Alumni Spotlight: Alan and Michelle Ambrose
Alan and I attended Northwest from 1993 to 1997. Alan was a part of the missions program and I (Michelle) graduated with a degree in Biblical literature. Two weeks after I graduated, we flew to Indonesia to serve a two-year term as missionary associates. For a few years previous to our arrival in Indonesia, Alan and I had already felt a call to serve overseas. However, we were feeling called to serve in Europe. So Indonesia we a huge detour for us. But God used this time in our lives to grow us in ways we probably would have never had the opportunity to grow in had we gone straight to Europe. Our time in Indonesia was rich with learning opportunities and filled with adventure. We experienced a government being overthrown, being evacuated, and life lessons that only living cross-culturally can teach you. This experience not only grew us, but also solidified our call to the mission field and specifically to Austria.
After our two years in Indonesia, we moved back to the States and began the process of applying to be career missionaries.
During our time at Northwest, God used some specific encounters to help guide us towards university ministry and specifically university ministry in Austria. It was through an elective class called "European Missions Strategies" that God began to give Alan and I a vision for reaching university students. After applying for full-time missions, it took us another two years to complete the itineration process and finally arrive in Austria.
Once we arrived, we attended language school for a year in Vienna before moving to Graz, where we currently live and serve. We started our student group with a handful of students from the local church and now, 11 years later, we have three student groups in our church. Alan is also active on the campus on a weekly basis, reaching out to students. We are excited to see the doors that God is opening for us to reach out to the 40,000 students on campus here in Graz.