Julie wasn’t satisfied. She was teaching fulltime in her home country of Mauritius, but she wanted to work in the mission field. She had always been interested in mission, so when one of her friends sent her a Facebook post about Adventist World Radio’s (AWR) Center for Digital Evangelism (CDE) in Silang, Cavite, Philippines, she felt it was the perfect time to leave her job and pursue what she really wanted to do. After she applied, she was convinced she wouldn’t get the position. “I wasn’t really positive at that point in my life,” she says. “But I told myself that I would never know if I didn’t try.” Everyone she told encouraged her along the way, and she was accepted! She felt God leading her in this direction, telling her, “Don’t get discouraged; we’ll get there, just keep on, keep on.” Julie arrived in the Philippines in November of 2022 and remained there until August of 2024. CDE was a unique mission experience. Instead of working directly with local people, CDE missionaries communicate and share Jesus online.

The center is organized into four teams: Connect, Disciple, Influence, and Reach. Team Disciple was responsible for Zoom Bible studies, and Team Reach created social media content for various accounts. Team Influence maintained the digital missionary app and ensured it was accessible to church members. Julie was part of Team Connect. “We were responsible for answering messages from YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and other Filipino social platforms,” she says. Julie remembers one girl the team communicated with online. She was challenging to share the gospel with, always seeming to need reassurance. “It reminded me that sometimes people don’t come to us to know Jesus, but they come to us for presence,” she says. “They come to us for some kind of healing. If we listen enough, we will know how to reach the core of what is aching in their life and present Jesus at that moment. I don’t know if this person gave her heart to Jesus, but I know that we planted a seed.” During her time in the Philippines, Julie had the opportunity to go on two training mission trips. The first was for a youth congress, where Julie presented the advantages and disadvantages of social media. “I shared how in CDE we tried to use social media platforms and technology to bring the gospel forward,” she says. On the second mission trip, she drew on her experience working in the CDE call center to train her listeners to be professional, use the right tone of voice, and respond to callers appropriately. CDE was an incredibly diverse program. At one point during Julie’s time there, missionaries from more than 20 countries were represented.

All of them lived in the same dorm—women on one side, men on the other. “We ate breakfast together, lunch together, worked together, and had dinner together,” says Julie. “It was bonding that was almost like family for me.” But, of course, families have their ups and downs. “I learned to suspend judgment,” she says, “because it’s so easy to see something that differs from your own culture, family setting, and society and to think, ‘They’re wrong, and I’m right.’ But suspending judgment first and trying to listen and understand made things easier for me.” She also learned the importance of loving one another. “At CDE, we were so close to each other that if you didn’t love one another, it was very difficult,” she remembers. But God gave her love, compassion, and tolerance, helping her know when to stay silent and when to speak. “God’s guidance is premium; it’s really topnotch!” she says. Even though living and working with such a diverse family had its complications, Julie says the people were her favorite part of her mission experience. She doesn’t think she’ll ever experience an environment quite like CDE. “From the South Americans to the Filipinos to the Africans and our German boss, there was genuine sharing and giving,” she says. “I learned a lot about myself and about other people. I always thought missionaries go to bring something, but I received so much more in return.”