A Flood Gate of Blessings
By Hannah Choi
Last school year I served as a student missionary in Southeast Asia. As I prepared to return to Andrews University (Berrien Springs, Mich.) to complete my undergraduate degree, I prayed that God would help me find a part-time job where the staff are focused on ministry and intentional about prayer.
Through unrelated events, I discovered ASAP Ministries (ASAP stands for Advocates for Southeast Asians and the Persecuted) had an open position for an office assistant that seemed custom-made for my skill set. This job was a direct answer to prayer. Open door number one.
When I began working at ASAP Ministries, I did not anticipate that God would call me to new territories.
As an honors student at Andrews, I am required to complete a senior thesis. As I searched for a topic that was personal and important to me, I prayed that God would reveal an opportunity I would be passionate about and that would be an inspiration to those who hear of my project.
I also prayed for an opportunity to serve in another country for the summer as a way to remember that my overarching goal was to eventually serve Christ overseas again. Sometime later, I attended a chapel service in which the speaker shared about her work with Syrian refugees. That day, God put Syrian refugees on my heart and I asked Him to use me to lighten their loads.
Not long after, I met with our director, Julia O’Carey. Knowing nothing about ASAP’s new involvement with MENAU (the Middle East North Africa Union), I asked if she knew someone I could contact to volunteer with Syrian refugees. That’s when I learned that just the night before, ASAP’s executive board had approved four projects in MENA for Syrian and Afghani refugees! “Maybe we could send you,” Julia said. Open door number two.
I realized that if I was going to MENA to work with Syrian refugees, I could possibly pair my honors thesis with this opportunity. None of the options explored gave my heart peace. Then I remembered a professor who takes Andrews students to MENA every year on a mission trip. The next day, I attended my final chapel, and to my surprise, that very professor spoke about Syrian refugee children from the school I was planning to visit!
That afternoon, I went to his office and we began brainstorming. “What if you write a book?” he asked. “All of these children have stories, and most of these stories are lost when they resettle.”
I then met with my thesis advisers, worked out the details, and presented the plan to ASAP, who agreed to take on my project. I will now spend the fall semester in MENA collecting stories from Syrian refugees, retelling them, and speaking up for these people. The proceeds from my book will go to help Syrian refugees through ASAP Ministries. Open door number three.
You see, with one simple prayer, God has opened the door to a flood-gate of blessings!
Hannah Choi works as an office assistant with ASAP Ministries. Visit ASAP to follow her story as it continues this next year.
To download this week's blog and prayer requests, click here!
World Church Prayer Requests for
Feb. 4 - 11, 2018
• PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for God to open the doors of North Korea to the gospel. There are approximately 23 million people that live in North Korea and at this time, there are no open doors, and no known Adventist presence.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for the Syrian refugee groups that Hannah Choi (author of this weeks UIP testimony) will be going to spend time with in MENA. Pray that her work there will bear eternal fruit. Pray that more doors will be opened for Adventists to minister to refugee groups around the world.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Pray for the Inter-European Division as they seek to find new ways to reach the secular/postmodern population in Europe. Pray that the Adventist young people of Europe discover the relevance of the Adventist message and mission.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for an unnamed church mission outpost center in the East-Central Africa Division. A clinic has been established in a predominantly Muslim country, and church growth is very difficult. All things are possible with God!
• PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for the Christian Home and Marriage Week, which will run February 10–17. This is an initiative of the General Conference Family Ministries Department. For more information, please visit: http://family.adventist.org/FM-planbook.html
• PRAYER REQUEST: Please especially pray for the Total Member Involvement event beginning in Ghana this week, February 3-17, 2018. Pray that hearts will be open to the Holy Spirit’s prompting and that abundant fruit will be harvested for the kingdom through the messages shared.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Please continue to pray for the upcoming events scheduled later this year in Japan (May 4-20, 2018), Zambia (June 8-23, 2018), and the Philippines (July 13-28, 2018). Japan is a difficult territory and needs special prayer emphasis and focus over these next several months.