Narrative Summary
Interview with Abigail Wheeler by Kayla King
Abigail Wheeler is a 21 year old college senior at Missouri State University in
Springfield, Missouri. She is very devoted to the Christian faith that she was raised in by her
parents, and it shows in every aspect of the way she lives her life. From her decisions about
schooling to how she treats her friends and strangers around her, her love for God is quickly
evident. Perhaps most significantly, her willingness to listen to God in his calling on her life
directs her decisions about what she wants to do with her future.
For the most part, Abigail has lived a seemingly peaceful life to now. She has gone to
church on a regular basis for her entire life, and her father was even a pastor at one point. Even
after leaving home to live on her own, she has chosen to follow, and has stayed very involved in,
Christianity and the Church. Before going to Missouri State University, Abigail graduated from
high school a year early and decided to go to Bible college for a year before going to university.
She described that experience as the thing that made her grow up and begin having her own
opinions apart from her parents. The program that she attended was a theological immersion
about what the Bible says and the theology that’s a result of that. She said she learned a lot about
how to study the Bible on her own and how to practice her faith on a daily basis.
While at Missouri State University, she has been involved in a college campus Christian
ministry that has been a big part of shaping her faith to where it currently is. It was in a meeting
with that ministry that she first felt God’s calling on her life to be involved with missions in
some way. The night after hearing a message by the college pastor about God’s heart for
missions, Abigail went home and researched ways to serve overseas. She said that she looked at
many websites and filled out some email forms on several, but it wasn’t until she received a
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phone call from one that she was sure about where God was calling her to go. She’s not afraid to
question the things her parents and church told her while growing up, and test them against what
the Bible says – in fact, doing so is very important to her.
The mission trip program that she was involved with in Papua New Guinea as a result has
been the most influential experience for her faith thus far. When she talked about the trip and all
that she learned, she lit up and was so excited to talk about it. The main goal of the program was
to teach young people who are interested in missions about what life as a missionary in a tribe is
like. Abigail said that the group would go to classes in the mornings where they learned about
the culture, and in the evenings they would participate in events with the local people. She said
several times that she was with other girls while there, so I asked what it was like as a woman
there and if there were men that were also part of the group. She said that it was tricky to be
around any men there, because the locals would immediately assume that they were dating any
man that they were seen with.
Abigail also shared some about her personal beliefs and practices and the things that
inspire her. In her personal practice of Christianity, she spends time each day reading her Bible
and devotionals and praying. She attends a Sunday morning service and Sunday school class
every week, and also goes to a Sunday evening service when she can. On weekdays, she leads a
small group Bible study and attends a meeting of the campus ministry each week. When asked
about how she feels as a woman, she was excited to share how much she’s learned about being a
woman as a Christian through her recent experiences. She told about how she used to be
offended when men would do things for her, like hold a door open, and she felt that she was able
to do everything on her own. However, when she went on her trip to Papua New Guinea, she
gained a whole new perspective on how women should relate to men. She said that she saw how
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women should relate to men and vice versa in a whole new way, with an incredible new
appreciation for the way God designed it. She was very excited about how beautiful that system
is.
In regards to her future, Abigail isn’t at all sure where God will take her or what she will
do, but it is clear from the way she talks about it that missions is something she is very
passionate about.
“He set up this beautiful thing of how a man and a woman interact with each other. It
really is beautiful. And I didn’t see that until I went to Papua New Guinea, because the
missionaries there have had to endure so much … but they got a lot of that right with how men
and women interact with each other and the respect and – it’s hard out there! Climbing up a hill
that’s really steep angle – that’s like yeah, the men carry more stuff and I was not okay with that
when I was in Bible college. Like you’re holding the door open for me?! That’s awkward.
You’re taking my plate and my tray at lunch?! I don’t like that! I am a woman; I am strong; I can
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do this! Don’t make allowances for me … After going to Papua New Guinea and seeing how the
men and women interacted, I was like ‘God, you have set up a beautiful thing! This reliance on
each other… I think it’s beautiful to be a woman and I agree that men and women are
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