why we said yes

i said yes to trusting God- part 1

by jadine fritzler
missionary to belize

“So, are you going to be a missionary in Africa someday?” my friend asked me one day in the bathroom of our high school. I was 17 years old, and I was that Christian girl- the one who carried her Bible, a great, big one, on top of all her books. The one who wore a two-inch-high cross on a chain around her neck. The one everyone knew was a Christian. Even so, my reply was immediate and left no room for doubt. “Me? No way!”

I had lived a very insulated life. I grew up in farm country, in southeastern Wisconsin, and was the oldest of six children. Our family never traveled anywhere except 4 hours north to my grandparents’ every summer. Traveling to and living in another continent thousands of miles away was the furthest thing from my mind. I rarely went to other people’s houses, except for a couple of cousins’ homes. When I was in fourth grade, I was assigned to work on a science fair project with a new student named Klaus. Klaus’ parents had come from Germany and I knew they spoke German in their home. When his mother called my mom to ask if I could go to their house to work on the project, I begged my mom not to make me go. No, I was definitely not missionary material. At least not the way I saw it.

However, about five years after that conversation with my friend happened, things started to change for me. I was now in my junior year of Bible school, pursuing a degree in Christian education, and beginning to date a fellow student. His name was Craig, and he was a missions major. To his credit, he told me immediately that he was called to be a missionary, and specifically felt called to Liberia, West Africa, where he had spent five months after high school. If our relationship was to continue, he needed to know that I was open to missions.

I prayed for guidance. I felt no check, heard no warning bells. I thought, “God called Abram, and his wife went along. I can do that.” So, I told Craig I was good with his call to missions. I would join him. But I still thought of it as “his” call to missions, not my own.

We were married between our junior and senior years. My activities and my friendships became more missions-focused. I read missionary books and listened carefully to missionary speakers on campus. Craig and I hung out with other missions majors. After graduation, the next step, which was mandatory at that time, would be serving in ministry in the United States before going to the foreign mission field.

We moved to a tiny town in Nebraska to serve as youth pastors for a year. Our first daughter was born there. When she was six weeks old, we headed to northern Minnesota, where Craig was associate pastor. I became pregnant with our second daughter there… and Craig began talking about making plans to go to Liberia when we completed our two years at the church.

I’ll confess, during these years after Bible college, I had been hoping Craig had forgotten about his call to Liberia- or that God had changed his mind. Obviously, that had not happened. I never told Craig I didn’t want to go. I just tuned out whenever he talked about preparations we needed to make. If I ignored it, maybe it would just go away. But it wasn’t going away.

One of my ministries at the church was a Bible study for young moms. We were studying Myrna Alexander’s Behold Your God: Studies on the Attributes of God. One day I was preparing the lesson and at the same time, thinking of how much I did not want to go to Africa. Why couldn’t we stay where we were? I thought. The people in the church liked us and we liked them. There were lots of young families, and many little ones for our girls to grow up with. And Africa was so far away. There were too many dangers there. How could I take my babies to Africa?

Suddenly, I “heard” God’s voice through these words which were instantly imprinted on my mind: “If you really believe I am the God who is present everywhere, can’t you believe that I will be with you in Africa? If I am all-powerful here, I am all-powerful there. You can trust me to be the same there as I am here.” With these words, I broke. I finally surrendered, and I gave God my yes. “Yes, God, I will go to Africa. We will be missionaries in Liberia. I will do this for you.” I said it and I meant it with my whole heart. But I was sure that I would hate it. My surrender fully included the certainty that I would be miserable for Jesus.

to be continued…

read part 2 of jadine’s story

Jadine and Craig Fritzler have served as missionaries in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea, and Cameroon. Since 2007 they have been missionaries in Belize, Central America. Five years ago, God led Jadine to open Hope for Life, a pregnancy help center in the capital city, Belmopan. Of all the places they’ve been and ministries they’ve been involved with, Jadine says that this is the most exciting opportunity she’s had to introduce women to Jesus and make a difference in their lives!

