#115 S4 EP25: Mentorship and Miracles: How Faith Guided Ana to Serve

So before we get her on , y'all know what we got to do .

We pray in the name of Jesus that again , always , that your Holy Spirit just move about this world , move about this platform as we dive into our purpose , our design purpose that came from you . We pray in the name of Jesus again , that the Holy Spirit just have its way .

We counsel any assignment of the enemy that will be sent back into the pits of hell where it came from , for it has no power , no demand , no authority , but your word . Say that we do . We pray in the name of Jesus that the ones that don't even know who you are , we hear something that we encourage them to come in your direction .

We pray this all in Jesus' name . We say thank you and we say amen . Amen amen , amen amen .

I grew up in Eastern Europe and I came to the United States in 2008 to pursue my college degree and then I stayed and for many years , I just pursued that corporate career focusing on making money , didn't really focus on anything else . However , we all know that , even if you're not a believer , god created us all to have a purpose and it's his purpose .

Yeah , um , and so , deep inside , I always had this feeling that I meant to do something else , like something that had a deeper purpose . I was in sales , so I didn't feel like I was making an impact on this world right and so I didn't really know what to do about it .

So I kept just kind of quieting it through vacations and buying stuff , and that thing was really bringing that fulfillment .

I didn't know how to pray , so it went something like God , if you exist right , can you please show me what my purpose is like ? Why ? Why do I keep feeling this way ? Is there more to life ? And so what followed was quite supernatural . I heard an audible voice outside of myself giving me directions Go to the store , make lunches , feed the hungry .

Very specific instructions . I was freaked out , right , because you're like am I dreaming ? right , right , I don't know how , but I forced myself to go to sleep because I'm like I'm going to deal with this in the morning .

So in the morning I wake up and I know no , something did happen right , and I'm going to work and I tell them I'm not coming in , I need to take a personal day , and I follow the instructions . So I go to the store , buy all the supplies , I make 24 bags of lunches , and so I am .

You know , live in Atlanta , georgia , so I've seen a lot of people struggling with homelessness downtown . So I just pack up my bag , get in the car , start driving . Every time I would see a homeless person , I would stop , offer them lunch , give this lunch as a way .

So after about an hour I come across a whole group hanging out together yeah , so I count them and I have exact number of lunches left . I look over and you know they're happy I give all my lunches away and so I think , okay , I'm done for the day , right .

I am about to get in my car and suddenly one of the ladies calls me and she says hey , honey , come over here . So I walk over . She says I have a gift for you which have , oh , my goodness , like you have a gift for me , yeah , and she's like hold on .

So you know , she has her big bag of all of her belongings and she's just ramaging through her stuff looking for this gift she wants to give me . Finally she finds it and with this big smile she just hands it to me . So I take it and it's this little bird , and I examine it .

It's a little sparrow and on its chest it was written Now in God's Hands , woo , yes . And that moment I still . Anytime I tell the story , I get this chills just going through my body because I remember that moment because it felt like this this bolt of lightning just struck my heart . I burst into tears .

I get in my car and I'm sobbing and I'm just the same phrase repeating in my head God is real , god is real head . God is real , god is real , god is real , right , yeah . So just like that , being an atheist to find knowing , okay , I've been called by God and he arranged this whole situation .

So I get back home and , I kid you not , I order my first Bible from Amazon . So the next day it arrives , I start reading the Bible . Right , I didn't understand any of it . So then I'm like , okay , I need to figure this out . So I literally Google best churches in Atlanta and pick one , just like you would pick a restaurant .

Right , right , right , going to church , yeah . So , then , you know , I fast forward about a year . I'm learning about what it means to be a follower of Jesus . Like I realized , I had to change a lot of my ways . So about a year later I get baptized . So you know .

But that feeling that I described earlier of kind of unhappiness with my life just grew so much . Right , because we know that it's just your old ways no longer serve you . Well , then I had this um , thinking that I need to take a sabbatical , because if I take this time to really search for God's purpose , this will just serve me .

So I did that , so I quit my job and most people thought I was crazy . I was making so much money , right , yeah . And and at that point I was willing to go anywhere . I said , lord , take me anywhere . I put my condo up for sale , I packed my suitcases and I just started traveling and I was like I'm willing to move anywhere , lord .

So during that time , some things that I did was I was healing my past . So I went back to where I'm from . I went to Israel and Jordan and Palestine to visit the holy places because I wanted to really get closer to God . And lots of pandering happened for about six months .

