Hi! Hello! My name is Sophia and I am so excited to be heading to Albania this fall with the role of Disability Ministries Program Coordinator. Throughout my whole life, I have loved serving people and being involved in ministry in the church and community. During college, I had opportunities to serve many different individuals and groups of people through unique experiences - helping mothers and babies at pregnancy resource centers, coordinating care for spinal cord injury patients, planning and implementing activities for assisted living and memory care residents, working in mental health and primary care for veterans, and so many moments in between of interacting with peers and people around me who all have unique stories, burdens, and gifts.
I first put my “Yes” on the table near the end of my junior year of college after a staff member from a large missions organization spoke at my church on a Wednesday night and I was deeply moved by the fact that people around the world do not even have access to the Gospel. I also reflected often on how the most unreached places are also often the most under-resourced and underserved. After hearing that presentation, my “yes” was deciding to spend that summer doing ministry by joining a team in Phoenix, AZ to work with a church plant while meeting and serving the people of Phoenix. In the spring of 2023, I took Perspectives, which is a 15-lesson course hosted by different churches that examines the biblical, historical, cultural, and strategic points of God’s mission. This solidified my desire to participate in God’s global work and challenged me to see the necessity of people deciding to go to the nations. Throughout the remainder of my college career, I dedicated more time to international ministry, outreach and evangelism, and exploring more ways to partner in God’s plan to go to the nations.
I returned to my hometown of Madison, AL after graduating with my Master’s of Social Work from the University of Alabama (Roll Tide!) and started looking into and applying for ways to serve overseas. I remembered hearing about several missions organizations at one of the Perspectives classes, and GoCorps stood out to me. Since being back home, I had also started working at a group home for adults with disabilities (where I had once volunteered while in youth group!) and eventually in a community mental health center with clients who had been diagnosed with one or more serious mental illnesses. While looking through GoCorps placements, I saw the one from the team in Albania who shared their vision of working with people with disabilities in their community as the Lord was strengthening my skills and passion for this field of work. The team's post also shared about the presence of many other vulnerable populations in their region, several of whom I have had experience working with in the past. I was drawn to the team’s heart to see lives transformed by the power of the Gospel and through support from the church. While I had many things going on in my life, had other more traditional career opportunities popping up that were good options, and even had moments of fear and doubt as I went deeper in the application process, I was reminded of why my heart was so drawn to God’s global work from the beginning.
I want to see all people - every tribe, tongue, and nation - come to know the love of Christ and call Him Savior. I want to see the Lord receive the praise He is due from all these people - from all backgrounds, stages of life, and abilities. To see every person as one created in the image of God compels me to want every person to know and praise God, and for Him to hear their praises. This includes those often left on the sidelines, maybe not previously encouraged to experience the fullness of the Gospel and God’s love for them.
As Jesus says in John 10, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
Praise the Lord for His salvation! Praise the Lord for this opportunity to take that news of that salvation to the people of Albania!