To find out more about Jadine’s ministry, check out her page: https://www.facebook.com/hopeforlifebelize/

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becoming God’s version of me- part 3

by holly j. clemente
missionary to mexico

The fear was back in full swing as I faced the gravity of the decision I was making. Not only were my thoughts filled with doubts, but I also heard each one of those doubts echoed back by well-meaning friends and family members. How could I move to another country at 18 years old, all by myself? Not just any other country, but a country that is often portrayed as a scary and dangerous place! I didn’t speak Spanish beyond simple greetings and phrases. I disliked Mexican food and flavors so much so that when my family visited local Mexican restaurants, I always ordered the hamburger. Even the mild salsa was too spicy for me! Even though my relationship with God had undergone a transformation, I was still the same, shy girl that I had always been. I didn’t have an adventurous bone in my body. Added to all that, my family was going through a crisis, and I felt that leaving would be jumping ship- abandoning them when they needed me the most.

I came to the realization that I had more than enough valid excuses that anyone would understand if I changed my mind. My reasons would be so easy to justify. Simply saying something like, “I realized that God is calling me to something different,” or “Missions is not for me, but I will pursue other ministry opportunities,” could easily get me off the hook and while leaving my spiritual dignity in tact. As I wrestled with my doubts and questions, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that while my family and friends would understand my excuses and perhaps even applaud them, God had spoken to me and I couldn’t run from it or deny it. He wanted more for me. He was calling me to something deeper than I had ever experienced, bigger than I could understand. Yet, He was giving me the space to make whatever decision I saw fit. He wasn’t going to force me. Oh, but he wooed me. He pursued me with His presence, revelations of His love for me, and the promise that He would go before and behind me on every step of my journey. He would never leave or forsake me to finish things on my own.

In the end, it was God’s loving pursuit of me that brought me to a decision, one that I was unwaveringly sure of. I was ready to find out what God had for me, and I knew I could trust Him with the answers of all the unknowns. Just two months after my high school graduation, I moved to Mexico. I left my family, my friends, and all that was familiar behind. I went with all my doubts and questions, only sure that I was going with a God who would be faithful to lead me.

I said yes to God, and that led to another yes, and yet another still. Living in a foreign country and culture will drive you closer to God as nothing else will. You realize how entirely useless you are when you lose the ability to do simple things like ordering your own food or knowing where to go to buy what you need. You know loneliness like never before when you are unable to express your most basic thoughts and feelings to those around you. In the unfamiliarity of my new life, I realized that God was constant. I could rely on Him in my new, pronounced weaknesses, and He was faithful to provide. He provided understanding of the language. He provided friends who could walk with me and learn to navigate the unknown with. He provided the deepest of love for a people and culture that I adopted as my own. He provided miraculously for my financial needs. He provided strength as I adapted to new climate, new foods, and new ideas. But most importantly, He became my everything. Everything I lacked, everything I needed, I found in Him.

It would take far too long for me to lay out all the different things that I experienced and the trials that I faced. I will probably share more pieces of those stories in future blog posts. But what I really want to leave you with here is what I started with in the very first post. In and of ourselves, we can do little. Our weaknesses often dissuade us from following God to something new, something bigger. To many of us, the word missions evokes thoughts of something way too big for us, far beyond our own abilities to learn and to cope, and I think that too often we dismiss the Great Commission as something that is only for a special, select few. We think it is far too hard for the ordinary people, people like you and me. But God’s mission is unequivocally for all of us. What is too hard for ordinary people is easy with God’s power. What is impossible for us, is always possible for God.

Saying yes to God isn’t always easy. Over the years I have made it a habit, but there are still opportunities I miss, still times when I look to my abilities and weaknesses before considering God’s power and greatness. But saying yes to God has transformed my life completely. The timid girl at the beginning of my story who avoided the new and exciting, now lives a life filled with drama, adventure, travel, and new experiences. I laugh as I write this, because sometimes it’s even a little hard for me to believe what my life has become. But the most amazing thing to me is that even though all the adventure has always been outside of my comfort zone, I feel totally secure. Leaving family and friends and my comfort zone gave me the most beautiful thing I have ever known- the knowledge that God is my everything. With Him before me and behind me, I can be anywhere in the world and more at home than ever before.

