About Me

They wanted a girl with brown curly hair and green eyes and God answered their prayers. (Tell me God does not care about the small details of our lives!) They did everything they could to teach me about Him and His love.

I grew up with morning and evening devotions and bedtime stories about missionaries in Africa. I grew up in a family who loved and served God and who sacrificed everything for Him. For as long as I can remember we always had poor people living in our home. For our sake and for the sake of His work, my parents chose to live in small towns close to the churches they were pastoring. My dad was always on the road, always busy, but he found a way of spending time with us. He would take us with him to Bible studies and visiting people. How we enjoyed that!

Moving from place to place wasn't the easiest thing for me, especially when we moved after only a couple of years. But it taught me that I am a pilgrim and a stranger. Home was always a strange notion. When I was small home was wherever mom and dad lived. After leaving for college, home was wherever I lived. So home was for me the dorm during college years, the girls' dorm from the deep jungles of Guyana, the hut from the junge of Vanuatu or the small tent from the Kalahari Desert. You see, I learnt from a young age that home is not a certain location, but home is where my heart is, where God has called me to be. And these lessons proved to be very much needed later in life.

There are different events that have been stepping stones in my walk with God and that have taught me a lot about Him. One is a camp that I have attended when I was only 16. Another one is the death of my grandpa, the first family member to die in my family. Meeting Dan Vis and his team was another very important event in my life. They have been a huge inspiration and taught me a lot about God.

But nothing turned my life around as discovering that I did not have the power to obey God. I was a sophomore in college when I entered into a relationship. I did not ask God what He thinks. I was too desperate to belong and be loved. I knew within a month that I have made a mistake, but it took me 6 more months of agonizing and negotiating with God to be able to put an end to it. I was simply too weak and I had no power to obey Him. Do not think that the guy was a bad guy. He was a Christian, he loved God. But he was not for me. That was the moment when I realized I need to have Him in my heart and allow Him to make the decisions for me. This is when I promised Him that I will never make another decision without Him. Not about relationships, not about a job, not about my future... It was one of the best decisions I have made because my life has not been the same ever since.

A year after I graduated from college, God took me to Guyana, South America where I spent some of the most wonderful years of my life. Far away from loved ones and friends, isolated, with no electricity, no phone, no internet, no roads, in the middles of God's beautiful creation I learned to depend on Him and Him alone. He needed to teach me a lot of things. I learned about strengths I had that I was not aware of. I found out weaknesses and sins I had to give up to. I got to do things I said that I will never be doing. And the strangest things is that I got to love those things. Teaching is one of them. Guyana is the place where I fell in love with the work of education and where I started to discover what true education is. I have been learning more and more about that ever since. 

It was a time of intensive learning. No, I was not a student. I was a teacher. I was even the principal of the school one year and the assistant principal another year. But I was in His school. And in His school you are a student for life. He continued to teach me about Him in Vanuatu and Namibia. And even though I was a very slow student, I learned lessons that will never be forgotten.

Five years. Five of the most wonderful years spent in the jungles and desert. I never thought that He will ask me to leave the mission field. To leave South America or Africa. But He did. And I heard His voice as clear as the wind that is blowing outside. I knew right away that I had focused on the wrong thing. Mission work and not Him was on the first place in my life. He needed to teach me that He has to come first before anything else. So He asked me to quit. And I did. With fear. Because mission work in these third world countries was my life. I had no clue what the future will hold for me. It was hard to find my place in the civilized world. Believe me, it was a huge struggle. I longed to be back in the wild. But I had to obey.

He sent me a job. But He knew that sitting in an office will not be enough for me. He knew my passion for people and teaching. So He was about to do the best thing He has done for me so far: lead me to ARME Ministries.

A message written to a stranger (a fellow missionary I had never met) on her blog, a few emails back and forth, than 10 days of praying (on skype) and fasting together turned my life around as nothing else ever did. I finally discovered what I had been missing all along. And I wanted to share it with others. This is how I fell more and more in love with Him. This is how I discovered the power of prayer and I became passionate about prayer ministry. And this is how I organized the first prayer room. He had to push me into doing that, but He knew how to do it. After that first prayer room, more and more doors started to open for prayer rooms. Than people asked for workshops. Than churches asked for sermons. 

Prayer rooms. Speaking engagements. Fellowship. Ministering to people. Godly and wonderful people. Answered prayers. Miracles. Changed lives. Traveling the world. This is what I have enjoyed for the past year and a half (if you want to know more, you need to browse through my blog an read my posts about the events I attended). And believe me, I could not have asked for more! Never in my wildest dreams I imagined that I will be doing what I am doing right now. But God writes our life stories in such a beautiful way when we choose to give Him the pen. 

I have never wanted to work in Europe. But He planted me here. I have never wanted to be a speaker, let alone an international speaker. But He taught me that His strength can be made perfect in my weakness. He showed me once again that He does not call the qualified, but He qualifies the called (just for the record, I do not consider myself a speaker - I like to think that I am sharing what He has been teaching me). And yes, I got to love both Europe and public speaking! I have never thought that life can be so exciting with Him, but believe me, it is! I have never thought I can be single and happy. But here I am, in my early 30s, enjoying life more than ever before and being totally satisfied in Him. I am not worrying a bit about this area of my life and I am determined more than ever to pour out my life in His service. Life has never been sweeter, believe me! And I have never been happier! And I know it is simply because He has my heart and He is my everything. 

I love to pray with people. I love to talk to them and hear their stories. I love to watch Him lead and change their lives, change mine (and believe me, I have seen Him changing so many lives in the last year and a half, mine included). I am so fascinated when I watch Him teach me and others more about Him, about surrender, about allowing Him to be in control of my life, about keeping my eyes on Him. This is my new found passion. 

So, this is what He has been doing in the past year and a half. Best years ever. I would not trade them for anything in the world even though I miss the jungle and my eyes still get moist every time I hear a missionary telling a mission story from a third world country. But I know that right now I am where He wants me to be. And it is enough to make me happy. He might ask me to go somewhere else tomorrow, and I am totally fine with it. I learned to go ahead and follow the cloud. Just like that. No questioning. It is the best thing someone can do. My life is a living proof. I have no regrets for doing that countless times. 

I know that I have been blessed beyond measure. And my words fall short of showing how thankful I am to have Jesus in my life. As you read through my blog I hope that you can get a glimpse of His beauty and fall in love with Him even more. He is worthy of all our love and praise! 

Jesus is everything and enough for me and I pray that He will be everything and enough for you, too!