About

I have been interested in missions for as long as I can remember. One missionary friend recently reminded me of a time when I was very young, probably 6 or 7, and I went to her house to ask her and her husband questions about being a missionary to fulfill a requirement for AWANA. A couple years later, when I was eight years old, I attended a Bible camp for a week in the summer. Every morning, there was a “missionary hour” when the missionary for the week would share about what they did and where they lived. I was on the edge of my seat, listening to their stories and hearing about the cultures and languages they worked with.

 

Two of the children from a VBS in Monterrey

My interest in missions did not diminish as I turned 13 and went on my first mission trip to Monterrey, Mexico with my church youth group. These week-long trips over the last 13 years changed the way I view missions and the unreached. Last summer, shortly after I returned from another trip to Mexico, I met a family who works with Wycliffe in Papua New Guinea. I had been looking for missions organizations for a couple months before this, but had become discouraged because there were so many organizations, but none of them seemed like the “right fit” for me. When I heard about Wycliffe, it just seemed to click, and I knew that this was the organization that I had been looking for.

I will be teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to missionary children in Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea. Having qualified teachers frees up parents to do the work God has called them to do, whether that work is translation/linguistics or other support roles, such as mechanics, pilots, or computer techs.