Wherever you are, whatever life you are living today, you can be sure that God has called you to be part of His mission. You may think that you are incapable, but believe me when I say that God is more than capable to lead you wherever He sees fit. Take that step. Say yes to Him. And you will experience a freedom that you never thought possible.

read part 1 of holly’s story

read part 2 of holly’s story

Holly Joy Clemente has always had a passion to see others get involved in the Great Commission. She prayed and dreamed of a way to use her writing to that end, and God gave her the vision for this blog. Her hope is that others will be encouraged and inspired to trust God and step out in faith when it comes to leaving comfort zones for the sake of the Gospel.

You can find out more about her writing at: https://www.facebook.com/hollyjclemente/

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becoming God’s version of me- part 2

by holly j. clemente
missionary to mexico

The initial yes to the “more” that God had for me was exhilarating, but I didn’t have any idea where it was taking me. It started out as a sort of free-for-all, and I began jumping at every chance and opportunity available to me. I felt this indescribable excitement about serving God as much as possible, and to me the most logical starting point was youth group.

I started attending every single service and event, including all-night prayer meetings and retreats. When I felt like that wasn’t enough, I went to my youth pastor and asked him if there was anything else I could help out with in the youth ministry. He told me that he wanted to start a drama team, and I volunteered on the spot to start it- even though I had no experience at all in drama, and prior to this I had been terrified of acting of any kind! I signed up to be on the evangelism team which would meet to share Jesus with strangers on the street, at the mall, and outside of heavy metal concerts. Our youth pastor put out a sign up sheet for youth to preach at youth group on Sunday nights, and I put my name in the first slot available. All of this seemed way outside of my comfort zone, and without the Holy Spirit as part of the equation, it definitely was. However, with the empowering of the Holy Spirit, I was no longer afraid to move outside of my natural gifts and break off some of the name tags that I had been wearing for my whole life. The amazing thing to me in all of this was that I never felt obligated to be at church or to participate in more activities. I wanted to be there, I wanted to learn and grow, and this desire was just bubbling out of me, moving me into new challenges and saying new yeses with excitement instead of fear.

As I prepared to enter my senior year of high school, my mind worked busily at answering the big question of what would come next for me. I had always seen studying at university level as a logical choice- I was a good student with excellent grades and a great chance for scholarships to help me to continue my education. Yet this new fire within me to share the good news of the Gospel would not be ignored. I started to question all of my previously laid plans and began looking for Bible schools and internships that would prepare me for ministry. I had no idea what kind of ministry I would want to do- I only knew that I did not want to return to my previously complacent version of Christianity. I was surrounded by people who needed to know God’s love and plan for our salvation, and I needed to be part of getting the message to them.

During my last summer of high school, I had the opportunity to participate in a short term missions trip to El Carmen, Nuevo Leon, Mexico (near the big city of Monterrey). I was instantly intrigued with the idea since I had actually gone on a short term trip to Mexico when I was 12, and had always dreamed of someday returning. This trip seemed like a perfect opportunity to share God’s love with more people, so there was no question in my mind that I should sign up for the trip and what I was sure would be another God-adventure. I joyfully said yes to God, and signed up and raised the money for the trip, never knowing how profoundly this mission trip would change my entire life.

When we landed in Monterrey, Mexico at the beginning of that trip, God did something in my heart that even all these years later I still can’t explain. We were walking off that plane after my very first flight, and my eyes filled with inexplicable tears. I felt the strangest feeling in the middle of the most unfamiliar place I had ever known- I felt like I had come home. It was such an odd sensation that I couldn’t quite understand. In the middle of a place where I became acquainted with huge, scary cockroaches, sweltering heat and scorching sun, majestic, rocky mountains, and a new language that I could only hope to someday understand, I heard God whisper, “This is where I want you to be.” I didn’t understand it at all. Part of me felt that God couldn’t be more wrong and the other part of me doubted that I was hearing God at all. None of it made sense, but every single night that we had a time of worship and prayer with our missions team, the tears returned. My entire team probably thought I was crying from homesickness, but the reality was that I was feeling things that I didn’t know how to explain, and crying seemed the only way to process those feelings.

