Heeding God's Call
An inspirational missions event

On December 5, First Prez welcomed Marilyn Laszlo, a dynamic speaker, author and Bible translator. Marilyn was part of the translation team that published the Sepik Iwam New Testament in 1990. She shared about God's faithfulness and real-life stories of how she has seen "God's Word at work!"

Few will forget the compelling and hilarious stories she told. Marilyn is a passionate woman who strives to show God's love to the lost. She ignited our passion as she told of her own journey from a single woman choosing to leave everything in order to follow God into the jungles of Papua New Guinea. Living and working there for 23 years, she mastered their tribal language, created a written form of the language, taught them how to read and write it, and worked with the new believers to translate the Bible into their language.

The excitement and humor of Marilyn's stories allowed us to experience the joy of her ministry. She told stories of learning the language and the wonder of the natives as they learned that their language could be written. While we in America usually have many Bibles, these people never had one in their language. The day their first Bibles came by canoe, the people lined the river and celebrated the arrival of the Word of God.

Marilyn's story of her early life as a missionary taught us that we can know God's will. We must not stand still, but be moving in some way for God to guide us. Marilyn told of how God worked through ordinary circumstances to lead her to a specific people group. She also stressed how we must trust God and His plans and take steps of faith. We must be true to how God made us and be obedient.

Marilyn now calls on Christians in the U.S. to invest themselves in missions. "We are not all called to be career missionaries," she says, "but we are called to be career Christians." She urges all believers to share Jesus where they are, in ways that are relevant. "You are very, very special to God," she says. "God has chosen us to reach the world."

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