Daria Toma

God has directed the circumstances of my life to send me to Africa, as His worker. Silently I heard God whispering to me, ‘I am looking for someone’, and then I understood that it was not about our work, but His work, not our abilities, but God’s boundless gifts and, where we end, He will begin.
Our hands would be too short anyway to embrace them all, but we found a love that does it without touching us, without words, and a hand lifted up opens heavens for others.

I wished I had died, that I had not seen and heard how people live here… a heartbreaking truth but, once you know, you become responsible.
A striking moment experienced on the mission field was the confrontation of the struggle between hunger of the soul and hunger of the flesh; Satan’s struggle to keep people hungry, uneducated, away from seeking God, and the satisfaction they find once they turn to God.

I am reminded of Pastor Mayere, one of the most joyful people I have ever met, and the meal he had. He was eating poisonous beans, wild plant seed porridge, tamarinds mixed with water and ashes…I realized then that joy is a fundamental part of faith, and joy is a personal choice.

My words would be too poor to describe the treasure I was to discover in weak people. God did so much more through those we thought we would serve, using them to serve us. In poverty I found wealth, in hunger I was filled, in suffering I saw joy. I understood that poverty does not rob you of joy, but enriches you.

I can declare that I knew more of God’s love for us and every day I would discover Him more and more full of glory and mercy.
I understood that serving Him is not optional and that God qualifies those who are called and those who are obedient, and now I can declare that God has proven the call He has placed on my heart and I know now that His faithfulness knows no bounds.

Blessed are the poor in spirit…

Mat. 5:3

“Blessed are you, for by your poverty you may enter My kingdom” (Oswald Chambers)