Adaline, International Mission Board —Asia Pacific

Join us in thanking God for how He has been revealing Himself to Adaline* in the waiting! She grew up at Taylors First Baptist and first felt called to missions as a child. She interned in the Reach Office the summer of 2023 and then graduated from Anderson University in 2024. Last fall she left for a three-year term in Asia.

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Waiting

Be still, and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10

Be still. Stillness is uncanny. In nature, it is the silent steps of a lion before their prey. It is the jungle when the birds stop chirping. It is the stillness of the waves before a tsunami. In our lives, it is tapping a pencil before the start of an exam, the inpatient stop at a red light, or the pacing in a hospital waiting room. People typically don’t like waiting. We like action, movement, purpose. And yet, stillness and waiting is the very thing our God often asks of us to do.

As I write this, I have been in my new home country for one month, and on the field for almost five months. I have spent nearly all that time waiting. And I praise God for it. The moment I arrived overseas I wanted to share the Gospel with any local I could find. But I slowly started to realize that my expectations, even the ones I hadn’t known existed, would not transform into reality. I couldn’t speak the language; I didn’t know anyone here. And, after a brief one-day orientation, I began studying language full time. Which meant for 8 hours a day, I wasn’t walking around sharing the Gospel, being discipled and discipling others, but I was studying words that floated around a page like oil swirling in a rain puddle.

Being still requires you to lay down your expectations, lay down your plans, and rest in the spaces God wants to work. On a recent plane ride, I sat next to a Muslim girl with a similar background as me and we immediately started talking and sharing our experiences. After take-off, our conversation grew quiet, but I desperately wanted to share the Gospel with her before we landed. She put on her headphones, pulled out a book, and settled in for the flight, while I prayed a silent request to the Lord. Father, I nearly whispered. I don’t know how to do this; I don’t know how to tell her the Gospel message. But if you will give me an open door, I will share with her. It was a simple prayer. One I had prayed many times before, in desperation and exhaustion. This time, before the word amen had time to enter my thoughts, the woman took off her headphones and turned to me asking, “If you don’t mind me asking, are you a Christian?” I was so astonished, I genuinely stuttered out my yes. The conversation led to a full Gospel presentation and an invitation to their home for dinner. What I find striking about that experience, was that I had been trying to find a way into a Gospel conversation the entire time we had been talking to no avail. It was only after seeking how the Lord wanted to move did I have the opportunity to evangelize.

The Lord has been teaching me to be still in this waiting. In my new country, I have been waiting for visa plans to fall into place, a new language teacher, and a house or apartment. But even here, the Lord has sweetly brought believers into my life that join me in our collective call to the nations. He has introduced me to groups of native non-believers who desperately need to hear the Gospel. He has made it abundantly clear that I am not alone and that though my task is far too great, far too heavy and far too impossible – He has not asked me to carry it out alone. I truly can praise God for the waiting.

I have two questions for you as I close.

Firstly, will you join me in prayer as I continue to wait upon the Lord? Especially, I pray for direction on a visa platform, and a strong community to support me. I am also praying for another young woman to join me from the US in partnership with our team to reach this nation for Christ. And praise the Lord with me for a new home!

Secondly, how can you identify ways the Lord is asking you to wait and ways He is asking you to move? Where is the Lord already working to reach unbelievers with the hope of the Gospel, and how can you, in bold faith, join Him in that effort?

Thank you for your support and prayers. May God bless each of you.

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*Name changed for security.