At a Bible camp at age 10, Sharon listened, captivated, to a missionary who had served in the Belgian Congo. That night, she made a radical promise to God: "I want to be a missionary and die for you."

But life intervened. She married a man who didn't share her spiritual goals, and her dream was shelved. Over the decades, she made small attempts to serve — even raising half the funds for an orphanage trip to Mozambique — but she could never fully break through. Yet the burning desire to reach the lost never left her heart, leaving her wrestling with a profound sense of failure.

"I felt great guilt during that time," Sharon shared through tears. "It still bothers me, even now."

The unfulfilled calling was agonizing. 

“I would cry out to God, ‘Take this desire away from me! I can't stand it, it's killing me!’” Yet that yearning to serve remained.

The 10-Foot Storage Space

Decades passed, and in March 2023, Sharon was an 83-year-old widow “minding her own business” during her morning quiet time.

“I was very bored,” she said. “God asked me what I wanted to do, and I said, ‘Preach the Gospel.’ The Lord told me, ‘Now’s the time.’”

After applying to YWAM and being approved (the oldest in her class), Sharon successfully completed a seven-week mission trip in Germany. After returning home, Sharon began preparing for her next assignment to share God’s Word. But to Sharon’s dismay, her next application was rejected.

“I went into a depression. I was just sick,” she said. “I was so determined I’d do missions work for the rest of my life that I had already given away and sold nearly all of my household goods. Everything I owned fit in a 10-foot storage space.”

A Digital Open Door

After waiting 73 years to become a missionary, Sharon was back to square one, feeling completely aimless and lost. While looking for an apartment, a friend of Sharon’s — a retired ExploreGod Online Missionary (OM) named Kathy — asked what she wanted to do with her life.

"I told her, 'Preach the Gospel,'” Sharon said. “And my friend told me, 'I've got just the thing for you.'"

That conversation introduced Sharon to ExploreGod. Having previously quit a volunteer role because of her extreme frustration with computers, she was concerned about the amount of technology required to become an OM. But this time, she refused to let another opportunity slip away.

"Boy, I really had to pray myself through those months of instruction," she said. "I'm technology-challenged, so it wasn't easy at first."

But since becoming an Online Missionary in January 2025, Sharon is preaching the Gospel in ways her 10-year-old self never could have imagined.

A Fierce Faith

Today, Sharon sits at her computer for one to two hours a day, reaching people all over the world for Christ. She specifically disciples people like Joshua, a 23-year-old in Uganda. Abandoned by his mother and raised by relatives, Joshua lives in abject poverty, battling despair and a life that feels completely dead-ended.

"I keep encouraging him that God knows his situation and is with him," she said.

Because she knows many of her contacts are in dangerous or desperate situations, Sharon refuses to offer empty platitudes. Instead, she describes her mindset as taking the "preach as a dying man to dying men" attitude. 

She steers seekers directly to the Bible, pushing them to develop a "fierce faith" and warning them not to settle for a "casual, convenient faith."

The Exponential Impact

Serving as an OM hasn’t just impacted Sharon’s contacts; it has completely transformed her, too. Although she hadn't read the entire Bible from start to finish until she was 73, her daily online outreach has forced her to memorize Scripture and deepen her understanding.

"Boy, did I find out I have a lot of pieces to the puzzle, but being an OM has forced me to put them together," she noted. "I feel like it's been a crash course in Bible school."

Now, she acts as a constant recruiter, reminding older believers that even if they feel underutilized by their local church, God still has a massive purpose for their lives.

"I often appeal to the fact that retired people often have time on their hands," she said. "This is a way for retired believers to stay productive. It really keeps your mind active."

After decades of waiting, Sharon finally has her mission field. And she refuses to wait another minute to pursue it.

Getting Involved

For OMs like Sharon, serving with ExploreGod is an opportunity to fulfill a calling to missions that physical travel doesn’t allow for. It’s a way to spread the Gospel across borders, to men and women in desperate need of the hope and salvation found only in Christ.

If you’d like to take your next step toward sharing God’s Word with a world that needs to hear it more than ever, here’s how you can get involved:

• Learn more about becoming an Online Missionary for the language(s) you speak. You don't have to live in the same part of the world to bring the Gospel to people searching for hope.
• Give a gift to help more Gospel ads reach people in their moment of need.