‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways,’ says the LORD;
Isaiah 55:8
My name is Nadja Goldberg (née Penner) and I have been here in Bolivia since 26 October 2019 to help with Betesda.
I have often experienced the truth expressed in the Bible verse above throughout my life.
Having grown up as a non-believer, though brought up with some Christian values, I was never particularly interested in God. Yet for me, His existence was actually never really in doubt. A perfectly normal life, just like everyone else’s – that was my idea of it. Getting married, having children, growing old, and then, at some point, dying.
I got married in May 2009 at the age of 22 and, even more significantly, in August, by God’s grace, I was converted and freed from the tormenting thought: ‘Will I stand before God?’ This life-changing event, however, threw my marriage into turmoil. Mission work had been a recurring thought over the last few years, but my life circumstances seemed to me to be an insurmountable obstacle.
My prayer at the start of 2019 was to have the opportunity to take part in a mission trip whilst on holiday. It wasn’t long before I was asked to join a building mission in May – as a cook in Bolivia.
Right from the start, I felt at home in this country and in the colonies amongst the Low German-speaking communities; it was as if I’d been transported back 100 years. Here, I experienced what my parents had told me about life in Russia.
On the very first day, I was told that help was needed in Santa Cruz at Betesda. This news occupied my thoughts for two weeks, and I went home with the idea of returning to Bolivia.
Is this the right path for me? A friend told me that I should simply take the first step and that God would guide everything else and open – or even close – doors.
No sooner said than done: once I arrived in Germany, I took the first steps, having personally reached the conviction that this was God’s guidance, and all the doors opened, and here I am back in Bolivia.
What seemed to me to be an insurmountable obstacle was no obstacle at all for my great God. Glory be to Him, that He chooses to use us unworthy people to carry His message of salvation out into the world.
