Free to Serve

I am Charley Threet. I am a registered nurse from Charlotte, NC. I am a Tribe member with MMO and have been traveling with them for a few years now. I am so thankful for each opportunity that I get to serve alongside them all over the world.

Six years ago, I made a very brash, un-prayed over, on a whim decision to move to Charlotte. I had lived my whole life in Tennessee and one day I put in a 2 week notice at my job, and moved to Charlotte. I was running from a lie that I had told and I had been living for 3 years. I wanted a fresh start where no one knew me. I could start over. I could be whoever I wanted to be. I didn’t know it at the time but that last minute decision to move would change the trajectory of my life forever.

I love how our plans and decisions are no match for God’s plans and decisions in our lives. I love how Romans 8:28 can scream so loud when my “should have been a disaster” decisions bring all the honor and glory to God. I didn’t know when I moved to Charlotte in February of 2017, that in August of 2017, I would find myself in the hospital from a suicide attempt. I didn’t know when I moved to Charlotte for a fresh start, that my past would follow me and continue to haunt me. I didn’t know that my mental health would be on the rocks, that alcohol would be my best friend, and the high I was so desperately searching for would be the low that I would plummet too. I didn’t know that the God I was running from, was the One chasing me down. I had no clue that the hatred I had for myself was drowning in the grace and love that He had for me. I didn’t know.

I didn’t know that overdosing on blood pressure medication and wine wouldn’t work. I didn’t know that the words of the nurse admitting me to the hospital would have such a profound impact “Ugh, another suicide attempt. Why can’t they just get it right?” I didn’t know that a promise and a prayer to God, who I hadn’t talked to or prayed to in ages would be answered. “If you will just get me out of here alive, I’ll go to nursing school”. I didn’t know. I didn’t know that He was working when I thought He was nowhere to be found. I didn’t know He wanted a relationship with me when no one else seemed to want me around. I didn’t know that He would take these broken pieces, fragments of myself that I had left Him with, and would pick them up and mold them into something beautiful. I didn’t know that He would take what the world saw as worthless and create a total masterpiece.

I didn’t know that in August of 2018, I would be starting nursing school and that He would be with me every step of the way. Every clinical day, every test to study for, every lecture to listen to, every project to complete, He never left. I didn’t know that in May 2020, I would graduate school, and He would go with me for every shift on that Covid floor that I worked on. I didn’t know that He would be there for every hand I held, every prayer I said, every “I’m so sorry, but your family member didn’t make it” phone call I made, and every body bag I closed. I didn’t know.

I didn’t know six years ago when I moved to Charlotte and chose to end my life that I would actually be madly, deeply in love with my Heavenly Father. I didn’t know Galatians 5:1 would be a resounding theme in my life “…Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” I didn’t know that my whole life would change and there would be joy and peace. I didn’t know that I would be traveling all over the world using my skills as a nurse and sharing the gospel.

I didn’t know that in August of 2021, while in Romania, we would see the lowest numbers at a clinic MMO had ever seen. I didn’t know that the very last patient seen in that clinic would be the one patient that would accept Jesus as his Savior. He leaves the 99 to go after the one. And God was after that one that day. We flew halfway across the world for that one. And every sky mile was worth it. Because God left the 99 and came after me that day too. I didn’t know that in June 2022, I would meet Rodney, in a little country called Malawi. When asked how he got saved, the biggest, brightest smile lit up his face and he said “Oh I met a missionary one day and he told me about Jesus and now nothing is the same. Everything has changed and I love Him so much.” I didn’t know that while in Mongolia in September 2022, I would be stepping into a community so deeply consumed by the practices of Buddhism and Shamanism. I didn’t know that one sweet lady would walk into clinic and exclaim that she had never felt so much peace as she did at that moment and would accept Jesus as her Savior after practicing Buddhism her whole life. I didn’t know that I would meet my good friend Unurei, whose grandfather was a Buddhist monk and on his death bed looked at him and his mom and said “This is not the way.” So, he and his mom started looking for “the way, the truth, and the life” and found Jesus.

Six years ago, I didn’t know. But today I do know, that “If the Son....shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” [John 8:36]