The next step for me became clear when the missionary whose ministry we were partnering with during our trip spoke to our team and challenged us to give up our first year after high school to the Lord. “There will never be another time in your life when you will be without other obligations and commitments. You don’t have a career to worry about or a family to provide for… and you can set aside six months or a whole year to serve God in your local church, a local ministry, or alongside a missionary.” God put immediate affirmation in my heart, and I knew what I was supposed to do next.

After the trip, I arrived home a different person. I don’t think that my poor parents were prepared for that. They had been excited about me having a missions experience, but they weren’t expecting that experience to change my life- or theirs, for that matter. I didn’t waste much time, and soon I excitedly told them my plans. I told them how the missionary had challenged us to give up our first year after high school to the Lord, and I had decided that that was exactly what God wanted me to do. There was an opportunity to teach English classes at the small Christian school in El Carmen, which was part of the ministry that we had visited and worked with during our short term trip. It was a door that I was ready to walk through, even though I didn’t know where it would lead. After months of struggling over the decision of what to do after high school, I finally felt peace. This was IT. This was the next yes that I had to say to God, and this one I was ready to shout from the rooftop. Yes, YES, YES!!!!

I felt so strong and full of faith. I felt so sure of this yes. Yet I saw the startled look in my parents’ eyes, and the shock that they tried to hide. I never expected fear, my old, familiar companion, to return in the middle of this new, empowered obedience on my part, but there he was, staring me in the face. Reminding me all over again why I definitely wasn’t qualified to do this.

to be continued…

read part 3 of holly’s story

read part 1 of holly’s story

You can find out more about her writing at: https://www.facebook.com/hollyjclemente/

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becoming God’s version of me- part 1

by holly j. clemente
missionary to mexico

The girl with her head down all the way in the back of the classroom? That was me. The teenager that was sick for days before a speech or an oral report? Me again. That awkward girl that preferred to spend evenings at home alone with her nose in a book instead of attending school parties and dances? You guessed it. All me. Being behind the scenes and under the radar was my comfort zone. I was expert at sailing through life, doing what I was told, keeping out of trouble, and avoiding adventure. I would’ve been content to live my entire life in my hometown, close to church, family, and my small group of friends. But then God met me- and everything changed.

I grew up in a home where Christianity was not just a religion, but a lifestyle born out of personal relationship with Jesus. From my earliest memories, I remember praying and worshiping God, and trusting Him for my salvation. My love for God was very real, and as a young child I felt a strong pull to the mission field. To my understanding, there could be no higher calling than giving up everything to tell people about Jesus.

As I transitioned from child to teen, my childlike faith and innocence began to succumb under the weight of my personality, my temperament, and my shortcomings. The shyest girl in the Midwest could think of nothing more intimidating than giving up everything familiar just to reach people with the Gospel. Add to that the challenges of learning a new language and a new culture as well as the idea that missions would (gasp!) include meeting and speaking to new people… somewhere along the way, the desire to be a missionary was thrown out the window. I decided that I could just as well serve God with my timid faith right where I was. I could worship with my church family, get involved by serving in the nursery, and love God in my own home with a strong, but very private, variety of faith.

Somehow, I think we have all been in that place. Whether you are like me and see similarities in our stories, or you are the polar-opposite of me and you thrive on action, adventure, and extroverted-ness, we all have the tendency to conform to what we know about ourselves and who we think we are. We believe that we can only thrive in our desired comfort zones, and whether we are the life of the party, the world-changer, the adventurer, or the bookworm, we get comfortable in those roles and begin to build our lives around the variety of name tags that have become part of our identities. In the midst of me becoming comfortable with myself, qualifying my weaknesses by believing that I simply was being the person that God had created me to be, God showed up. He wasn’t going to let me get away with my excuses. God is just that patient. He gives us all an unlimited number of opportunities during our lifetimes to say yes to Him. In the middle of high school busyness, college planning, and part-time jobs, He gave me another chance to say yes to His mission.

