Stories from our field
Ina Plat: active even in her old age
Stories from our field
Ina Plat: active even in her old age
Ina Plat looks back thankfully on a life dedicated to God. Even now that she is in her old age, she is active in God’s Kingdom – she writes Bible articles for our website biblword.net. She is like ‘a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season, and whose leaf does not wither’.
Already at sixteen, she was actively seeking God’s leading in her life. ‘I prayed from the bottom of my heart, Lord what do You want me to do? After finishing high school, study further? or help my mother (which seemed necessary at the time)? One morning she woke with a Bible verse on her lips, Matthew 28:18-19. Ina, ‘I had no idea what there was in that verse, so I ran downstairs and looked it up in my mother’s Bible. She is the only one with whom I shared this very emotional experience!”
How to follow?
The idea of missions was a remote concept for Ina. A few years later she applied to go to the tropics, unfortunately, she was not accepted. After that she was not sure how she could follow her call to missions. ‘There followed years of wrestling, because I wanted, no matter what it cost, to obey the Lord’, tells Ina.
Gradually, she began to see how she could serve God. It was a search with ups and downs, and waiting for God’s timing. Ina, ‘Later I learned how I could better discover the tasks that God meant for me. Also how to listen to God’s voice.’
Missions closer to young and old
Ina worked with pleasure for ten years as an elementary school teacher. Then she took a step of faith into the unknown and became a PR person for the Zeister Missions Organization. There she was chosen to be the secretary for Rev, Ype Schaaf, by-passing some of the available professionals. Ina assisted him in setting up Bible societies in several African countries.
Afterward, there unfolded a colorful pallet of service, mainly in faith missions. Ina tells, ‘I came with proposals of how you could bring missions closer to young and old. To my great surprise, my ideas were applied nationally and also in the general missions world.
Amongst her projects, Ina held presentations for schools about missions. She also did translation work, among others, also for Corrie ten Boom. Ina. ‘I was also used to show a number of young people the way to the missions field. And I was asked to be a member of the board of what was then named Africa Mission.’
God cleared the way
In the meantime, Ina needed to provide an income and got a part-time job as a remedial teacher. That was special since that position was not yet in existence. ‘The Lord cleared the way for me, as this was an ideal combination of a steady income and much free time that I could spend on missions work,’ tells Ina thankfully. ‘And I can still be involved in my old age.’
Articles for biblword.net
In 2016, a friend gave Ina a magazine where Marten Visser, missions director for GlobalRize asked for co-workers. Ina tells, ‘Since then I started translating articles into English. Eventually, I had the opportunity to write articles myself, too.’ She has written articles about God’s leading, repenting and how to listen to God’s stem.
Someone encouraged her to write up her experiences. She called the bundle, ‘A Bird’s Eye View of the Past”. Ina tells, ‘This retrospect is an expression of thankfulness and great wonder! Wonder about such a mighty God, Who wants to lead His children very personally. To Him be all the glory!’
