A Higher Calling: Local woman heads to Africa

By SCARLET O’ROURKE

Staff Writer

Felicia Bergman, 21, literally dreams of traveling to South Africa to do missionary work. It’s a venture she plans on making a reality. (Staff photo by Scarlet O’Rourke)

“Follow your dreams” seems to be the mantra of the younger generation, and for 21-year-old Felicia Berg­man, it is exactly what she is doing.

After dreaming about being in Africa, Bergman feels that she is called to do missions in South Africa and is working to raise the funds to make her dream a reality.

“I had a dream right after I had gotten back from a mis­sion trip in Mexico and I was in Africa, and I remember I looked over towards India but that wasn’t where I was supposed to go,” Bergman said.“So I turned around and I ended up talking to a boy who was going to be a tribe leader. And I ended up talking to him about Christ. As soon as I woke up, I knew this was what I was supposed to be do­ing.”

There are cities in South Africa much like those in the United States, but on the outskirts of the thriving areas are hundreds of thousands of people living in poverty and sickness.

“The government can’t handle the people so they end up having to stay on the out­skirts of the cities and make these sham towns. We’ll be going to an area of about 3.5 miles, and there are 250,000 of those people, and out of that, 100,000 have AIDS,” Bergman said.

Her passion for the mis­sion field began when she first came to her faith through Teen Mania, a non-for-profit organization that facilitates a youth convention called Ac­quire the Fire. The conven­tion is conducted across the US with skit performances and bands sharing Christ to the teenagers.

For more on this story, pick up a copy of the May 26 edition of the Port Isabel South Padre Press or check out our E-edition by clicking here.