The Call to Go: Alma’s Story

Alma Walker was on staff at College Park for more than thirteen years, and she may very well have stayed another thirteen years if it weren’t for a divine redirection.

It all started when God very clearly told her, “Alma, you’re done.”

While she wasn’t quite sure what would come next, Alma obeyed. She resigned in June of 2013 with the goal of taking the summer off and coming back in the fall as a church volunteer. But God had other plans.

Alma, who has been a fixture at College Park since 1997, felt God calling her to start a completely new ministry. In many ways, it was God fulfilling a desire she’d had since childhood.

“When I was 12-years-old, my church had an international ministry service,” she says. “At the end of the service, they asked those who wanted to give their life to the Lord for missions, to stand. And I stood.”

Since then, Alma’s life of ministry has been anything but typical. She thought God would send her overseas to do mission work. Instead, he brought a man into her life who was called to be a pastor here in the U.S.

Together, Alma and her husband Donald served in ministry for more than forty years. Once they began attending College Park, they continued serving together in many capacities before Donald passed away in 2013.

It was that experience that led Alma to quit her job at College Park and start the Widow Ministry. Now, she leads a group of more than eighty women. She is serving as a missionary, right here in Indianapolis.

And when people ask Alma Walker what she needs, her answer is simple: “There’s not a thing I need. Just more Jesus.”

That’s why you likely won’t see Alma before 11 a.m. unless it’s Sunday morning. She spends the morning with Jesus, worshipping and praying; and she keeps on praying until she feels loved.

“It’s all God,” she says of the path her life has taken. “There’s no dodging what he has for me or what he wants me to do.”

At 86-years-young, Alma continues to follow the Lord as he grows and stretches her faith. That means that when—after a lifetime of local ministry—God called Alma to go on a Vision Trip in 2019—she said “yes.” Lord-willing, she will be sharing the gospel in London this June—exactly six years after she first took the step of faith to quit her job and start the Widows Ministry.

“At my age? Going overseas for ministry?” Alma is surprised, but she is ready to follow. If there’s anything she has learned so far by walking with Christ, it’s that mission work can happen whenever and wherever you are.

The key, she says, is to intentionally dedicate yourself, moment by moment, to whatever God has for you. And whether she’s in England or Indiana, Alma intends to live that out.

“Even if it comes to the place where I am homebound—which is hard and lonely—I still have a ministry in prayer. “And that is so needed,” she says with a nod. “I am convinced that prayer moves the hand of God.”