SALVATION TESTIMONY
God graciously allowed me to grow up in a home and childhood church (Wintonbury Church) where I heard the Gospel from birth and was taught the Bible. At 5 years old I remember praying with my mom and asking Jesus into heart.
Yet in my tween/early teen years, I went through a season of doubt and depression. To be clear, I never doubted God or His ability to forgive my sins and make me part of His family. Rather I doubted whether those simple words of a 5 year-old really counted, and whether I was really God's child. I feared death. Yet the battle with depression sometimes made me wish life was over. Through all those years I was too proud to talk to anyone about my doubts or depression and so things kept mounting. Satan wanted me to stay in doubt. But praise God, God is all-powerful, and He is able to free us. After a near nervous breakdown, God reminded me He is the one who did everything necessary for salvation. He is the one who saves us. He gave me assurance that I am His child. Since that day, August 2, 1998, I never again doubted that I am forgiven and part of God's family, and I never again feared death. He holds me safe in the palm of His hand. To learn more about what "salvation" and "being part of God's family" mean, check out the page on this website called "Good News" http://muldertonicaragua.weebly.com/good-news.html
CALL TO FOLLOW
Every believer is called to follow Jesus. Yet just as God made each of us unique, He has a unique plan of following for each of us. Sometimes God has us follow Him right where we are at, and sometimes He has us follow Him to faraway places. It is a life-long journey with many phases. It is never limited to just one thing or place.
As a child I was in a missions-saturated environment. My church and family had missionaries come through on a regular basis. Having a missionary over was a celebratory event and I delighted in hearing their stories and learning about the countries in which they served. I was fascinated by travel and geography. We prayed regularly for missionaries and for people in other countries and read missionary biographies.
At 12 years-old I distinctly recall a night when I told God I was willing to go wherever and do whatever He wanted me to do. During my high school years I thought God was going to have me eventually serve in some overseas orphanage.
Instead God had some things He wanted to teach me before I would be ready for overseas ministry. So instead of going overseas, He first had me learn about serving in my own community. I worked as a administrative assistant at my church (Farmington Avenue Baptist Church) and its small school, and was very active in the church's Sunday School and music programs. Additionally I served as a volunteer Bible Club teacher to children through Child Evangelism Fellowship.
The second phase of God's training involved learning to be a light in the secular workplace. God opened the door to be trained as a paralegal through Oak Brook College of Law and then to work in a law firm in Connecticut. During those years, I learned much about dealing with tough situations, matured as a person, and grew in my faith and dependence on God. I also had opportunities for short missions/learning trips to other countries including: Ecuador, Israel, Europe, and the Dominican Republic. And I volunteered at an inner-city teen bible club where I learned much from be-friending and sharing Jesus cross-culturally with teens from other backgrounds.
In 2013 God began to nudge me that He had something else around the corner for me, something other than working full-time at the law firm. That whole year and into 2014 I prayed and read my Bible earnestly seeking what His will was. He led me to study "What does it really mean to FOLLOW JESUS?" What does Jesus's call to follow Him involve and what did it specifically look like for my life? God then suddenly open the door for me to take a two-week missions trip through ABWE, International to visit and help their team of missionaries in Managua, Nicaragua in March/April 2014.
On that trip God convicted me that while I had been seeking His will, I had not full surrendered. Matthew 16:24-26 says "Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?" That day I told God "I surrender. I am saying yes right now to whatever is next without knowing in advance what it is." That same day God made it clear He wanted me to follow Him overseas to work with Spanish-speaking people.
The years 2014-2015 was a process of determining where God wanted me to go. After prayerful consideration and investigation of opportunities in several Spanish-speaking countries, I went back to Nicaragua in August 2015 on a vision trip to the southern city of San Juan del Sur, where Andy & Diane Large were starting a new church plant.
I enrolled as a Short Term Missionary with ABWE and arrived in Nicaragua on September 19, 2016. Served in both San Juan del Sur and Managua for a year and a half. Now I'm back in Nicaragua serving as a Long Term Missionary with ABWE, International.
Praise the Lord - this is all of Him. So thankful for this gift of being called to follow Jesus & to be given the chance to serve Him overseas to reach others whom God may raise up to follow Him to still other countries.