But in those six months the sale of my condo fell through at the closing table three times at the last minute , oh , wow . And at the third time I knew , okay , god wants me to be back in atlanta . I'm like I hear you , lord , I'm coming back . So come , come back to atlanta .

And so that's where this whole purpose started unraveling and I started going on silent retreats . So I thought about how jesus would go away in wilderness by himself and pray by himself . And I said you know , I need something like that to really seek God's guidance . So I started implementing practice of silent retreats .

So my first one I went for five days no electronics , no cell phones and I wrote my first book . So my first book is called Finding Courage to Change , and it really felt like just this kind of divine download , like two days .

The whole book was written right , and so the purpose of that book was really a lot about healing , but also about helping a lot of women . So I am a survivor of child sexual abuse and that's a very taboo , very dark topic that not many people talk about and it really makes a lot of survivors feel very isolated , very alone .

And so when I started talking about it , so many women started coming to me and sharing their own stories and journey . You know , just building this community of support , it's just been really tremendous in my own healing and supporting others . But that's only a part of the purpose , right ?

So two more months go by , right , and I go on my second silent retreat and God is kind of quiet . You know , in this particular one I just don't hear anything . Don't hear anything , and so it's my last day before I'm getting ready to go to sleep and then come back and you know , I just pray .

You know , lord , like I didn't hear anything about where you want me to go , what my purpose is . Maybe I just need to go back to St Paul's signals , you know , or just wait for you to open the door . I'm not quite sure .

So I'm just kind of praying like I'm just going to be obedient , and suddenly whoosh , I get this vision and this like business plan of what he wants my purpose to be , and so I'm about to share what it is .

But it took some time to get there right and it was so big and so overwhelming that I just fell down on my knees and started sobbing like I don't know how you want me to achieve it , like I have nobody lord , I don't have any power , I don't have any connections , so just kind of overwhelmed , right .

And it often happens I've heard from other people when they get that vision from god , they often feel overwhelmed and not equipped , right , right , and we have examples in the bible too . A lot of the times , you know , they felt overwhelmed with the mission that god . And so you know , after the first shock has passed , I was like you know what ?

God showed this as a success . I just need to start moving toward it . So how can I start moving toward this plan , right

? So my number one step I needed to grow my Christian circle , so I started doing Christian meetups , christian professional chambers , and there was really nothing in Atlanta that met consistently . So that's how Christian Professionals of Atlanta was born is just basically an organization that meets monthly , brings Christian professionals in the metro area together .

We meet each other , we grow our circle , we help the community , and we've been doing this for now a year and a half okay so after about a year I was like okay , this , this is a successful first step , we're ready for the next step .

the next step was we rebranded this year , so from Christian Professionals of Atlanta we're now Christian Professionals Network Worldwide . And it was interesting because I , when we first started , I went ahead and got us a name Christian Professionals of America , because I thought this is going to grow nationwide , because that's what God showed me , right right .

The first request to start a chapter came from Brazil , and so this is an interesting point , because sometimes our thoughts are much smaller than what God's is absolutely important for us to sometimes look at these signs that happen , and so , when that happened , it's like , oh god , like I was thinking too small . You want this worldwide ?

Okay , no problem , pivot right , rebrand . So okay , we rebranded at the beginning of the year and then , finally , we're now in the process of just final stage , and that's exactly what God's vision was , and so we launched our foundation piece of the whole puzzle . So the vision was that relationship poverty is a big issue in this country .

What it means is one in five Americans say that they feel lonely , they don't have enough community around them , and it becomes a number one reason why people become homeless . So what happens ?

Unexpected things happen , right Car breaks down , health issue , loss of job , and it's people who are living paycheck to paycheck and unfortunately , they don't have a strong community of people who they can go to and end up living in their car or , you know , shelters , or in the streets .

So a lot of the times , shelters do a wonderful job , trying to get them back on their feet with the job , with the housing , but that piece of the relationship poverty is not fixed Right . So the piece we're coming into is this mentorship program that we're now offering .

So we've partnered with an existing homeless shelter and now having mentors who are Christian professionals mentoring people living in homeless shelters .

So what that allows is a long term friendship of them going to church together , building that community around them , really having that solid friend , right , advisor , just somebody you can really call and ask for whatever help you might need .

Right , and as we go through this program it's an 18 month program after they're done , you know , and hopefully successful , and they have their own job and house and now they have a community around them .

We're still not done we are at that point gifting them a year of the membership in our networking side so that they can keep coming and now really meeting a lot of professionals , because our hope is that we could also impact their job opportunities in the future . Right , because as you network with more people , you can really grow in many ways .

