Shortly after she returned to the States for furlough, her brother, who identified as gay, took his own life, forever turning Anna’s world upside down and confirming the nudge she had felt to move back to the U.S. after nine years of serving in Togo.
Over the years, a burden had been growing in Anna’s heart for LGBTQ individuals, but the sudden loss of her brother gave her a deeper understanding of the often-masked inner conflict that lies underneath the surface of one’s proclaimed identity. Ultimately, God led her to ABWE’s Heart, Mind, & Soul: LGBTQ Seminar. Hearing the seminar content and then becoming a part of the seminar team has been a healing and redemptive gift.
The opportunity to be a part of a seminar that teaches how to build grace-and-truth relationships with lost LGBTQ individuals, while weaving in parts of her brother’s story that honor his life, is evidence of the fact that God doesn’t waste pain. Anna desires that God would use her involvement with the seminar to point others to the unshakeable hope of Christ in the midst of heartache.
In addition to serving with these seminars, she is working with an outreach ministry to international students in her hometown of Orlando, Fla. Many of these students who are coming to college campuses in America are from unreached parts of the world, having never heard of Jesus Christ.
The opportunity to reach the nations, by discipling these students in the U.S. and sending them back to their countries as leaders, excites Anna.
Anna especially desires to help believers in North America cultivate God’s eyes and his heart for spiritually lost individuals that go unnoticed in the U.S., right where Americans live, work, and play.
Because of this, Anna has joined ABWE’s EveryEthnē team, which focuses on reaching people groups and planting churches within the US. She is grateful for this undeserved grace to serve as a presenter with the Heart, Mind & Soul: LGBTQ Seminar team.
Editor’s Note: Learn more about Anna’s ministry here.
