Stories from our field
“I can’t imagine that God would hear me”
There is rejoicing in heaven for every sinner who repents. Sometimes God lets us take part in this when it happens. That happened to one of our German mentors, Dorkas. She recently was a witness to two women accepting Jesus as their Savior, during her time as their mentor for GlobalRize. This is Dorkas’ story.
One of the women is Jana (not her actual name), in her mid-twenties. Four months ago, she began the BibleBasics course because she was seeking God after the death of her father.
She was also looking for a Christian church. She wrote to me in the beginning that she still had her doubts because she didn’t know Jesus well, but she was looking for new hope.
In answer to one of the questions in the course, she wrote, “I don’t think my heart is evil because I only want the best for other people. I want everyone to be happy and have peace. I wish everyone the best.”
Jesus needed as Savior
Then I shared with her about myself, how God let me see my own wrongs through His Word. After that, Jana began to see and recognize the sin in her own life more and more. A couple of weeks later, she wrote to me, “I am quick to sin. Therefore, I need forgiveness and to focus on God.”
But she found it difficult to talk to Jesus. She was raised as an atheist and had never prayed before. She increasingly realized that she needed Jesus as her Savior.
God’s gift
One day she wrote that she had started to pray and that Jesus was now her Savior. A bit later she wrote, “I really believe that accepting Jesus as Savior is the best thing you can do! Sometimes, I ask myself how I ever lived before without God. Now I notice how much I really need God; without Him you feel totally lost!”
Revelation
A bit later I got Anna as a student (not her actual name). She also began the BibleBasics course. A little while before that, she had been at a church’s open day and she was attracted to the love of those people. She had never personally talked to God and wrote to me about that, “I don’t think that I know exactly what I need to do… and I can’t imagine that God would hear me.”
She listened to the Bible on an audiobook and really found Revelation to be interesting. It is truly unique to explain the Gospel from the book of Revelation!
Do you do this for free?
During the course’s lesson about the sacrifices, something became clear to her, “We can only accept this gift if we completely believe in Jesus. That is where I am now. I’ve always believed in God, but I didn’t see much in Jesus, but I’m beginning to understand more.” She wanted her name to be written in the Book of Life, too, and accept Jesus, but she wrote that something was still missing at a personal level.
Then she really started to talk to Jesus, and wrote to me that now she was sure that she was His and believed in Him. Last week she was baptized.
She wrote to me at the end of the course, “Do you do this for free… working as a mentor? I am really impressed and sure that it helps many people. I see it for myself. I am so happy that you are here and I can ask you all my questions! The course was wonderful, especially for beginners something like this is so important. I am thankful that I got to know you. You have really helped me!”
Answer to prayer
It is special as a mentor to be able to help other people on their way to God and to be able to accompany them and see how they begin to understand Jesus more.
A couple of days ago, a woman who is seeking God wrote, ‘Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to learn. Thank you for your attention. Thank you, God, for hearing and answering my prayers. I had told God that I couldn’t find my way in the Bible and asked Him to help me.’
Wonderful that we can be the answer to someone’s prayer!
