From Living in Poverty to Globally Transforming It, with Ana Megrelishvili

Key Takeaways

Transformation Through Faith: Ana's story highlights the transformative power of faith and community, demonstrating how even those facing significant adversity can find hope and purpose.

Overcoming Adversity: Her journey exemplifies resilience and determination, showing how education and a supportive network can break the cycle of poverty and abuse.

Purpose and Calling: Ana's experience underscores the importance of seeking one's purpose, suggesting that prayer and reflection can reveal one's calling, even in unexpected ways.

Community Impact: Her work with the Christian Professionals Network Worldwide illustrates how individuals can effect change by addressing both physical and relational poverty, emphasizing the importance of holistic support systems.

Hope and Redemption: Ana's story is a testament to God’s redemption and the idea that no matter how dire one's circumstances, there is potential for a better future through faith and perseverance.

Podcast Intro:
Ana Megrelishvili shares her incredible journey from a painful childhood marked by poverty and abuse to finding hope and purpose through faith and community. As a child, Ana faced severe hardships, including hunger and isolation, exacerbated by an abusive alcoholic father. Despite these challenges, she experienced a pivotal moment at 12 or 13 when she felt a profound sense of purpose, after receiving a word of encouragement from God. She shares that she didn’t realize it was God at the time but this experience stayed with her even to this day with great detail and vividness. As her story unfolds, you’ll see that God was speaking about His plans for her life.

Her path to transformation began with a life-changing opportunity to study in the United States as an exchange student, which exposed her to a loving and supportive Christian family. She discovered a way to return to the US via a college scholarship and in her second host family the father was a Christian pastor. These families modeled the heart of God and her experiences planted the seeds of faith, even though she initially resisted religious beliefs. It’s so like God to always be creating opportunities for us to know Him if we choose to engage Him, isn’t it?

She graduates with a degree in business and immediately jumps in to the lucrative career of sales. And she’s successful. After building a solid career in sales complete with the various accolades and achieving all of her personal goals such as buying the condo in the beautiful high-rise, having it tailored to her specific taste, driving the fancy car and wearing the beautiful clothes. Yet Ana felt unfulfilled and empty despite achieving her American dream.

She knew there had to be more to life and so she begins to question God. God visits again and speaks to her. She responds to what He says and makes the most of trying to follow what she heard. In her obedience she’s brought to tears, weeping because of an unexpected gesture from a homeless woman. In that moment a spiritual awakening ignited a genuine desire to pursue the heart of God and discover what her purpose in life was supposed to be.

As Ana shares her journey you’ll notice the golden thread that God was weaving throughout her life and continues to do so to this day. As she pursued God’s heart, laid down all the material things she had collected He brought her full circle and she shares that she’s never been more joy filled in all of her life. She now dedicates herself to addressing relational poverty through her global ministry, the Christian Professionals Network Worldwide, an initiative that aims to eradicate homelessness by building supportive communities and providing mentorship to those in need.

Let’s listen in to discover how God used the very thing, poverty, abuse, .the very things that were supposed to destroy Ana and leave her void of her purpose. But because Ana responded to God, she’s discovering what God had written on the pages of her life before even one of them came to be.

Lived Loved and Thrive! @Alifeofthrive.com
Sherrie Pilk

 

Related Resources:
Does God Care About People in Prison? Ex-con, Steven Snook says Yes!: https://alifeofthrive.com/2023/02/15/does-god-care-about-people-in-prison-ex-con-steven-snook-says-yes/
Crisis Pregnancy and Foundation House Ministries, with Suzanne Burns: https://alifeofthrive.com/2021/02/17/podcast-episode-suzanne-burns-crisis-pregnancy-and-foundation-house-ministries/
Unconditional Love - Blog post by Sherrie Pilk: https://alifeofthrive.com/2019/07/15/unconditional-love/
His Way - Blog post by Sherrie Pilk: https://alifeofthrive.com/2020/09/21/his-way/

 

Connect with Ana:
Website: www.cpnworldwide.com

Bio:
Ana Megrelishvili grew up in the country of Georgia in Eastern Europe in a highly dysfunctional family, experiencing hunger, violence, and abuse. Ana immigrated to the United States at the age of twenty on scholarship with Berea College in Kentucky, where she hoped to begin a better life.

After years of success in business, Ana had a transformative experience that resulted in surrendered faith. As a result of a God-given vision, Ana founded the Christian Professionals Network Worldwide (CPNW) in Atlanta, Georgia, blending her passion for positive change with actionable initiatives.

CPNW goes beyond typical networking by integrating business relationships with service-oriented values, fostering global community transformation. Grounded in Christian principles, Ana ensures CPNW serves as a collaborative hub, uniting faith-driven leaders to pursue a societal betterment.

Though CPNW Foundation work, Ana addresses relational poverty by facilitating meaningful connections and providing a support network. CPNW Foundation focuses on mentoring the homeless, providing them with the relationships and support necessary to rebuilt their lives and break the cycle of poverty.

Ana shares her journey of healing and resilience in her book, Finding Courage to Change, while also contributing to Powerful Female Immigrants: Volume 3, sharing her inspiring journey from Georgie to the US Ana’s impact extends to co-authoring Success Redefined with Jack Canfield, earning her recognition as an Amazon Best-Selling Author