portraits // michaela ann | dayton, oh portrait photographer

Many young women are serving missions. Many are preparing to serve. Not because they aren’t married or have nothing else to do; but because they have a desire to serve. Therefore, they are being called to the work. - Unknown

The desire of serving in missions has been Michaela’s heart for quite some time. She is being called because God says in Psalm 37:4: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

As Michaela has been finding her joy in Jesus, her heart is becoming more and more like His. Therefore, she is being called to the work. God is fulfilling the desire that He gave her to go and He is providing her way.

The initial plan was that she was going to go to Kenya in June. God shut that door. Michaela was disappointed and wondered why. She kept praying: “God, if you want me to serve, show me where it is that you want me to go.”

India.

“India?”

 As she prayed, she kept receiving assurance that India is where God was calling her. Only a few day after that, she was sitting in church praying again, “God, if you want me to go to India, please drop the opportunity in my lap.” She opened her eyes and looked down; on her lap was the church program with the highlighted item: “serve in India this spring”. She rejoiced, knowing this was the opportunity that God was giving her. However, the trip was only two months away and she would have to raise almost four thousand dollars.

God has been providing in indescribable ways.  She was able to purchase her airfare last week. Her story is summed up so beautifully in the words of the missionary Jim Elliot:  

“God always gives His best to those who leave the choice with Him.”

Listen to Michaela’s heart of compassion as she is preparing to go: “According to compassion ministries there are more than two thousand references in the Bible to children and poverty. That is a big portion of God's Word dedicated to these two topics. Obviously, the children and poor are very close to God's heart.

I want to answer God’s calling in India for the sake of the people of India, especially the children of India.   The Lord tells us to, ‘Go into the entire world and make disciples’ (Matthew 28:19).  He also reminds us that, ‘Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep one-self unstained by the world’ (James 1:27).

With a population of over one billion, India is home to four-hundred-million children, the largest number in any country in the world. According to heart’s for India, there are twenty-million street children in India and about 60-million Indian children under the age of six live below the poverty line.

As I answer God’s calling to India, I need your help to partner in God’s commission; pray for me.”

My sister, Michaela is kind and compassionate, remarkable and inspiring.

Her spiritual gift is mercy.

“To belong to Jesus is to embrace the nations with Him.” – John Piper

We stopped at grandma's home for a visit and some tea.