For those of you who faithfully pray and give financially to my ministry, I am forever grateful. This year has been full of health challenges that have kept me from traveling as much but I have been busy from my home office, meeting with clients around the world. Women and couples are connected with me through referrals, through my connection with Paraclete Ministries and through my connection with Thrive Ministries. They receive discounted services because of your generosity. I am letting you in on the countries reached this year and a few clients offered to share their sentiments so that I don’t have to toot my own horn….
Countries served in 2022:
Mexico
Malaysia
Phillippines
Lesotho
South Africa
Papua New Guinea
Nepal
Denver Seminary
Stateside (furloughed or serving in pastoral roles here in the states)
Here are a few of those testimonies I promised:
First off, thank you to those that donate to Sonia’s ministry so that she can counsel me. Thank you isn’t enough but I wanted to start off by saying thank you. As missionaries, you are put on a pedestal of “always having it together” when in reality, you are experiencing some of the hardest things you have ever had to experience. The pressure is suffocating and daunting…Sonia has been a breath of fresh air for this tired, weary and sometimes confused missionary. She met me where I was and gave me confidence and encouragement to talk thru how I was feeling. Please know that by helping subsidize so that Sonia can help missionaries like me, YOU are advancing the kingdom. My family may be on the front lines but you are all behind us, cheering us, supporting us, and encouraging us thru Sonia. She’s phenomenal in the way she counsels! I’m forever grateful for the time I’ve had with her “for such a time as this”…
Missionary, Papua New Guinea
I know what it is to be a missionary with support (financial, emotional, spiritual), and to be a missionary without it. When I met Sonia, it felt like I reunited with an old friend. In that season, I struggled to trust the way I heard God’s voice and doubted His interest in me, but Sonia would say a phrase at the end of every session together: “You are on the right track.” I always thought, “I wouldn’t need you if I were on the right track!” What a lie.
Sonia is a gift from God to me to accompany me on the track and just simply keep me going forward. She has taught me to love truth and to be kind to myself. Because of Sonia, I felt God’s nearness and tender care for my heart, soul, and mind on the mission field. Thank you for supporting her and allowing her to continue being a bright light that illuminates even the darkest valley.
Missionary, Mexico
Thank you so much for all the time you have spent counseling with me! It has been such a huge blessing. I feel like I am going back to the field in a better place, with more awareness and with tools to help me be more of the person that God intended me to be. Thank you for your encouragement to take the hard steps, for your explanations of the crazy situations and for opening my mind to new ways of thinking about things. Your ministry is such a blessing! Thank you for filling a huge need that exist in the missionary world.
Missionary, Nepal
As I journey on as a global worker, missionary who advocates for spiritual, physical and mental health, the road is never clear of how the Lord plans to use me. Your partnership in my work is so important.
On a personal level, Mike and I are adjusting to living in our new land of Waco, Texas, which is very different than the states of California, Utah and Colorado, where we have lived before. We are learning a new culture and language and making new friends at a stage of life where that isn’t the easiest. Moving our business and our home has had its many challenges but I continue to marvel at how God uses my personal mountains to equip me in my ministry. As I interact with women who willingly face the challenge of relocation to the ends of the earth to spread the love of God as they serve as nurses, work with sex trafficked, fly airplanes into places no one else will go, to serve and minister to the unseen and the forsaken….all for the Glory of our Lord…I am empowered to soldier on! I am blessed to be a part of the Great Commission in the way that God has equipped me.
What is your part in the Great Commission? Are you equipped to PRAY? To GIVE? To GO? Or all three? Would you like to know how to best connect with organizations where you can be a part of something bigger than yourself?
As always, let me know if I can help.
With love,
Sonia Nelson
To give to the Nelson Ministry at Paraclete Ministries click here.
Now before you go thinking that I am judgey and start rolling your eyes in my direction, let me clarify that if going out with the girls and throwing back a few is a good time for you, by all means go. But if you are calling this event self care, be sure that after participating in the event, you can honestly say you are a much better person for going and you are more ready to take on the world because of the time spent. A good time is a good time but it isn’t always self care.
Self care, in the therapeutic sense addresses more than just the needs at the surface. It addresses the calling of one’s intellectual, physical and spiritual self. Let’s break these down practically so that you can start thinking of your own ideas of how to feed these areas of your life.
The day that our home closed, I drove to Beaver Creek, Colorado to serve at the Thrive retreat for global workers home on furlough. What a joy to be able to meet in person and see how God works to meet the needs of those serving Him! My husband is a saint for meeting the moving truck and dealing with the initial move in without me, before flying back to Colorado to drive our car down to Waco together. At that retreat, 20 volunteers and attendees tested positive for Covid but fortunately everyone got to build their immunity, without any reporting that they needed more than some time at home recovering. However, the whole event has caused Thrive to reconsider the upcoming retreats overseas, which changes my game plan for the next year. 
As I settle into Waco, I have already had the opportunity to get acquainted with amazing people doing local and overseas work and can’t wait to see what evolves out of these initial conversations. My inclination is to get excited and jump in wherever there is a need but I am feeling a sense that I need to wait for just the right fit, where I can use my gifts and time most effectively. Please pray with me, as more than ever, I want to use my time here on earth to God’s glory.
In closing, I will share the fun part of our new life in Texas! I get to see my precious girls all the time and I might never be cold again! Mike says he traded shoveling snow for skimming leaves out of our pool. We are currently drinking the Baylor Kool-Aid every chance we get…football, theater, taking walks on the campus. Last week we joined Antioch Church, where we have been attending online for 5 years. We still need to put a few more pictures on the walls but it is all coming along and we are excited that family and friends have already booked some weekends in our guest room during the upcoming months. 
World-changers are people who take their trauma and do something good with it. They use their character building tough days, as motivation for making their family, their community, and even the earth a better place. Google “People who overcame adversity to do big things” and you will see lists and lists of people who didn’t stop because they endured a hardship. We all have 2020 as a springboard into a great 2021. Do you accept the challenge?