I don’t know what you believe about the Holy Spirit and His role in believers lives today, but I need to tell you about an encounter I had with Him. I was at a youth service at church, and truth be told, my parents had forced me to attend. I would’ve been much more content, not to mention at ease, to stay in my shell and remain home on a Sunday night (probably watching NFL football). However, my parents felt that I needed to get more involved at church and they thought that the youth group would be a good place to start. I went to the service that night in September, dragging my feet a bit, but soon intrigued by the message. The pastor was sharing from the book of Acts and as I began to listen and reflect on stories of the Apostles that I had heard many times before, I was deeply convicted. I felt like I had come face to face with my wimpy version of Christianity and that God was saying, “I have more for you!” I could see in God’s Word how the power of the Holy Spirit had changed Jesus’ fearful disciples into mighty apostles willing to face torture or death for the sake of Christ… and I KNEW that I didn’t have that. I was not even willing to talk to the new kid at school. Or the stranger down the street. There was no way that I could follow Christ like a true disciple. The calling didn’t fit my personality. My gifts were not fit for a life of ministry.

Yet something inside of me broke with that realization. And the pain from the knowledge that as much as I professed love for God I would not be willing to give up much at all for Him, startled me out of my complacency. In a desperate moment, feeling like I was the lowest, most unworthy Christian possible, I decided to say yes to God’s whisper that He had more for me. It was perhaps the first time since my childhood that I willingly decided to give up my will for whatever God had for me. In that moment, I became acquainted with the Holy Spirit. It is difficult to explain a supernatural encounter with natural words. I know there were tears and so many emotions as I felt a tangible, holy presence filling me with a passion and a courage that I had never felt before.

Some could disqualify this spiritual experience as something born out of emotion and perhaps peer pressure as many other teens that night seemed to have a similar experience. However, there is a deep certainty in me that knows that my experience was really an encounter with God that night. I know it because that night changed me. The yes that I gave to God in that moment opened a door to greater decisions and bigger opportunities to say yes. I was still the same girl with the same temperament and the same personality, but the fear that I had felt for so long to speak, the shyness which was more a product of my fear of others’ reactions to me than of my actual personality, disappeared. In that moment, I realized that God’s mission was greater than my own plans, and the inner me was finally ready to get on board. The outer me… well, that would have to catch up with the inner me as I began the new journey of saying yes.

to be continued…

read part 2 of holly’s story

You can find out more about her writing at: https://www.facebook.com/hollyjclemente/

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saying yes

by holly j. clemente
missionary to mexico

As a kid, missionaries were my heroes. Their tales of adventure, stories of faith, and experiences of the supernatural realm and last-minute miracles made them seem larger than life to me. I certainly put them on a higher spiritual plane in my mind, somewhere between God himself and the great saints of the Bible.

Today, missionaries are still my heroes, but now that I am one myself I realize that none of us are extraordinary or more spiritual than anyone else. Being a missionary is more about being obedient enough to give up home and family and familiarity simply because you realize that God’s vision and mission are greater than your own. It’s about saying yes. Of course there is the initial yes, the big yes when you take that great step into the unknown and commit to serving the Lord in another culture or abroad, but there are also thousands of other yeses that must be said everyday. In the mundane, in the normal, in the difficult, and in the comfortable seasons are when the yeses sometimes matter the most.

I have been blessed to visit and be part of many churches that honor missionaries and feel privileged to give to and support missions work in local and foreign fields. It makes my heart happy to see my childhood and current heroes being honored and esteemed in this way. However, I feel that too often people from sending churches see missionaries the way I used to- as people who are far above the trials and temptations of everyday life, as people who are on their way to achieving well-deserved sainthood with their good, virtuous living and their great sacrifice.

The purpose of this blog series is to give you, the sending Church, a candid look at real missionaries and their true stories. As the stories unfold, you will share in the grief, the tough decisions, the heartache, and the passion of missionaries who are real people that have simply decided to say yes to God. At every twist and turn, you will see how God’s greatness and faithfulness is the common factor that sustains His servants and transforms the most difficult and dangerous situations into amazing revelations of His power and glory. As you read these stories, our hope is that you will realize that you also have what it takes to say yes to God’s mission. It is not only for those aspiring to sainthood, but it is for you. It is for the overwhelmed mom. The struggling student. The frustrated parent. The jealous sibling. The underachiever. The weakest of the weak. Because when it comes down to it, saying yes has nothing at all to do with you or your talents or your abilities or your current living situation. Its all about realizing how great God is and how worthy He and His mission are of your yes.

true missionary stories

You can find out more about her writing at: https://www.facebook.com/hollyjclemente/

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