Adventures with God in Eastern Europe
“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.
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.
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I was born in Fullerton, California, but my moving adventures began very early. We moved to Ajo, Arizona when I was 3 months old. My dad was a pastor who could deal with difficult church issues. So my life followed a pattern of moving often. I lived in several different cities in California before I was nine years old.
Life changed even more radically when I was nine. My Dad was asked to go to New Zealand to help some churches there. How did my mother fit in with all these circumstances? She was the ideal helpmate. He would sense God’s leading, and she was willingly right by his side, not complaining, but always helping in each different situation. Several times she sensed a move was coming even before my Dad did, but kept silent! What a wonderful example to make it easier for me to be able to move into many different places (not all of them houses, as you would expect) and different schools.
In those next three years, we lived in three places in New Zealand and in two different places in Australia. Yet even within those moves, there were several more moves, often for just two to four weeks. Did we move a lot? I would say so!
How did that work for me with school and friends? My parents never grudgingly said, "We have to go.” Or, “We have to move again.” They always said, "We are able to go to another place, to meet new people, to see new things." They always presented it as a wonderful opportunity. I didn't know until I was married and experiencing my own moves that my Mom had the "dream" while growing up, of getting married and living in one place for her whole life! But my Mom believed that she was to be her husband's Helpmate, and she totally lived that out. A great example for me.
So, I was quite happy and content to move around and live in many different situations and places. Returning to Southern California, we traveled by ship for six weeks. By the time I entered high school, I had been in fifteen different schools in three different countries. No problem! It also made it easier for me during the early years of my husband’s teaching career in four different schools in four different cities in twelve years!
And then, with our four children, between the ages of 5-12, God called us to live in the rainforest jungle of Peru with Wycliffe, a missions organization. We were there for two years. Neal taught in a school for missionary children, and I worked in the radio lab. Totally out of my “comfort zone”, because I am a “people-person”. What was I doing keeping track of and ordering radio parts for airplanes?
"Sometime about the mid 1980s: The first time Yvonne and I met, she welcomed me warmly as if she had known me for ages. I was just a baby Christian. Yvonne was like a shining light, showing Jesus to me in everything she said and did. What a role model! She would regularly drive to several grocery and big box stores who donated their surplus food and supplies, load her station wagon so full there was barely room for her, then drive into Mexico and give it all to the needy. She led groups of Christians into Communist countries, which is not for the weak or faint of heart. When you add smuggling Bibles into that equation, you have a hero of faith. Those of us who are prayer partners watched in awe as God moved His hand again and again to protect Yvonne and her groups. I see Yvonne as a compass pointing true north, straight to Jesus." ~~~Wanda Miller
"For decades I have observed Yvonne's life of sacrifice. Her godly example of strength and devotion to the Lord has been inspiring to many. Her steadfast character has lived out Matthew 28:19, "Go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Whether on the mission field or in her home this powerhouse woman has championed many for the kingdom of God." ~~~Carmen Morales
"I have known Yvonne for over forty years. The thing that has linked us together is our faith in the Lord and our desire to serve Him. I believe she is a woman after God's own heart. She has a wonderful and warm ministry of hospitality. Their home is a resting place for many weary travelers. She is "quietly" strong, humble, caring, generous and loving. She is a good listener and has wisdom to share when asked. She and I have shared joys and sorrows, lunches and laughter, prayer requests and "girl talk". She is my friend and I treasure the times we been given for fellowship and sharing our faith walks with each other." ~~~Lois Adams
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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