RALEIGH (BRN) – This coming August, Alta, a native Pennsylvanian, will be leaving the United States for a two-year Journeyman term in Prague, Czech Republic, with the International Mission Board (IMB).
Her commitment to the Lord Jesus and his Great Commission has propelled her towards the nations, to share the gospel and live incarnationally among those who have little, if any, exposure to the message of eternal salvation in Jesus Christ.
Alta is leaving with the full support of her sending church, Imago Dei Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, and with the hopes and prayers of her childhood church, Wrightsdale Baptist Church in Peach Bottom, Pennsylvania.
I had the privilege of interviewing Alta and hearing her story about how the Lord brought her to himself and called her towards international missions. Her testimony and her commitment to the clear words of Christ to “go and make disciples of all nations” encouraged me, and I pray that it encourages you.
A missionary in the making
Alta grew up in the town of Drumore in Lancaster County, attending Wrightsdale Baptist Church in Peach Bottom. Whenever the doors were open, Alta and her family were there – serving, leading and being a part of the church community.
Alta doesn’t remember a whole lot about her childhood, but she does remember accepting Jesus as her Lord and Savior.
In the second-grade, after a Wrightsdale Halloween-night event, Alta prayed with her dad in the living room of their home, repenting of her sins and trusting in Christ as her Lord and Savior. Alta jokingly told me that after she prayed, she went outside and prayed again, making sure that God had heard her and that her prayer had not gotten “caught in the rafters!”
A few weeks later, she was baptized by her father in front of the Wrightsdale congregation. After being baptized, six-year-old Alta was excited to share the gospel with her friends at church and in school.
As Alta grew older, her love for the lost increased. Going to public school exposed her to people from many different walks of life, people who were very different from herself – people who were lost and in need of a Savior.
She recounted how in fourth grade one of her classmates was diagnosed with cancer, and how Wrightsdale helped set up a benefit breakfast to raise money for her care and treatment. The girl and her family, who were not believers at the time, were so welcomed and loved by the church. The opportunity led to many other unsaved community members coming into the church building and hearing the gospel.
Young Alta was impressed that just a simple invitation could bring so many people into the church that you might never expect to be there. She had this newfound sense of wanting to serve others and, specifically, to serve in the name of Christ and for his glory.
In middle school, Alta was partially pulled away from her faith, believing the lie that God couldn’t really love her and she had to earn her salvation. Yet, she continued going to church, always believing that she belonged with the people of God and that she belonged with Him.
Near the end of middle school, at a summer camp in North Carolina, God brought Alta back to himself, and she re-dedicated her life to Him. Alta began pursuing a more personal relationship with Christ.
A year later, God opened a door through Wrightsdale for her to go on a mission trip to Peru. She “loved being around Christians who spoke a totally different language, but loved the same God that [she] loved.”
She went back to Peru three more times in the next few years, and built relationships with Christians as well as unbelievers there.
In high school, when she was looking at colleges and considering career paths, Alta was plagued by everyone asking her “what are you going to do with your life?”
One day in church, she went up to the altar and asked God, “what do You want me to do with my life?” God brought to mind how much she loves missions, sharing the gospel, all of her gifts and abilities in that area and how much Jesus had sacrificed for her. Such a sacrifice compelled her to go and tell others about his amazing love.
Alta walked back from the altar and promptly told her parents she was going to be a missionary.
The journey to the mission field
Alta spent the next couple of years at Judson College and then at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary earning a bachelor’s degree in intercultural studies and a master’s degree in cross-cultural counseling.
She continued gaining missions experience by serving for a summer in a multicultural neighborhood in San Diego, going for two months to Southeast Asia through the IMB’s Hands-On program and by going to Latvia and Czech Republic.
I asked Alta why/how the Lord called her to the Czech Republic. She told me about the devaluing of Christianity there, and despite the rich heritage of Christianity, the vast majority of people there are atheists.
“In a number of ways, the Czech people have been hurt by ‘Christians’ who have not acted like Christians,” explained Brandenberger.
One such group was the Nazis during WWII and their occupation of Czechia. An opposite group was the atheistic Soviet Union, which heavily suppressed Christianity during their control of the country. For many Czechs, Christianity was seen as either militaristic and brutal or dangerous and coversive.
Alta told me how the Czech people are cold and often seem unwelcoming or even hostile towards strangers, but respond well to deep relationships and relational evangelism.
Alta aptly pointed out that this response is not unlike many Pennsylvanians, who sometimes seem cold and distant, but really just need a Christian friend to be in their life, sharing the Good News with and caring for them.
Alta really values relational evangelism, which is often the most effective in reaching Czechs for Christ.
In order to reach them, it is essential to live among them and alongside them, much as Jesus did in his incarnation, coming to earth to live among the lost and die for our sins. It is his life-changing example of sacrifice and humility that motivates Alta to spend years among people that do not think they need her, nor her religion.
Alta will go to the IMB’s field personnel orientation in August, which means that by the beginning of November, she will be in Prague. She will join a team that has multiple IMB missionaries already working there, as well as a small church.
For her first three months, she will focus almost exclusively on learning the Czech language, one of the more difficult languages for native English-speakers to learn. She will then fully step into her role of Evangelism Catalyst, joining many of the ministries already going on, as well as starting some new ones.
As Alta prepares over these next months for her assignment, please pray for her and the team in Prague. Pray for boldness to share with those around them, and that the name of Christ would be glorified among the Czech people.
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:5-11, ESV)
“Missions Minded” is a monthly column written by Jack Elliot, Missions Mobilizer for Nehemiah Teams. Each month, Jack will explore a different topic or spiritual discipline and relate it to the field of missions – a field close to his heart! For more information about how you and your church can get involved in impacting the nations, please feel free to contact Jack at [email protected].
