I can’t pin point an actual date when God called me to the missions field because it was more of a gradual prssess. I remember when I was in eighth grade, my youth pastor annouced that we could participate in a missions trip to Louisiana to help hurricaine Katrina and Rita vicitims. I remember thinking at the time that the trip would be really cool, but that I didn’t really feel called to missions. Like always, God had other plans!! =) The trip to Louisiana changed my life. While in Louisiana, memebers from my youth group (including Cora!) and I painted houses and worked at a kids club. I loved playing with the kids, and they meant just as much to me as I meant to them, if not more. The kids gave me an entirely new perspective on my own life and on poverty. I learned that I have so much, and that I should never ever take my family and the life God has blessed me with for granted. I was blown away by those rowdy kids, so different from myslef, yet kids just the same!! I’ll never forget one boy, whom I held for an hour in my arms because he just wanted someone to love him.
After Louisiana, the passion that God sparked inside of me for missions continued to grow. During the summer after freshman year, I went to Moldova (a tiny country nect to Romania) with my grandparents. My Grandparents are short term missionaries there, and they took me for a week. Again, God changed my life! The people we met had so little, yet they offered us so much! Everytime we walked into someone’s house, we were offered desert that they had bought especially for us! I have necver experienced this kind of hospitality anywhere except Moldova. The greatest experience by far was when my grandparents introduced me to a Moldovan man, Andrei, down the sreet from the missions field. He came outside without a shirt on, and we presented him with one. I’ve never seen someone so thankful for a simple shirt. Someone from the missions house translated for us and shared his coming to faith in Jesus. Andrei accepted Christ that day!!! It was so exciting and I will never ever ever ever forget it!
That same summer, I wen to SoulFest, which is a Christian festival with a lot of Chrisitian bands! It’s amazing!! I heard a seminar by the president of the Not For Sale Campaign speak about human trafficking. I was blown away. I couldn’t believe it. It felt like God put the issue right under my nose, and said “I want you to do something about this.” I began to research modern day slavery and as I became increasingly aware of the issue, I also became increasingly more passionate, and with this passion came a burning desire to do something. I know that God has called me to help these people. When Cora and I were trying to decide which trip to go on, the first two words I noticed in the description ot the Philippines were human and trafficking! I’m so excited to reach out to people in the Philippines who are vulnerable to slavery!
This past summer my youth group and I went on a retreat in Tennessee called Covenant High In Christ (CHIC)!! There was an oppertunity to win scholarship money if we answered a question. Cora firgured out the answer, and my friends and I all put our names into the drawing. Then, my name got picked. Instead of feeling excited, I felt some of the worst guilt I’ve ever felt in my life!! I thought, “I didn’t even answer the question…Cora did! Maybe if I hadn’t entered Cora’s name would have been drawn.” However, I still felt like my name was drawn for a reason. This guilt only lasted a few minutes. I ran up to Cora and told her I’d split the money with her!! From that moment on, we both felt that God was calling us to go on a trip together.
God is always working in our hearts even when we don’t know it. He even used my cheating!!!! Wow…he is so faithful! I am so excieted to serve him in the Philippines and to see what he has in store for all of us!!!!
“I can do all things through Chirst who stengthens me.”
~Philippians 4:13
