JOURNEYING WITH THE MASTER | KAIROS GLOBAL | FEBRUARY 2020

Author: Anne Nova

Intro: A narrative of experiences gained by Anne Nova on a one -year journey with the Lord while serving His people.

My days as a full-timer were similar to the time when God loved, cared and provided for the Israelites during their journey to Canaan; their feet neither swollen nor their clothes worn out in the process. Similar to the Israelites, I had fallen many a times, but God had picked me up and had loved me unconditionally. Just as Moses, Aaron and Joshua were gifted to these people, I was also blessed with JY elders and spiritual guides.

God’s way of moulding me was incomprehensible during my fulltimership. My very first experience made me realise how much Abba cared for me and that I needed to depend on him whole heartedly. I was travelling on a motorbike and all of a sudden it came to an abrupt halt. I had run out of fuel. I saw an elderly man coming out from a shop nearby and instinctively smiled at him, a complete stranger, and informed him of my predicament. Instantly, without any hesitation, he gave me the keys to his bike and a petrol can. I was perplexed. I had never met this man and yet he put his complete trust in me. 

After filling out the tank, I thanked him for his kindness. He then enquired about the purpose of my journey and after a short conversation with him he asked me to share anything about my God. He himself was of the Hindu faith. As I bid him goodbye, he told me that God wants to remind me that he would send his angles to help his children.

I could experience God’s providence through many open hearted JY families and whenever my purse reached its limit of emptiness, God in his mysterious ways always found a way to replenish it.

I recollect an incident where I was asked by the Principal of an institution to take a three hour lecture on Value Education for college students. I was startled when he asked me because I am more or less the same age as these students. I prayed to the Holy Spirit, placing all my hope in Him. The miracle to be stated is that the three hours passed by quickly, and it was a bliss. I had discovered the gift of teaching from God. The memorable moment of that day was when a Muslim student after college came to me and said that she liked my class very much and requested me to continue on this path. I praised God.

From being a person who read Bible hardly 20 minutes a day for the sake of filling the DRC sheet to becoming someone who enjoyed listening to God’s voice and reading the Bible for more than 2 hours a day, is the evidence of my change. During my times of struggle, God reminded me through prophet Isaiah, “Do not fear or be afraid, have I not told you from of old and declared it, ‘You are my witnesses”.

Whenever I asked God about my ministry there, He said, “Be still and know I am God” through the psalmist. 

One day while engaged in prayer I was prompted to go to a college in North Goa. I travelled more than 2 hours to reach there, and didn’t know what I was supposed to do or whom to meet.  God however, always has His plans ready. While there was no possibility of meeting a particular student that day, I saw her by chance, and God made me share all the bible verses I had read in the past weeks  with her and she had been in need of those words. Before parting she told me that ‘God really wanted us to meet today’. That’s exactly how His plans are.

In the Eucharist, I always felt strengthened and experienced the special love of my God. Whenever I felt weak the thought ‘that I am a child of God and worthy of everything God created me for’, boosted me up.  There were times when I cried after confession, having known the real satisfaction of Christ forgiving me and cleansing me of my sins. Travelling all alone, while in this state, I was never lost. I always felt that God held me by His hands.

 In a place like Goa where going to church is about the clothes you wear, marriages are all about the party, and prayer is all about the lips, I thought evangelising would be hard. Unfortunately, many people come from broken families and have a broken heart, waiting to be loved and to be heard. Even a small gesture of love and kindness can mean so much to them and God made me an instrument to impart this joy and hence the mushroom growth of the small prayer groups in Campuses. We conducted a stay in retreat and God in a special way guided me so that I was able to follow up with and guide these students and through them the Goa Campus team was formed.

My journey with my Master has graced me with the knowledge of His power through every adventure and experience that I had over the past one year.