Why PNG?

       I took my first cross-cultural mission trip to Monterrey, Mexico with the youth group of Messiah Lutheran Church, Plano in 2000, and ever since that time, I have had a love for cross-cultural ministry. God has continued to develop this love and desire to serve others throughout my years at Messiah. Therefore, when I became a student of the Lutheran Deaconess Association, an organization that helps prepare women for service ministries, few were surprised.

As the Coordinator of Valparaiso University’s World Relief Campaign, I had the opportunity to learn about and serve many international communities from a distance, but I longed for that personal interaction that I experienced during my short-term mission trips to Mexico, Brownsville, and Romania. When it was time to choose a deaconess internship site, I once again felt God’s call to serve outside of the United States.

When I was discussing this longing at the Deaconess Center one morning in the fall of 2006, the parents of my friend Laura Lutz, a fellow deaconess student, happened to be there. Dr. Steve and Julie Lutz have been medical missionaries in Papua New Guinea for over 20 years and suggested that PNG might be a good setting for my internship. After many months and much conversation and prayer, we now feel that God’s hand was at work in our meeting.