Gina: What I'll be doing in Switzerland

This is Gina, and I wanted to share about what I'll be doing in Switzerland for the next year.

The Eurasia Regional Office, which administrates our denomination's churches throughout Western and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean and South Asia, has a communication center a few blocks down from the college and the regional office. I'll be working in the communication center every day with a team of other Mission Corp volunteers (some of whom are still being recruited).

I will continue full-time as managing editor of Engage magazine, www.engagemagazine.com, because all I need to do this job is a computer, phone and Internet connection. Many of the people who work with me on Engage are scattered around the world, so moving to Europe actually brings me closer to many of them.

Additionally, I'll manage the region's monthly newsletter called Where Worlds Meet, a PDF you can subscribe to receive in your e-mail.

In January the region begins developing an initiative called The Power of One. I'll be helping with this by editing and perhaps laying out copy. Dennis Mohn, the new regional communication coordinator, will lead multi-media efforts for this initiative, as well as develop many other video and media projects for the region. As I learn more about the initiative, I'll tell you about it on our blog.

It's humbling and exciting for me to see how God has given me passion and training in commmunications over the past 10 years, and how He is allowing me the joy of using writing to serve Him in our church.

Essentially, my passion is for narrative and developing good stories. I love to meet real people whose lives are stories of obedience and of God's desire and power to transform and heal. I love to assist in crafting these real stories into written, audio or video narratives.

I believe that God works and speaks through stories. Just as the Bible is the story of God's love for His creation, our lives are stories giving evidence of God's ongoing work of redemption in the world. By "testifying" or "witnessing" to God's work in our lives, we tell stories through which God convicts, transforms and calls others to Him. This is why I feel driven to capture the stories of our church.

When I was six, a missionary visited my church to tell stories of what God was doing in Africa. After that service, I wanted to be a missionary. When I was older, I wanted to be a writer. I wondered if this meant that I was no longer meant to be in missions. I didn't think writers were missionaries.

Now I see that writing and storytelling are essential to expanding God's Kingdom on earth. I feel grateful that there is a place for me in helping to grow the church through capturing the stories of real people and sharing them with our global church family.

If you would like to share stories of how God is drawing you into His mission, please feel free to join Engagemagazine.com where you can submit your stories. If you have a story about how God is working in the Eurasia Region, please consider sending it to me for possible publication in Where Worlds Meet.

To subscribe to Where Worlds Meet, visit www.eurasianazarene.org.