God graciously allowed me to grow up in a home and childhood church (Wintonbury Church) where I heard the Gospel from birth and was taught the Bible. At 5 years old I remember praying with my mom and asking Jesus into heart.
Yet in my tween/early teen years, I went through a season of doubt and depression. To be clear, I never doubted God or His ability to forgive my sins and make me part of His family. Rather I doubted whether those simple words of a 5 year-old really counted, and whether I was really God's child. I feared death. Yet the battle with depression sometimes made me wish life was over. Through all those years I was too proud to talk to anyone about my doubts or depression and so things kept mounting. Satan wanted me to stay in doubt. But praise God, God is all-powerful, and He is able to free us. After a near nervous breakdown, God reminded me He is the one who did everything necessary for salvation. He is the one who saves us. He gave me assurance that I am His child. Since that day, August 2, 1998, I never again doubted that I am forgiven and part of God's family, and I never again feared death. He holds me safe in the palm of His hand. To learn more about what "salvation" and "being part of God's family" mean, check out the page on this website called "Good News" http://muldertonicaragua.weebly.com/good-news.html
CALL TO FOLLOW
Every believer is called to follow Jesus. Yet just as God made each of us unique, He has a unique plan of following for each of us. Sometimes God has us follow Him right where we are at, and sometimes He has us follow Him to faraway places. It is a life-long journey with many phases. It is never limited to just one thing or place.
As a child I was in a missions-saturated environment. My church and family had missionaries come through on a regular basis. Having a missionary over was a celebratory event and I delighted in hearing their stories and learning about the countries in which they served. I was fascinated by travel and geography. We prayed regularly for missionaries and for people in other countries and read missionary biographies.
At 12 years-old I distinctly recall a night when I told God I was willing to go wherever and do whatever He wanted me to do. During my high school years I thought God was going to have me eventually serve in some overseas orphanage.
Instead God had some things He wanted to teach me before I would be ready for overseas ministry. So instead of going overseas, He first had me learn about serving in my own community. I worked as a administrative assistant at my church (Farmington Avenue Baptist Church) and its small school, and was very active in the church's Sunday School and music programs. Additionally I served as a volunteer Bible Club teacher to children through Child Evangelism Fellowship.
The second phase of God's training involved learning to be a light in the secular workplace. God opened the door to be trained as a paralegal through Oak Brook College of Law and then to work in a law firm in Connecticut. During those years, I learned much about dealing with tough situations, matured as a person, and grew in my faith and dependence on God. I also had opportunities for short missions/learning trips to other countries including: Ecuador, Israel, Europe, and the Dominican Republic. And I volunteered at an inner-city teen bible club where I learned much from be-friending and sharing Jesus cross-culturally with teens from other backgrounds.
In 2013 God began to nudge me that He had something else around the corner for me, something other than working full-time at the law firm. That whole year and into 2014 I prayed and read my Bible earnestly seeking what His will was. He led me to study "What does it really mean to FOLLOW JESUS?" What does Jesus's call to follow Him involve and what did it specifically look like for my life? God then suddenly open the door for me to take a two-week missions trip through ABWE, International to visit and help their team of missionaries in Managua, Nicaragua in March/April 2014.
On that trip God convicted me that while I had been seeking His will, I had not full surrendered. Matthew 16:24-26 says "Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?" That day I told God "I surrender. I am saying yes right now to whatever is next without knowing in advance what it is." That same day God made it clear He wanted me to follow Him overseas to work with Spanish-speaking people.
The years 2014-2015 was a process of determining where God wanted me to go. After prayerful consideration and investigation of opportunities in several Spanish-speaking countries, I went back to Nicaragua in August 2015 on a vision trip to the southern city of San Juan del Sur, where Andy & Diane Large were starting a new church plant.
I enrolled as a Short Term Missionary with ABWE and arrived in Nicaragua on September 19, 2016. Served in both San Juan del Sur and Managua for a year and a half. Now I'm back in Nicaragua serving as a Long Term Missionary with ABWE, International.
Praise the Lord - this is all of Him. So thankful for this gift of being called to follow Jesus & to be given the chance to serve Him overseas to reach others whom God may raise up to follow Him to still other countries.