After a year and a half of serving God here in the Tahoe/Truckee area through Tahoe Church and being a part of the Tahoe Resident Leadership Program, I embarked on a six-month missions trip through YWAM where I trained in Kona, Hawaii for three months, and then lived in Brazil for three months in a remote countryside village and favelas in the Rio area. We saw salvations, and healings, preached the gospel to people who had never heard it before, disciplined Christians who couldn’t read/didn’t understand the bible, and planted numerous seeds.
YWAM was recommended to me but I didn’t know much about it. When I was in the program, I felt I grew in evangelism, and something would come alive in me when we would do different service/outreach trips. I also felt a desire to go even deeper with God and wanted to experience a different aspect of ministry. So I took the leap and left Truckee and Tahoe Church which became my home and my family and jumped into YWAM. I didn’t know what I was getting into. There was definitely an adjustment period and challenges along the way, but ultimately my heart was captivated by missions and reaching people cross-culturally and telling people about Jesus.
I definitely drew on the person I became while in the TRLP program. The foundation that was built while I was in the program put me on solid ground to encounter God deeper, love others, and serve. Without my experience in the TRLP program I would not have been able to endure my experience with YWAM.
Coming out of my six-month YWAM journey, I have decided that I want to devote my life to missions in these next couple of years and see where God takes me. Even though I’m sacrificing my home – the place and the community that I love here – I know that Jesus is worthy of my sacrifice. I volunteer myself to let God use my life however He wants. So I plan to continue working with YWAM and join staff with them for the next two years and lead outreach teams to various nations. I don’t feel called to a specific nation or cause, but I want to focus on unreached people groups/areas of the world.
My life took an unexpected turn after my experience in the Tahoe Resident Leadership Program, and I know I’m still in the middle of the story God is writing with my life. Every missionary needs a local church back home! And I’m so grateful to call Tahoe Church mine and for it to be a part of my story.
-Anna Lise Reiner
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