Read Part 1 of Jamie’s story.

God or my family? That was my choice when I graduated college. I chose God, and my relationship with my Indian Orthodox parents deteriorated. I wanted to give up. I ran from God, but every time, the Holy Spirit brought me back to Himself.

When I prayed, I gave up everything for you, He responded, No, Jamie. I gave up everything for you. I died so that you could have life in Me. As He reminded me again of His love for me, I wanted to pursue Him again in obedience.

I knew God was calling me to go to the nations as soon as I trusted in Christ seven years earlier. Now, after finishing my pharmacy residency, I finally packed my bags and went to Central America to work at a pharmacy for four months. I returned and began working in the States, and things got better with my parents. We were on speaking terms again and our relationship seemed to begin healing. But I noticed I wasn’t hearing from God like I used to. I reached out to my pastor back in my college town.

“Jamie, what was the first thing that God asked you to do when you were saved?” he asked me. “Usually when we don’t hear from God it’s because He has already told us what to do, we just don’t listen.”

That’s when I realized I was running again from God’s calling on my life to go to the nations. But I still hesitated. Being obedient to this call is going to ruin every good thing I had just built with my parents, I thought. Is it worth it?

Yes. I remembered God’s faithfulness to me. I remembered that though my family is against me in this, God is for me. So I committed to go.

I gave myself six months. If no organization got back to me within that time, I wasn’t going. Crossworld responded to my emails within days and assigned me a coach to walk me through the process. Within the month I found myself agreeing to go to the first training event.

I struggled knowing I was forsaking my family to follow God’s call, but Crossworld helped me process and confirmed my calling to go. With their guidance, I decided to go to Senegal.

As I went to board the plane, I knew the goodbye to my parents was going to be much different than any before. They had already written out of the will, and forbade me from attending their funerals. Getting on that plane was the proverbial nail in the coffin.

Now, two years later, there is still no resolve. Things haven’t gotten better with my parents. But I know that I am a child of God, and I rest my hope in the joy that there are people in Senegal who are now His children too. Though my family still disapproves, obedience to God is worth suffering for.

Jamie served with Crossworld in Senegal for two years and is currently pursuing other locations where she can bring God’s love to life.

The people in this story are real, but their names have been changed to protect their privacy.