THE PULSE
MY TURN: Called home on mission from Tanzania By Kim Feldner I
had never been more certain of my calling in life than when I boarded a plane to spend a semester studying abroad in the east African country of Tanzania. Prior to that trip, at the age of 19, I took my first trip out of the U.S. to serve with a collegiate ministry team in India. By the time that trip was over, I committed myself with cer- tainty to a life of serving God in foreign missions. I returned to school that fall and began taking the steps to follow this newfound calling: changing my major to International Studies, applying to study abroad and studying Swahili to prepare for my time in the African nation I wanted to serve. Before long I was packing my bags and heading to Tanzania into what I thought was my future. It’s funny how God sometimes reveals His plans to us in the midst of us living out what we believed those plans to be. As my time in Tanzania ticked away, so did my certainty of a life in foreign missions. Slowly God began changing my heart and soon I began to struggle with it. Did I ever really understand what God’s call on my life was? Why would God send me all the way to Africa only to reveal to me His desire to use me back in the states? Or did He call me here for the
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onmission.com
simple purpose of this revelation? I wrestled with this idea for most of my time in Africa, and in the end, boarded my plane home to the U.S. with the same certainty in a new calling to a mission field at home. Once home I began my work with the collegiate ministry of the
University of Cincinnati. I just completed my two-year stint as a missionary to the university’s women. In my time there my weeks were filled with building relationships with these young women. I did everything from one-on-one prayers to quarterly girls’ nights to jogs in the park. God is certainly lifting up a group of mighty women at the University of Cincinnati. I’m honored just to have been a part of helping them grow in strength and evangelistic zeal on their campus. When I think back now on my time in Africa, I see God’s faithfulness in sending me there and bringing me home. Now I couldn’t imagine it any other way.
Kim Feldner recently completed her term as a collegiate missionary serving at the University of Cincinnati. She now works at Lakota Hills Baptist Church in West Chester, Ohio, and continues to volunteer in collegiate ministry on the U.C. campus.
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