dawa tells Anna about the worship she practices each morning, and if she doesn’t, the spirits get angry. She’s afraid of the spirits.
“We try to share a bit more, but it doesn’t go far,” says Anna. “I feel something well up inside me — a type of love or compassion that I can’t explain. It can only come from Him.”
Just a month earlier, Anna went to a remote mountain area with a few others, an area with zero known believers. She really felt God’s love as she spent time with people in the villages. “It was as if He broke my heart even more at seeing how darkness has a hold over them — because His heart is breaking first.”
“Life is ruled by fear of the spirits. And yet, it’s almost impossible for them to turn to the One who’s already won.”
Anna is hoping to build on her recent contact when many villagers move to the city during the coldest months. She left Australia to share the Good News with Buddhist people in the mountains, but travel is sometimes limited; it’s too dangerous to trek in winter or the rainy season.
“It’s great they come to the city where I’m based, although the communities are very closed off. They disappear into their houses and lock the gates; they are only friends with people from their area. So even though they are in the city where there are many churches, they still have no exposure to the Gospel; they are still isolated,” shares Anna.
But Anna had an idea of creating a community art space to build connections in her neighbourhood. “Their culture is super artistic, and many people make things for their own family or to sell.”
A fellow worker had the same idea, too. Suddenly, a space opened up to rent right across from a large temple, and together the two went to work getting it ready. Anna recalls, “After endless hours of work and lots of setbacks, we recently held our first activity, making Origami flowers.”
The pair weren’t sure anyone would turn up, but then five local friends came. Anna knows that mountain people will only attend through personal connections. The work will be slow, but she feels optimistic about the centre that she hopes will build relationships and foster open hearts, using arts for God’s glory.
“I feel peace and excitement for whatever God has planned, and mostly a deep sense of trust and surrender. It’s like I’m a kid walking at my Father’s hand. I’m not sure where I’m going; I’ve never been there, but I trust in His leading,” Anna shares.
Anna’s trust in God began in her late teens, when she’d seen God do so much in her life. “He changed everything. He brought me to a place where I couldn’t do anything else than surrender my whole life and give everything back to him — all that I had came from Him anyway, so how could I live for myself?”
She considered serving locally at her church, but all the doors seemed to close. Missions weren’t on her radar, simply because she didn’t know missionaries still existed. Then, in God’s timing, she was visiting a church one Sunday when she witnessed a commissioning service for someone who was going to the field with OM. “The OM representative spoke about the Great Commission and of the 3.4 billion least reached people in the world. It was like God was shouting a megaphone in my ear and my heart was burning.”
Anna began to explore global missions not focused on what she wanted to do or where she wanted to go, but wherever He needed her, and that’s in Asia.
While Anna is busy building relationships to share the Gospel, and every week looks different, she doesn’t hold on too tightly. “God has changed me to be much more open and flexible. If this season here ends sooner than I expect, then I’m okay with wherever He sends me next.”
*Names changed
