So what do you want to
be when you grow up Lisa? My answer from High School on was that I wanted
to be a gym teacher, just like Mrs. Bryant at North Allegheny High School has
been for so many years. So, I attended Penn State University, main campus, and during
my practicum, right before I graduated in 1982, I found myself seated in a
locker room asking myself the question: Do
I see myself doing this five years from now? I was quite dismayed to hear myself say: NO.
Up until this point, I had a strong relationship with the
Lord, having been brought to Christ through my mother, Bobbie Anderson and
having grown up nurtured in the Lord by my parents (George & Bobbie) and
Memorial Park Presbyterian Church under the leadership of the youth pastor, Jay
Passavant. However, I had never really
considered becoming a missionary. I do distinctly remember loving the stories
Pastor Black (affectionately known as Blackie) used to tell us about their
missionary service in Africa. Missions simply was not on my radar. That was
quickly about to change!
After that shocking discovery that I didn’t feel fulfilled
being a gym teacher, I was encouraged to attend Urbana 1981-1982, a huge
gathering at University of Illinois campus, to join in with 14,000 other
college students to ask: What would you
have us do with our lives, Lord? I signed
up for a SHORT TERM missionary experience which I figured would get whatever
was bothering me out of my system, after which I would return to the USA to get
a job in the field of education. God, however, had other plans. Exactly, almost
to the day, one year after signing up with Latin America Mission I was in Costa
Rica learning Spanish. In the intervening year I had graduated from PSU, fallen
in love with the ministry of Christian Camping while serving as a VIM
(Volunteer in Mission) at Bingle Memorial Presbyterian Camp in Fairbanks Alaska, and raised
support to serve as a missionary at a Christian camp outside of Mexico City, Camp
Kikotén.
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1 Lisa Anderson is leading
a team of young people to discover what it means to be “The Body of Christ
working together” as they prepare to climb over the 14 foot wall a work team
from Pittsburgh has just built.
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The first hump God had
to overcome was getting me to commit to a THREE year service contract when I had
anticipated only ONE year (and that felt pretty generous to me!). God wooed me
by providing me with a job description that was my dream job—it required of me
elements that I already possessed like my PE background, love for nature and
building outdoor recreational facilities, a strong desire to disciple and reach
young people for Christ plus other elements I had little or no experience in
like developing promotional materials for camp, and training camp counselors. Drawn
by such an attractive job description, I said: Alright God, I’ll give you three years, and not a day more! What a
sanctified attitude I had! God is so patient with me.
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2 There's no
better way to learn about "letting go and letting
God" than experiencing the trust fall and reflecting on its implications
for your life.
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As my time of service
neared its end, my Mexican boss, Juan Isaias, prodded me to reconsider and stay
on another two years. At first resistant, shortly after our conversation the
big Mexico City earthquake hit (8.2 Richter scale Sept. 19, 1985), I found
myself deeply moved by the suffering and anguish all around me. God used this
and other experiences to woo me into continuing to serve Him as a missionary. So,
“my call” had no bells and whistles, no bright lights or voice from heaven. It was
progressive in nature and at the end of those first five years, I returned home
to Pittsburgh for a year’s furlough and felt like there was nothing else I’d rather
be doing than being a missionary.
At that point, I was invited to serve with the Association
of Christian Camping International in Latin America (CCI/LA) as the director of
leadership development. I was to live in Honduras and develop a curriculum to
train camp counselors and program directors. That is exactly what I did,
working together with a team of Hondurans we wrote a number of training manuals
which are currently in their 5th edition and are being used
throughout 12 different countries of Latin America.
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| The Umana-Anderson family |
Almost thirty years have passed since those initial years of
wondering what I would do with my life. I have found that following God’s
promptings no matter where they lead you provides the most adventurous, exhilarating
journey one could ever ask for. While in Honduras one of my students was
Alfredo Umana, who is now my husband of 16 years and with whom we have formed a
family with Valerie (born 199) and Victor (birth 2001). We live in Tegucigalpa,
Honduras and serve at our local church, Christian Community El Hatillo, in charge of the Sunday School for ages
0-18 years and we regularly use camp outs and nature activities to create a strong
bond of friendship within each Sunday School class and to discover those
invisible attributes of God which are visible in His creation (Rom. 1:20).
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4 CCI/Latin
America's multicultural team of professors, receiving on the job training during
the IFI held in El Salvador Aug. 2012
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