“God needs more workers for His harvest field, and He is calling us,” we agreed after a worship meeting with a missionary couple that served in Lebanon in 2017. We were 19 years old when the mission flame grew in our hearts, and we decided to dedicate our lives to reaching the unreached.
However, how would we do that? We had not graduated from college yet, didn’t have jobs, and were unmarried. Instead of focusing on potential obstacles, we prayed and put our desire in God’s hands. Many opportunities to go to the mission field appeared, but God always closed the doors. One Bible verse came to our minds: “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord” (Isaiah 55:8).
After we married, we started college. In 2021, we discovered AFM – Brazil (now AFM – South America) on Instagram, recruiting missionaries to launch in 2023, 2024 and 2025. We prayed and decided to go in 2023 after I, Felipe, graduated with a degree in physical education and Isabela with a degree in nutrition. After six years of planning our lives to serve God in the mission field, we finally were facing the decision we made in 2017 — becoming missionaries for life.
Right now, we are working at the Central Thai Project. I am a music teacher at Peace Music Academy, teaching guitar, and Isabela works on building relationships and making disciples. God has been guiding our ministry here in an unexpected way. In May, our second month here, we met a boy named Ming. Being a Brazilian passionate about soccer, I invited Ming and his friends to play with us. The following week, six Thais interested in being our friends showed up to play soccer.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, we built friendships with them and focused on their needs, their relationships with their families and classmates, and what they enjoyed doing. Only after building relationships of trust did we talk with them about Jesus and religious topics.
We became very close with each other, and some of them were interested in being Christians, but their parents would not allow them. So, we took advantage of every opportunity to share Jesus with them, whether through our lives or the Bible. We also connected them with the church and other missionaries and created an online chat group so they would not lose their connection with Christ.
Recently, AFM approached us about serving as missionaries in the country of Georgia, continuing the work begun by the Troy family. We will greatly miss our friends in Thailand, but as with everything in our lives, we obeyed God and accepted the call. Please pray for us as we follow Romans 10 and leap into this new challenge, culture and language. We look forward to using our passion for health and sports ministries to build friendships and lead others to call on the name of the Lord and be saved.
