When 29‑year‑old Brazilian biologist Letícia moved to the Netherlands for her master’s in ecology, she got what she had always wanted: to go far away, explore on her own, and experience life in another culture. She had applied to universities in the Netherlands, Germany and England, praying that God would guide her to the right place. In the end, a scholarship from Radboud and a deep inner sense of peace made the decision clear to her: “Okay, God, now I understand this is where I’m supposed to go.”
After arriving, Leticia loved how much she learned from Dutch culture, especially in how people work and solve problems. But the practical side was tough. She hadn’t expected how confusing bureaucracy could be: not knowing, for instance, that when moving houses she had to go to the municipality to register. On top of that, she was doing a demanding master’s, far from family and friends. Looking back, she describes that first year as “kind of surviving,” trying to figure out personal life, university and a new culture all at once.
Leticia’s journey with faith started when she was a child in Brazil. As a kid, church felt more like a place with food and nice people than something deeply personal. That changed in high school, when her Christian best friend invited her to a church with people her own age. There, she started to ask what this faith meant for her life. Around 15, she was baptised, beginning a process that, as she puts it, “brought me to today.” So in the Netherlands, she immediately started searching for a church. At first, there was nothing nearby. The closest option she found was a train and two buses every Sunday. She was grateful to have a church at all, but the distance was heavy. She remembers praying for “a closer church.”
About a year later, she searched again, and this time found a brand-new church plant in Nijmegen. She describes walking in and instantly feeling at home. The community welcomed and embraced her from the start. Through the church she met Mika, a local Navigators leader who invited her to join the internationals group. For Letícia, it was exactly what she had been hoping for. Her first year in the Netherlands had been all about surviving and getting everything set up. In her second year, she felt more relaxed. That made it “the perfect timing” to join something like Navigators and to meet new people with more intention.
Inside Navigators, what marked her most was the atmosphere. It is a mix of ordinary life, shared culture, and seeking God together. One evening in particular, an international dinner where everyone cooked a dish from their own country, still stands out clearly. She made rice, beans and chicken the Brazilian way, “normal food” for her that is deeply tied to home. For someone from a culture where cooking is “a big deal,” where people sit together at the table for a long lunch, eat and talk, it was a moment of being truly seen and being part of a community.
For her, that evening sums up what Navigators Internationals is about: you bring who you are, where you’re from and how you were raised, and you “put it on the table,” literally and figuratively. You share your life and your culture while you also share God and learn about Him together. That combination, she says, was “very beautiful” and captures what the Navigators means to her.
The group became a space of transformation. She remembers the whole Navigators experience as something that changed her faith, her communication, the way she relates to others. As a biologist who has always felt more comfortable with animals than with people, she laughs that she “didn’t really know how to deal with people” before. Through being part of the Navigators, she learned to handle relationships and group dynamics in a “better, more wise” way, something she now uses daily in her job back in Brazil.
Bible studies in Navigators were another key element. The group would read a passage and then share what each person understood. That simple dynamic of listening to different perspectives on the same text opened up new layers of meaning and made her want to read the Bible more for herself. It was “exciting” to realise that others could see aspects she had missed, and that her own insights could also enrich them.
The international character of the group added a richness she still misses. She loved seeing how people from different cultures prayed, read the Bible and talked about God. For example, she noticed someone always starting prayer with gratitude, thanking God before asking for anything, which helped her remember what she was grateful for before she began “complaining.” Switching languages in prayer became meaningful too. Having always prayed in Portuguese, she started praying in English in the Netherlands, picking up phrases from others. Even back in Brazil, she sometimes still prays in English for topics connected to her time in the Netherlands, because it feels more natural that way.
Eventually, as her master’s drew to a close, she began to sense through prayer that she should return to Brazil. That realisation brought both peace and sadness. She told the church and Mika, and they gathered around her, prayed, blessed her and “sent” her back. She describes going home feeling like a missionary to her own country, carrying with her everything she had received in the Netherlands. Today, she can see clearly how her time in Navigators continues to shape her. Facing new challenges regarding her future, she looks back and remembers how God led and sustained her “on the other side of the world.” That gives her courage to trust Him again. “It made me braver,” Leticia says. “It made me trust God even more. I’m ready to go wherever, as long as God is with me.”
When she thinks about students who are unsure whether to join Navigators Internationals, her advice is simple: give it a try. In her words, “Give yourself this gift. Maybe you’re shy, or maybe you’re like, ‘I don’t know about this faith and this God thing,’ but just go.”
