Hello everyone! Some of you may know me personally and others maybe not so much but that’s okay. I want to share with you all a little about myself and why the Lord called me on this mission trip in particular to South America!
As a child growing up in church, the Lord showed me my calling as a missionary. However, I was the naïve kid who ran from his God given purpose. Later on when entering college I found myself straying from my faith, and for two years I turned to the world giving into its greed and self-worthiness. I joined a fraternity in which I partook in activities such as drinking alcohol and engaging in sexual acts. Every morning for two years I would wake up with this unsettled spirit that was grieving for something more. In the fall of 2013 I faced some of the darkest moments of my life; I was arrested and my heart was completely broken when I lost the woman with which I thought I would marry. I quickly began to battle with severe depression. The dark pit I found myself in started to give me thoughts of taking my own life.
In the spring of 2014 I rededicated my life back to God. That following summer I went on a spiritual journey where the Lord reminded me of the calling on my life through a vision during worship. The Lord showed me a village of children and I was handing out balloons to them. Well, 15 minutes later a woman on the ministry team approached me with clarity of the vision. She shared the same vision except God showed her the colors of the balloons. The balloons were red which symbolizes passion, love, and sacrifice for God’s lost people. God was standing on a map and reaching out for me to join him.
I was refreshed of my identity in Christ that following fall semester of school, but I was still surrounded by spiritually blinded people. My lack of community with other believers left me wresting with the Lord quite often. I decided to drop my fraternity and set out to find a home church. A year later in the fall of 2015 God brought me to Christ Chapel as my home church. A month into my new church God provided two spiritual mentors that have been sharing their faith with me. My second month attending Christ Chapel the Lord woke me up in the early morning to speak the words,” South America.”
Finally, on November 30, 2015 I watched the World Race video where my spirit began to yearn for missions even more. When viewing the routes, South America appeared to be the first route in history that the World Race would take over a whole continent.
I will be part of Adventures in Missions which is the organization that sponsors The World Race! I will abandon everything that I know to follow Jesus for 11 months seeking to further his kingdom. I will travel to unreached tribes in the Amazon Jungle to ministering in Rio de Janeiro to climbing mount Machu Picchu in Peru and many more adventures. This trip is not your ordinary mission trip. I will live in villages with people to camping out in tents so that the gospel is not only spoken but also embodied.
I would love and be honored to answer any questions that you may have. I would even like to meet with you personally if possible to discuss more in depth of what the Lord is doing.
I ask that you keep me in your prayers and my team that we shift our focus on the task that the Lord has called us to do!
God Bless,
Fabian Cortez
