Andrea with Little Michael
Hey everybody! My name is Andrea and I was born and raised at the heart of the Smoky Mountains in Maryville, Tennessee. I am currently 24 years old and am very involved in my church, RIO.
The Lord first gripped my heart for missions when I was 15. I went on my first mission trip in August 2001 to Nassau, Bahamas. As a young teen, I really didn’t have any plans for life accept to do whatever God called me to do. I absolutely fell in love with the culture and country. I was never the same after that trip. We did lots of ministry at local churches and children’s homes, street evangelism, visiting children at the hospital, and spending the day at the AIDS camp outside the city. After that week, I knew I would spend my life overseas somewhere preaching the Gospel to ALL nations.
While at the AIDS camp, I met a girl named Sharon who was only 4 years old and had spent her short life at the camp. She never knew her parents. The people of the Bahamas are very uneducated, and when you are diagnosed with AIDS/HIV, you are sentenced to life at this camp. The atmosphere was very oppressed and ashamed. The adults wanted nothing to do with us. They hid and shunned us from their huts. At first, the children were too afraid to even look us in the eyes from their shame. However, after a short game of tag, they were acting like normal kids. There was a lady who oversaw the children at the camp and took care of them by teaching them to grow crops, raise chickens, and take care of themselves. It started to rain so we all went inside their small church. This woman asked if she could share her story with us. She was raped several years before and contracted AIDS. They said she probably wouldn’t live another 5 years. It had already been over 10. Once she was sent to the camp, she was depressed and wanted to commit suicide. However, one night in her hut, she said the Lord convicted her heart to help the children at the camp. At the time, no one was looking after them, and they were all dying off from starvation and dehydration. So, she started watching over the children and helping them survive. She had outlived every report against her from the doctors and was still going strong! She said the Lord allowed all of that to happen to she could fulfill her calling life, to help those kids. She got up and sang “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.” I wept. To hear her story and still have the faith she does, I felt so convicted of my selfish life and my lack of helping others. I prayed that night and told the Lord that I would serve Him the rest of my life regardless of what it cost me. If she could do it, so could I. God revealed to me Isaiah 6 and I prayed, “Here am I, Lord. Send me.”
Once we returned home, I was ecstatic about my life and what all the Lord had showed me in that week. I told my parents that I wanted to be a missionary one day! They just shrugged it off. Two days after we got home, I became very sick. I started having seizures and convulsions that night. My mom rushed me to the closest hospital. My fever spiked between 105-106. I was delirious and barely conscience. I just remember praying the Lord wouldn’t let me die. After hours of testing and blood work, the doctor came back with a diagnosis: HIV. The lab results were still pending, but based on the other test results, he concluded that I had contracted AIDS. My mom and I both began to cry. She questioned and said this was physically impossible! I was not sexually active and it wasn’t possible for me to have contracted AIDS. However, I had been at an AIDS camp just a few days earlier and although the odds were slim and none, it was still possible. We left the hospital mortified. I thought my life was over.
The next morning, my mom took me to another hospital for a second opinion determined to prove that doctor wrong. My family doctor had been overseas many times and had seen several tropical diseases throughout his career. He made a list of every disease possible and immediately ruled out the AIDS diagnosis. They admitted me to the hospital and began the testing. My fever was still extrememly high, and I was in constant, excruciating pain. They kept me sedated as much as possible. They flew in 2 infrectious disease specialist from the CDC in Atlanta to also help with the diagnosis. After a week, the list was narrowed down to one disease, Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever. I had never even heard of it before. It’s transmitted to humans from the Aedes Aegypti mosquito which was native and in multitudes in Nassau. After two weeks there, I was sent home to complete bed rest. I had internal bleeding and my liver was on the verge of failing. The pain never ceased. Dengue is also known as “breakbone fever” because it feels like every bone in your body is broken in half. Once I got home, I realized that I couldn’t walk. My legs just collapsed when I stood up. I was terrified. I was paralyzed. How could all this be happening to me? I went to serve God and just couldn’t understand why this was all happening. I was so angry with God. I said I would NEVER go overseas again. After a few months, I began to get my strength back day by day and was finally able to start to return to a normal life. I had missed my 16th birthday, 4 months of my sophomore year of high school, and was now labeled as an outcast. I was now different. I felt isolated from my friends and family. No one understood me anymore. I continued to go to church and was very involved in my youth group. I did local mission work in Tennessee and Chattanooga but vowed I would never leave the country again. About 6 months later, I got another shock: my parents were getting a divorce after almost 25 years of marriage. I was stunned. After a long and nasty 2 years, the divorce was final and I turned 18. I received a scholarship to play softball at a college in Kentucky and immediately took it to leave Tennesse and start a new life. I was trying to run from God’s calling on my life, and take my advice, it’s a very dangerous place to be. You can run all you want, but you can never hide from God. I tried still and failed miserably. I was back home in less than a year with nothing. I had been out of church since I went to college and felt my life was going nowhere. I had a friend who convinced me to come to church with him back home. At first I said no, but he was consistent and wouldn’t give up. I finally went, and God got ahold of me again. I recommitted myself to Him and to His perfect will. In the summer of 2006, I went back overseas to Brazil with my church. The Lord showed me why I endured everything: it was all in preparation to what He was calling me to do. I stood on James 1 to rejoice through trials. God was maturing me and molding me into who He needed me to be to accomplish His plans and purpose. I submitted and again promised God, wherever you lead, I will go.
God has blessed me with the ability to also do mission work in Peru, Ecuador, Panama, and most recently Haiti. I first went to Haiti in December 2008. Immediately, I felt at home. I knew I would make a home there full time very soon. I called my mom from Miami Airport and told her I was planning to move to Haiti this year. She agreed that it was time to go. So here I am now, praying for the Lord to lead me there with my wonderful husband, Mike. I thank God for him everyday. Our future has been planned of the Lord, and we walk in complete unity with Him and each other. Our prayer is for God’s will to always be done in our lives. We are willing to go wherever He leads to do whatever He calls us to do.
Every trip has its stories. I will continue to post more from my other trips in time. I want to encourage anyone who reads this to commit yourself COMPLETELY to the Lord and His will and He will always direct your path. Never be discourage by life because everything happens for a reason. Everyday, I remind myself of scriptures, Matthew 6:33 and Romans 8:28.
“Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and ALL of these things shall be added unto you.”
“And we know that ALL things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
God bless you all! Thanks for taking the time to check out our ministry. Continue to pray for us and for Haiti. Feel free to contact us anytime. We’re all in this war together to take ALL nations in Jesus’ name!
Andrea with a group of our kids
Berline, Edens, Andrea, Crystella, and Jenny at Pastor Jacques' church
