Lord,

This is Your answer!

Single, well-educated, and with an established career, Robbie Padernal says she was preoccupied with shopping. Robbie had all the best a woman could have. She'd enjoyed working as a nurse for Minirth Meier, Rapha, and more recently as an assistant director of homecare nursing. But her priorities began to change after attending a number of Bible seminars.

Taking stock of her life, Robbie said, "OK, I have all this money, [but there] is no fulfillment."  Her thoughts revisited something she'd seriously considered as a child in the Philippines - foreign missions.

Once again, Robbie was strongly motivated to go. She told herself, "I can't wait until I retire because that's a very presumptuous thing; I might not be alive."  She prayed, "Lord, You lead [those] You've called. You will open the door for me."

When a representative from NTM spoke at Robbies church, Robbie said, "Lord, this is Your answer!"   Her heart was beating wildly as she asked the man for an application for associate missionaries. She promptly filled it out.

It made little sense when, shortly thereafter, Robbie began losing weight. She developed a severe reaction to chemicals and open wounds covered her hands. It took her 15 minutes to tie her shoes the day before becoming totally bedridden. Her immune system had gone awry and she had contracted mononucleosis. Robbie prayed, "Lord, if You want to take me, I'm ready." She did not bargain with God; she gave up her will.

Several months passed before Robbie was strong enough to think about missions again. One day she was expressing her heart to the Lord when the phone rang. Dave Byron from NTM said, "Hello, Robbie. How are you doing now? Are you still interested in going?"  Robbie didn't hesitate, "Of course! Yes!" she replied.

Given a choice between Senegal and Bolivia, Robbie chose Senegal.  She quickly put her house up for sale. Although she was told it would be difficult to sell, she had a buyer in two weeks.

Next, she was informed the door to Senegal had closed. She was asked to consider Bolivia. Robbie was disturbed and she struggled, until one day the words of a song convicted her: "I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord."

Robbie went as an associate missionary to Tambo, Bolivia, to NTM's school for missionaries' children, where she ministered as a nurse for two-and-a-half years. That experience, as well as a time of helping a doctor treat medical needs in the Yuqui tribe, cemented Robbie's decision to become a career missionary.  She returned to the USA and has one more year of training with NTM before going to the Philippines to work with tribal people.

Robbie has told the Lord, "If I want to do tribal work, it's good that I'm a nurse, but that's secondary."  Her priority is one-on-one discipleship.

Robbie nursing at Tambo                   

(the NTM school for missionaries' children in Bolivia)