Hello! My name is Hannah and I have accepted a position in Mexico City with Avance, a ministry of United World Mission, to serve as a minister of the gospel and of healing in a refuge home for teenage girls rescued from the horrors of human trafficking.
I have felt called to serve God in a cross-cultural context since my sophomore year of high school. That same year, God began implanting in me a deeper, fuller understanding of the Gospel as well as a passion for discipling young women-- my dream is to inspire young women to realize the unchanging foundation of their worth and identity in Jesus Christ rather than in performance or people-pleasing.
Through various mission trips the Lord has taken me on since then, I’ve felt my calling to cross-cultural ministry confirmed again and again. After each overseas experience, regardless of how beautiful or how painful it was, the Lord has gently guided me to say “yes” to the next trip. Stepping into a full-time ministry position in Mexico for two years is my dream come true. I have wanted to live and serve in a Spanish-speaking context for years, and though the intensity of this ministry is intimidating, I feel the Lord has prepared me for it through my own story (and is continuing to equip me as I prepare to go!).
I am not without fear, doubt, and uncertainty. As a kid, when I wanted to move away to the jungle to be a missionary and never come home, I never considered the sacrifice it would entail. Now, even just two years away from loved ones so precious to my heart feels like forever. But I know it will go faster than I can imagine, and is such a small sacrifice in light of Christ’s laying down His life so I can take it up and share the Way to that life with others.
In moments of questioning, whether it’s wondering if I’m doing the right thing by moving to Mexico City or experiencing a season of doubt in my faith, this scripture expresses my heart's honest cry:
“After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6:66-69
Jesus sends His disciples, just as the Father sent Him, and this is my desire for my ministry and for the precious souls I will be ministering to:
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.
-Isaiah 61:1-3