A Leap of Faith
It was 2011, and life felt like a cold, bottomless ocean. Axel had just gone through a divorce, and he was deep in debt on his mortgage and credit cards. The stress of his job was catching up to him, and it felt like the weight of it all was squeezing the air from his lungs. However, Axel held on to his faith in the Lord. He knew God was good, and that he could trust Him. Twelve years later, he found out that that trust would require a major leap of faith - a step out onto the water. The Lord would call him to do something he had never done before, and it would change his life forever.
In April of 2023, Axel felt the Lord was calling him to put in his two weeks’ notice at his job. He did not have another job lined up. The idea seemed a little crazy, so he took time to think about it. Soon, he received a call from a missionary he hadn’t talked to in five years. The missionary told him that he had a dream about Axel. Axel felt the dream was the Lord confirming to him that he needed to quit his job and go to the MAPS Global School. He had, for a long time, longed to worship in a missional context. He had spent many years singing and playing guitar on a worship team with his church, but he longed to worship and evangelize in a nation unreached by the Gospel. This was his chance to step out on the water. But he felt stuck. He was terrified. He was still in debt and battling health issues.
However, the Lord continued to pull on his heart, gently. He attended a Friday night service at MAPS Global, and a leader shared that the Lord had put it on her heart to pray for those who felt stuck. Axel knew that was him. After the service, he decided he was going for it. He quit his job. He sold his condo. He then began to calculate his finances to see if he could afford the MAPS Global School. As he calculated, he realized, for the first time in 13 years, he had enough money to pay off all of his debt. Not only that, he had enough money left over to get him through the first semester of the MAPS Global School, and he would be able to fundraise for the second semester! He went from drowning in a cold, dark ocean to being pulled to the surface. He was standing on top of the waves like Peter, his hand in the hand of the Lord.
Axel applied for the school. He was excited to be accepted. MAPS Global School served as a boat for him, a place where he could worship the Lord in a missional context, his eyes above the waves. He went to Eurasia for the second semester of his schooling and was able to worship the Lord and share the Gospel with those who had never heard. Today, Axel is working for one of the biggest missions organizations in the United States as well as volunteering his time with MAPS Global to help train up and mobilize people towards missions in unreached nations. He gives the Lord all the glory for this new job that he enjoys and this new season of life. He also hopes to go to nations again in the future!