My Bio: The Short Version…
My name is Julie Anderson and I’ve been on staff with AIM since 1996. I grew up in Cherokee, IA, and attended college at Northwestern College in St Paul, MN. After graduating in ’94 with a BA in Bible and Graphic Design I worked as a graphic designer and youth worker in Minneapolis for 2 years. During that time I took my youth group on a mission trip to Matamoros Mexico with AIM and was hooked. After 6 years on staff with AIM based in Mexico and leading trips all over Latin America, I went graduate school at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. I received my MA in Spiritual Formation and Discipleship in ’04and then headed off to Swaziland where I’ve been since September 2004. In January ’05 I met my beautiful daughter Nosipho Elizabeth (Ellie) at the government hospital in Mbabane, Swaziland. I started fostering her March ’05 and the adoption was complete in June 06. Currently I am heading up AIM’s women’s ministry in Swaziland, and have started Timbali Crafts as an income generating opportunity for women. I desire to see the HOPE of Christ transform this hurting nation!
My Bio: The More Detailed Version…
January 2005
It’s 2:30AM and I’ve just returned home from the government hospital here in Mbabane, Swaziland. There’s a little baby girl there, not even three days old and less than four pounds, who was dumped on the hospital property and found by security guards yesterday morning wrapped in a plastic bag. Inadequate hospital staff, along with inadequate training and facilities, makes proper care for such a tiny baby nearly impossible. So we sat with her for a few hours tonight to do her hourly feedings (and flick cockroaches out of her bed) while another crew is heading out shortly to take over. I’ve never seen a baby so small. I can literally hold her with one hand.
I’ve spent years learning about ministry in Bible school and graduate school, and while incredibly valuable, I don’t think the little baby girl cared much about my degrees or all the books I’ve read. I’ve learned about compassion and God’s heart for the world by being in the middle of hurting and needy people. They’re everywhere—the hurting and needy—but the key is putting ourselves in their path.
My first overseas experience was in South America after my sophomore year at Northwestern College in St. Paul, MN. We spent 12 weeks in Ecuador and Colombia helping out full-time missionaries there. In the midst of eating guinea pig soup, hiking it through muddy Amazon jungle paths, and a few choice encounters with bats and spiders, God changed me. Through being confronted with poverty for the first time, seeing tiny churches with no resources praising God in the middle of the jungle, and experiencing a different culture, He gave me a heart for the nations. Just a few weeks into the trip, I knew that God was calling me to be a missionary.
It was a thought I’d often entertained as a child. I grew up attending a small country church that allowed countless missionary slides to be flashed on their walls. Throughout high school and then in college, my goals were mostly focused on art. I was studying graphic design. When I realized God was changing my direction in life, I thought, “Have I just wasted two years studying art? Do I have to change my major to missions?”
I remember distinctly a conversation I had with one of our host missionaries that summer. We were standing in the kitchen of their home in the jungle, talking by candlelight. I shared my concerns with her about my studies, and she said, “Oh Julie, just keep doing what you’re doing. God gave you creative gifts for a reason and they are needed on the mission field.” It was a simple statement, but caused a lot of light bulbs to go off in my head. I realized that God had reasons for the ways he’d created and gifted me. So I kept on studying art and planning my path to the mission field. The next summer, I had the amazing opportunity to do my graphic design internship in the jungles of Peru at a mission station print shop. My heart for the nations kept growing, and I was ready to be done with school and off to the mission field ASAP. God’s plans, again, were a little different than my own.
I spent my final year of college freaking out about trying to “find God’s will” for my life. After corresponding with about every mission organization in existence, I finally realized that God was calling me to stay in the states a bit longer. I continued working with the youth at my church in Minneapolis, and also got a great job as the designer for a Christian magazine. God used this time to cultivate in me a healthy restlessness about having a “normal life” in America. I also gained invaluable ministry experience that continually caused me to seek His strength and wisdom and the Spirit’s empowerment for ministry.
A fear that I quickly had to confront once I realized I was on the road to being a missionary was my shyness. Talking in front of people stressed me out. I grew up seeing that every missionary was expected to be a brilliant speaker, ready to talk at any moment. That was NOT my personality. Someone asked me the other day about the biggest lessons I have learned in my years as a missionary. One of them is not to live by or make decisions based on fear. Somehow, God got me started doing things that were a little bit too bold for comfort. But every time, I saw God come through and provide exactly what I needed for what He called me to do. I think I’ve become a bit addicted to tossing myself out of my comfort zone, because it’s such a rush to see God swoop in and catch me. I’m still not a brilliant speaker…but at least I speak, and God seems to use it! And while some of the places where I’ve lived and traveled aren’t always the safest, and ministry is challenging, God allows me to walk in peace and confidence in Him—not fear.
A year and a half out of college, I headed to the mission field again with the church where I worked. We spent two weeks ministering in Trinidad and some obscure islands in the Caribbean. I sensed God saying, “Okay Julie, I’m about ready to send you off to the nations, but this time don’t stress yourself out about it. Be faithful daily in the little things, and I’ll guide you in the big things.” I spent the next couple of months trying just to be obedient daily. That Christmas (1995), I took the youth from my church on a mission trip to Matamoros, Mexico, with Adventures In Missions. After the second day, I knew that God was preparing me to minister there, and nine months later I was on AIM’s full-time Mexico staff.
Big lesson number two came hard and fast during my first year on the mission field: I am a citizen of heaven. Break-ins plagued my first months in Mexico, and my car was stolen. I started living off support, left all my friends and family to head to another country, and threw myself into the world of short-term missions where there are few long-term relationships. I left behind a lot of the things that I enjoyed about this world. In the midst of it all, God taught me in a powerful way that I was a foreigner—not only in all the countries where I ministered, but in the world in general. The closer I stuck to Him and the harder I followed Him, the less this world was going to feel like home. My mindset slowly changed (but still many times needs to be whipped back into shape) as I realized that eternity in heaven is a much greater reality my current life on this planet. Little by little, I began to cling less tightly to the things of this world and live more comfortably in my new nomadic lifestyle. My time here is short, and I need to focus on doing things of eternal value. I have a favorite quote by Jonathan Edwards stuck to the wall by my bed: “Oh God, stamp eternity on my eyeballs!”
After five years at the Mexico base and leading teams all over Latin America, God started to give my heart for the nations a different focus: the most needy and least-reached people of the world. At the same time, I began praying about taking a small sabbatical that turned into pursuing a Masters in Discipleship at Moody Bible Institute. I focused my prayers continually on seeking God’s direction for the future. During a mission conference, I heard many statistics about the AIDS pandemic in Africa—how that disease was killing one generation and leaving another orphaned. I began praying about whether or not God wanted me to somehow minister in the midst of it.
Shortly after, AIM got involved in battling HIV/AIDS and ministering to its victims in Swaziland, Africa. Within a few months, God led me to go and I arrived here in September, 2004. I’m here…putting myself in the path of the hurting and needy…not always feeling like I know how to respond to the infinite needs I see here. But I’m glad to be in the middle of it and that God is faithful to use me as I’ve followed Him here.
NOTE: The baby mentioned at the beginning on my bio is now my daughter. Her name is Nosipho Elizabeth (Ellie). Nosipho means “gift” in the Swazi language, and Elizabeth means that “God is more than able to provide,” which He has proven over and over since I’ve become a mom! Ellie is beautiful and I’m so thankful to be sharing life with her. Currently I am heading up and developing AIM’s ministry to the women of Swaziland. Pray that we would bring the hope of Christ to this hurting nation!
