Fort Worth: Learning patience, discovering boldness

In the time I’ve served here in Fort Worth, I’ve learned lessons about flexibility, patience and dependence on God.

Chelsea TurnerPatience really has been key as I’ve been learning how to serve refugees in tangible ways by taking them to appointments and helping them with other needs that come up. Picking people up for appointments, driving, parking, checking in, sometimes waiting and then taking them back home is time consuming.

Sometimes, it may take an hour and sometimes it may take half the day if challenges come up or there are language barriers. At times my flesh gets the best of me, and I begin to get impatient or concerned that everything is taking too long. But that’s exactly when God is gracious and gives me peace. 

One day, I took a Nepali woman to a job interview. She speaks some English but understands more than she speaks. She had to fill out a lot of forms before and after the interview. I helped her with some of the forms, but I could not help with others because they were a test of her own abilities for the job. Since she is still learning English, it took longer than I expected. While I waited, I was trying to pass time on my phone, but God prompted me to pray for her—to pray for her to get the job and to pray for her salvation. 

We were there for about two and a half hours, not including the driving to get there—about 30 minutes each way. When we got back in the van, all I wanted to do was get her home and eat lunch. It would have been easy to drive the whole way back without saying a word. But God prompted me to think: “How can I spend this much time with someone who probably hasn’t heard of Jesus and not share the gospel with her?” So, I went for it. 

I found out she was Hindu because she had grown up in a culture where that was what everyone around her believed. I asked her if she had ever heard of Jesus, and she initially said “no.” As I drove her home, I shared the gospel with her and asked her again at the end if she had ever heard this story. She said “yes” this time and told me that she had heard if from other caseworkers from World Relief. She didn’t have much response after that. Even though she didn’t say much, at least she heard the same gospel that others have been sharing with her again. 

What could have been a time of impatience in driving, God used it to empower me to share my faith for the first time this semester. Knowing that I was faithful to share, I pray that the seed was watered and one day will grow and she will become interested in committing her life to Jesus.

Chelsea Turner, a graduate of the University of North Texas, is serving at World Relief in Fort Worth through Go Now Missions.