Angela Hopkins is between jobs.She's actually not looking for the 9-to-5 variety, but the next one where someone needs her. In the past, it might have been teaching or working with kids, for that's her passion, or volunteering for an overseas mission.

She says: "There are so many good causes out there, and there are so many choices about how to use the 24 hours we have. How do we figure out which of them should we do?"

Angela is not certain what her next step will be, but she knows exactly where it will become clear:

"In silence, that awareness grows."

Angela's daily discipline brings her to sit quietly, waiting to hear - or more, to know - what she should do. It is in the silence that she develops her relationship with God.

"Instead of going to God, saying, 'Here's my list, tell me which one to choose,' we don't listen to the guidance God gives us. We're talking to God 50 miles a minute (saying), 'You choose, God,' instead of the other way around.

"It always comes. God always gives you an answer. "

Several years ago, Angela heard someone speak about genocide in Burundi and Rwanda and the subsequent reconciliation work. It shook her faith.

"(This man) knew people who had killed members of their own family. I just didn't know if I could love and pray for healing and reconciliation with my neighbors (if I were in that situation). I just didn't know if I could love in that way."

She went on a retreat - returning to the silence, questioning, pondering. She offers a warning about the answers:

"It may not be what you want to hear. We often miss our blessings because we aren't open to receiving packages that are not wrapped in pretty bows the way we expect gifts to be."

Because, she says, a week later, she found herself headed to Burundi. She didn't have any money; funding fell into place. She didn't know how to build things; in Africa, she spent the summer building a hospital and five homes. She was scared to death; it all worked out.

"That was the beginning of something I did not plan to do."

Angela didn't know what she had to offer people who had been through so much. She learned a lot:

"The journey is the faithfulness to just show up, regardless of the results.

"I don't have to be perfect. (I don't have to have all the answers.) I can love. I have desire and willingness. "

When she returned, she heard another story about the lack of school supplies in Kenya, the way children did their spelling with sticks in the dirt. She thought of all the supplies she could find. A friend found a bunch of suitcases while cleaning out her basement and Angela's "suitcase ministry" was begun.

"Whenever I would go (to Africa), I would fill suitcases. I'd go back and forth, developing relationships with different schools. I went to Ethiopia, then South Africa, listening, sharing their stories."

Angela sensed a pattern and sought "discernment" in her silence - searching for an answer to her vocation. Angela is not independently wealthy, but money seems to appear when it is needed.

"I still say today, 'Lord, I'll go wherever I'm asked to go if a way is made.' I've never not been able to go."

Now, in the silence, between trips, she listens again. Somewhere, there's a need and somehow, she can help. When it's right, it'll all fall into place. Angela sits quietly, knowing that the discipline of waiting, looking for clarity, discerning the answer will give her an answer, all in due time.

"To me, we still get miracles. I see and live these miracles. That to me that's how I came to an understanding of God."