At the beginning of this year, I was planning on going to college after graduation. One of the components of applying to college is the ever so daunting essay. Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia was one of my top choices, and their essay topic is this: How will your personal faith and beliefs contribute to Liberty’s mission to develop Christ-centered leaders? Now I don’t know about you, but I think that is kind of a loaded question. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt lead to write about my experience in Nicaragua, because it plays such a big role in my walk with God. In Nicaragua my faith was deepened, my beliefs were confirmed and lived out, and I learned more about who Jesus is than anywhere else. So I sat down with my laptop, Bible, and journals from Nicaragua, and started to write. This is what I ended up with. Now obviously, my plans for this fall have slightly changed, as I will not be going to college, and this essay was never actually sent to Liberty. However, my platform may have changed, but my mission has not: to love, serve, and reach others in the name of Jesus Christ, with the goal of developing Christ centered leaders to go and do the same. I realized that even though this essay was not used for its original purpose, it speaks amplitudes for some of the reasons why I fell in love with Nicaragua and international missions, the things I learned there, and principles my life is founded upon, which all have been reasons behind me doing the World Race Gap Year. So I wanted to share. Even though you are not a college admissions officer (or maybe you are, which would be strangely coincidental), I hope you enjoy my almost application essay. I hope you see my heart and are encouraged to live a life of love, joy, and fruitful leadership, no matter where your platform is.
Fruitful Leadership
As I stepped off flight 216 on to United States soil, I looked around at the bustling Atlanta airport. One would expect that I would have a “home-sweet-home” kind of sensation, but I did not. In its place, I was filled with an unquenchable longing to book the next direct flight back to Nicaragua and stay there forever. My heart and mind were being flooded with recollections of children with soiled feet and tattered clothing pulling on my arms and legs, grabbing for my attention to fill their absence of love. I could not shake this feeling of emptiness, having left the place where I felt I belonged. It was then, when I was standing in a crowd of hurried people with bags of luggage, yearning for a life of deeper fulfillment, that I realized my life would not be spent in the great “US of A.” It would be spent with orphans like those who had stolen my heart.
On December 19, 2010 I went to Nicaragua for the first of three times. While there, my eyes were opened to a whole new world of poverty and destitution that I previously only knew existed because of Discovery Channel documentaries. Initially, I expected my week in a third world country to be filled by emotional and physical exhaustion, but my assumption was far from accurate. By giving all of my physical abilities and emotional support, I was blessed beyond measure and changed perpetually. The Nicaraguans, an underprivileged and uneducated people, gave all they had, teaching me lessons that you cannot find in a text book and that many American citizens are lacking – to love well and be joyful always.
To love, by definition, is to have deep appreciation and affection for someone. However, the action of love is not based on feeling but choice. And all too often we nullify our responsibility to love others because our feelings are conditional and our attitudes are self-seeking. How often have you said to someone “I love you, but…? I love you, because…?” In Nicaragua, the people didn’t attach any conjunctions to that three word phrase because those words alone were reason enough to go out of their way for someone else. Without a second thought, a little boy will kick his prized soccer ball to a new friend, a careworn mom will allocate a fish for a neighbor, or a family will invite American strangers into their humble shack. So what is keeping us, what is keeping me, from possessing a love like 1st Corinthians 13 describes – patient, kind, selfless, forgiving? Possibly conceit, insecurities, culture? In Nicaragua I learned that all of those things are inconsequential compared to the lives I could touch and the possibilities I could achieve by choosing to love.
Webster says that joy is a state of happiness and felicity, but I will be the first to boldly say that is wrong. In Philippians 4, Paul tells the Philippians that he has learned the secret to being content whatever the circumstances, and he apparently let the people of Nicaragua in on this secret as well. One hot day in particular, I remember walking down a dirt path with a ten pound bag of rice, ready to deliver it to a starving family. The hut I came upon was no more than thirty square feet with unstable walls and a dirt floor. I was expecting it to house a family of maybe four, but instead I was welcomed by a mixed family of twelve people! The first women to approach me greeted me with a contagious, toothless smile and the biggest hug her frail body could manage. Through a translator, conversation aroused and someone asked the source of her happiness. Her response: “I am joyful because I know Jesus and He loves me. I have hope for tomorrow and an eternity with Him to look forward to. How could I be sad?” I was left speechless and humbled, knowing that I live better than this woman and ninety-eight percent of the world’s population, but some days cannot find a reason to be joyful. In Nicaragua I learned that joy is so much more than just temporary happiness, because there is a joy that God gives that far exceeds mere human capacity.
Liberty University’s mission statement is this: “to develop Christ-centered
men and women with the values, knowledge, and skills essential to impact the world.” For a person to be Christ-centered, their lives must reflect all of the fruits of The Spirit, listed in Galatians 5:22: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control – all virtues a leader should possess. As I train to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to Central and South America, I aspire to bring the love and joy I found in Nicaragua to Liberty University while it is my platform, expectantly encouraging others to do the same. In every way possibly, I hope to bring a little bit of Nicaragua and the passions it made come alive in me to Lynchburg, Virginia. “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:25)
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