Krly Ackerman, from Missionary to Christian Tik Toker: a Life with Purpose
BY GEORGINA ARIAS ÁVILA
God called me to preach the gospel in different ways. Tik Tok is one of them.”
Krly Ackerman has lived in Fairbanks for 15 years. Since she was young, Krly felt the call of the Lord, but she had to go through many trials to find her true mission and purpose in life.
Originally from Ecuador, as a young girl she wanted to be a nun in her country, but she encountered resistance from her family, as she was the only woman among several brothers. “I moved from Guayaquil to Cuenca to study Business Administration and at the same time with the intention of entering the convent,” she said.
While she was on the convent’s waiting list, her means of subsistence were scarce. “I sat in a park and a stranger told me: You love God so much, but you are looking in the wrong place.” He advised her to read Exodus 20 where the Bible talks about the 10 Commandments and her vision completely changed. “I identified myself as a servant of God and read the verse John 3:16. Anywhere they preach this verse to me, I stay and that’s how I became a missionary. I studied for two years at a Christian boarding school.”
Her previous experience working in the administrative area of the navy base allowed her to be chosen to be a secretary in a real estate company, although due to heaven or destiny she obtained the position by identifying the Bible verse that the head of human resources had set as a requirement to keep the position: John 3:16.
While in the Iglesia Cristianos en Acción, she decided to follow God’s call and embarked on a missionary trip to the Ecuadorian Amazon. Although a missionary had been murdered there by local indigenous people, that fact did not stop her. She arrived in the little town of Limón and preached to the Shuara indigenous people. The chief’s son experienced a miracle and was cured of his lameness, allowing her to be treated as another member of the tribe. She was preaching and teaching the gospel for four years in the Amazon. When the Christian church began to grow in the little town, she returned to Cuenca. She made missionary trips to Mexico and Colombia.
Her parents were getting old, and she decided to travel to the United States to help her family with resources. She arrived at the home of a missionary family in Ohio and then they all moved to New York. There she worked as a caregiver for the elderly and then in a Korean supermarket until she found the love of her life: a Mr. Ackerman from Alaska who was visiting his relatives in ‘the city that never sleeps.’ They got married and had a son.
Shortly after living in Valdez, Krly suffered a heart attack. “The doctor told me that I was born with an open heart. I had surgery. However, within a year I suffered an instant death. A light pulled me towards the sky, and I heard the voice of my little son crying while I begged God to leave me on Earth to take care of my only son. I observed everything that was happening around me, the ambulance and the people near my body. I began to descend until I opened my eyes.”
In Alaska, she found employment, although later she trained to be a school bus driver, which she did for a while. Today she is a bus instructor. “My job is to help keep the children safe and give first aid if needed.”
During the pandemic, she rechanneled her vocation for the gospel. “I felt that God called me to preach the gospel in different ways. Tik Tok is one of them. My page is called Ackwomen (krly Ackerman). “I show Christian songs, verses, and curiosities about the Bible. I have more than 5,000 followers from different countries”.
