Yvonne Pirolo
Oh No! not me.
Adventures with God in Eastern Europe
Yes!
“Oh no, not me! This is not going to happen! This is way out of my comfort zone! This door is firmly closed! I will never consider leading a ministry team. Neal,” I cried, hoping for some support from my husband, “I have never traveled anywhere without you.”
As if ignoring all that I was saying, he thought for a moment, looked at Jeff and said, “She’ll do it!” The more people he told that I was leading a team this summer, the more I yelled, “No, I am not!” I thought they were wrong about this crazy idea. And for sure I did not even need to pray about it!
One Sunday after church, I saw him talking with a couple. I heard him say, “Oh, here she is now. You can talk with her about her trip.” I think I hit him!
The next day, finally, while walking and praying, I decided that I should ask God if He wanted me to do this crazy thing, ninety-nine percent positive that He did not!
I began my prayer with confidence: “God, I am sure You know that Neal and Jeff are crazy to think that I could lead a team to Eastern Europe. I have never done anything like this. I am not good at directions. I can’t read maps! I have never gone anywhere without my husband. But, Lord, he seems so sure that this is in Your plans for me. So, I thought I had better ask You.”
Within ten minutes I knew that the answer was YES!
Who would have thought that the Berlin Wall coming down would be an “open door” for Yvonne. Kicking and fighting the idea all the way to, finally, her asking God what He thought about it, she has found leading ACTS Ministry Trips one of the delights of her life! Her first teams were to Eastern Europe. Leading her first team to China came by an equally dramatic encounter.
Her gentle manner of inviting people to consider joining her was soon changed once they said “yes”. Off came the velvet glove revealing her iron fist.
- You have full knowledge from God that whatever happens, you know that He has directed you on this trip.
- You have a solid prayer, financial and reentry team supporting you on this trip.
- You will participate in rigorous pre-field training, particularly in interpersonal relationships and spiritual warfare.
- You will carry all of your personal belongings in one carry-on and one handbag.
- You will eat what is set before you. And “enjoy” it!
- You will…!
That being said kinda “tongue in cheek,” her teams loved her, learned from her and thanked her for the opportunity. Many have returned, and returned again, for another trip. Covid cut short a trip planned and paid for. Will she lead another? She says, “Definitely not! I am 85 years old.” But as the doors open again, there may be a stirring and a yen for more adventure.
Her diligence in keeping a careful log of each trip has made her writing these stories a pleasant journey down memory lane. She trusts you will find them enjoyable and maybe challenging to stir you out of any possible “comfort zone” to fulfill God’s best in your life.
OH NO! NOT ME.
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YVONNE PIROLO
Autobiography
Let me briefly mention five more major, totally out-of-my-comfort-zone experiences that I am sure helped to prepare me to lead ministry trips. Graduating from college: Our second son was born on a Monday. I had completed my first semester classes of my senior year early. I began my second semester six days after Greg was born! I graduated that spring.
Tupperware: I would “never” get in front of a group of ladies to sell this or any product. But I did, and I really enjoyed it. In fact, they wanted me to come on full time and be a regional manager. Teaching first grade: Yes, the students had run off two teachers by the end of the first semester. The church Board said, “It’s all yours!” My husband, as principal, helped a lot! A weekend in the jungles of Brazil: My husband and I were on a flight to bring supplies to two linguists. The float plane landed. I was helped onto the dock. My husband followed with a small suitcase in his hand. He calmly told me that I was staying with them for the weekend! I learned how to bathe in a dugout canoe in the river. I had to mark the trees with chalk if I wandered from the thatch-roofed hut or I would never find my way back.
Buy term and invest the difference: Yes, I also reluctantly but with the encouragement of our oldest son, began selling term life insurance. Again, though only working a few nights a month, I was soon awarded “Most Valuable Player” and asked to come on full time as a manager! It was great, until one evening God said, “This is your last appointment.”
Invited back to California by Chuck Smith, Neal started Maranatha Christian Academy, the elementary school for Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa. After two years, we are off again! We were invited to “please go and fill in an emergency education situation for Wycliffe in Brazil.” We were in Brazil within ten weeks after the invitation. During the two and a half years there, Neal was the principal, and I ran the group home where between 12-18 single people lived all the time. Was it uneventful? No! We all had hepatitis. Our son, Byron, drowned, but was miraculously healed. There was much demonic oppression, as the Macumba, "spirit-worshipers" put sacrifices at the gate of the Wycliffe center at night, in an attempt to put curses on the Wycliffe people.
Like my mother’s dream of living in one place her whole life, my husband had a dream of retiring from teaching at 65 and living out our retirement years in a sailing vessel in San Diego harbor. Well, we did get to San Diego, but it was for Neal to direct the San Diego School of Evangelism. I enjoyed teaching classes there. Later, Neal started Emmaus Road International, a missions resource agency for cross-cultural ministry. One aspect was a pre-field training program conducted in Tijuana, where we both taught. I think you are beginning to get the picture: One thing has led to another, and another! We began traveling together, visiting missionaries and then the time came for me to lead my first ministry team: “Oh no! Not me,” I yelled. You can read about my first trips, to Europe, in the book, OH NO! NOT ME.
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