So it's a lot to . I tried to really compact in this short period of time , but I hope that they gave a kind of a story of how God really used just beautiful , right , yeah , absolutely , he taught me to be a homeless person and now we're helping people to get out of homelessness . Absolutely , I think it's one of the more creative stories that I you know .

It's beautiful .

But God uses that moment of that desperation to draw us to us , to draw us to him , to draw us to him , and I can remember the time when God first spoke to me . I'm looking like , oh , somebody around me , talking behind me . It's like it puts you in awareness that , look , god wants us to listen to him .

Sometimes we get so out of place that we're always talking and we're not having the time in a moment to listen to God . That's why he tells us that my sheep knows my voice . That means you have to sometimes sit down , close your mouth and open your ears .

That's why we got two ears and one mouth , because we have to understand that the ears is more powerful than the mouth . That's what we get too .

So I go about every four to five months to a silent retreat because during that time it really allows for me to shut down everything around me and really just spend my time listening to God and praying everything around me and really just spend my time listening to God and praying . And this is the practice that propelled mission so much faster .

Because a lot of people get surprised by how much you have accomplished in such a short period of time . Well , that's God . Right . Like we got our foundation IRS approval letter in less than three weeks . That's unheard of to get something like this this fast .

And when people say unheard of , I said no , that's God , he wants this to go and so he will move mountains . Nothing is impossible for him .

You know , when you ask him to make himself real to you and make himself plain to you , he will absolutely do it and he'll use the least likely thing to get your attention . You still have that bird . You still have that bird , don't you ?

And you know , holy Spirit is moving me to say this to your listeners there's somebody who is going to hear , or already heard , something from God and they're really struggling to accept it . And my advice is don't say no , just take the first step . I know it's scary because God only gives you that next step and you don't see the full picture .

But just take that first step and then he'll show you the next , and then the next , and then it's the most amazing journey when you live in God's purpose . I mean , I do not ever want to go back to my life before this .

I would love to further elaborate on another occasion , but we want to get final thoughts before we get ready to go . And Michael , you want to start ? We're before we get ready to go and Michael , you want to start .

Because we got to realize this if god really showed us the full diagram of the plans that he has for us , the question remains this would you continue to talk to God ?

And if he even gave you the whole diagram and we can even go further than that if he actually showed you the whole diagram of your life and your purpose , you'll get too big-headed that you know more than God . That's the . That's the biggest mistake that Satan had going for him .

He thought and that he knew and was better than god , and that's why he failed . So god is keeping us not to fall like satan did , but to prosper . That's why he tells in his word in john 10 10 to keep . The thief comes to steal , kill and destroy , but I come to give you more life and more abundantly .

He , he lets us know that , look , I have bigger plans for you that Satan himself could have had if he was not too big-headed and thought he was bigger than him .

So that's why God gives us little things in little segments , because not only not for us to get big-headed , but we can't contain all the good pleasures that God has for us to get big headed , but we can contain all the good pleasures that God has for us all at once . Alright , now yeah .

Um , and that's my word , um , ms Anna , if you could , as you close up and give the final word , but today , would you please also include where people can get your book , how people can um , get into this mentorship program that you have and just really like the , the , the , the big things that people need to have in order to reach where you are .

He will speak to you exactly as need to be spoken to , because not not one story is the same , right , he will know exactly what you need and at what time you will need it . Um , I just say that every person finds their purpose in this life and god's purpose . Um . You can connect with us at following our website . All the information is there .

It's wwwcpnworldwidecom , it's cpnworldwidecom , it's C P N worldwidecom . Um , and my book . You can find an Amazon , just , uh , search for finding courage to change .

We thank you for Miss Anna and all that she's doing for the body , and I just pray that you'll continue to use her in great ways , in magnificent ways , that you would just continue to show her uncommon favor among people and Christians . I pray , in the name of Jesus , that her influence will continue to rise for your glory .

I pray not only would you touch her , but touch her family and touch everybody that she impacts . God , use her , our sister , in a mighty , mighty way .

We pray for every diamond that is here and we pray that every ear and every heart is blessed by what they have heard , and we just pray , god , you will continue to shape us all into the diamonds you would have us to be . Father , we love you so much , so very grateful and so thankful .

In Jesus Christ's name , we do pray Amen , amen , amen , so much , so very grateful and so thankful . In jesus christ's name , we do pray amen , amen , amen . Thank you again , honor , for being here . We certainly do appreciate you and we're gonna definitely get back with you so you can have your own again . Okay , have a blessed day .

All right , you have a blessing . All right , bye-bye , all right , y'all , y'all know what time it is .