I believe God may have been preparing me to share about Him oversees and to internationals in the U.S. even from birth.  I was born in Nicaragua, then five years later we moved to New Caledonia near New Zealand.  It was not until I was almost 9 that we first moved to the U.S. where dad worked in the Union Carbide Geological Division in NYC. Living in Connecticut was my first time to attend church, and I felt then I was such a good Christian.

But when I was in 9th grade, we moved again; this time to southern Thailand.  I finished high school in the Philippines, and then got a bachelors in International Studies at Ohio State. But  I no longer felt like a Christian: I even despised people who tried to share about Christ with me. I returned to Thailand to see my family again, and joined the American Peace Corps while in country. There I continued to seek to communicate with this unseen God, but with little knowledge on how to get through to Him.

Then I remembered that someone had shared about Christ paying the way for my salvation if I accepted Him.  But they also asked me who was on the thrown of my life: me or God.  I was on the throne then. Yet being totally on my own in the Peace Corps on the southern border of Thailand, I was not truly happy. Then I remembered a comment from the pastor in Connecticut that Jesus said He came to give an abundant life NOW!  I wanted that! I knew that I needed to put God on the thrown of my life for that.  And so I finally told God I would go anywhere, do anything He asked!  In return for my pledge, I have served Him 5 years in Russia and a year in Croatia.

Jean N. Werner

Serving under the Baptist Church of Slavonski Brod

CROATIA