Introduction
Hello, My name is a Salvador Gallegos, I was born in Colorado, USA. I am currently twenty-three years old and I am traveling with an organization called, Adventure in Missions (World Race). There are a few major highlights in my life and joining the World Race (WR) is one of them. I have learned a lot through this trip, spiritually, emotionally, physically, and mentally. There is a lot of energy, time, sacrifice, abandonment, uncomfortable moments, thoughts and prayer that goes into being a participant of the World Race (WR). It is not another mission trip nor is it a vacation, it is tool that God is using to populate heaven in a rapid way. Squads are launching twice a year, within those squads are teams, and then those teams are spread throughout the country to serve in local ministries. You are given a mentor, coaches, and squad leaders to walk alongside of you through this journey. This experience has two outcomes, you get it or you don’t. The person that “doesn’t get it” is the person that comes into the WR with an un-teachable mentality, that could push his/er way though the physical demanding jobs, give all the right Christian answers, make a few friends, make some memorable moments, but miss what God was attempting to do in his/er life. Those who “get it” are those who maximizes every opportunity, who come in with a teachable spirit ready to grow, plant, harvest, the person who put their heart into what they are doing, and allows God to do major heart surgery. Participants are usually the ones whom get ministered the most. The World Race is a phenomenal ministry to apart of and I am honored and blessed to be apart of this ministry.
What Makes Me Who I am today
February 9, 2006 a Hip-Hop church outreach was founded in Greeley, CO called, Urban Flo. I was eleven-years-old at the time and I remember that night vividly. I remember walking into the building to my right was the entrance into the sanctuary. There were dividers to the left of me that had banners pinned to them, one said Island Grove and the other Pine Meadows (These are two low-income apartments, I lived at Island Grove at the time). As I continued walking forward, next to the sound booth was a Live DJ, looking toward the alter I saw lights flashing like you would see at a club. There was a banner hanging in the middle beam above the stage with the message title for that night, Romans 8:28. There were five TV’s that had the Urban Flow logo, and some JBL speakers that were blasting Christian music. I was perplexed with the environment. Never in my life did I see something like this at church; most churches would have considered this, “of the world.”
When I heard Pastor Amos speak that night I naturally gravitated to him. The thoughts that were going through my mind were, “I want to know this guy on a personal level,” “I need to get noticed by this guy,” “This preacher guys is different.” I wasn’t a goal setter, nor would I fulfill them if I did make them, but this one needed to be fulfilled.
The DJ at Urban Flo invited me to Sunday morning church; Joey Chavez (DJ Joker) is his name. We had a conversation the second month of Urban Flo and he said if I came to Sunday morning church he would plan a barbeque at his house and my friends and I would be able to attend. This was an easy yes, free food, hanging with the DJ, and free food. Yes, I repeated free food on purpose, I was a chubby kid that loved food. This was the beginning of my journey at New Hope Greely.
One of the most memorable moments was in 7th grade. I remember I was called to the office, I went to the offices and as I was walking toward the office Pastor Amos and Joey (DJ Joker) both were standing in front of the office waiting for me. I was the happiest boy alive. I could not believe that they were at my school; I couldn’t believe that they came to visit me. Not only did they come to visit me they had me interviewed by some popular magazine company.
There was about five hundred people attending Urban Flo on a weekly basis, I never understood why I was chosen for this opportunity. I wasn’t the smartest, fastest, or the biggest. In matter of fact, I was unqualified for something like this. There were other people who could have made the article better. I left that interview feeling like a million bucks! I don’t know exactly what they saw in me at the time, but I am grateful for the investment in my life.
The Investment
They continued to invest in my life and the more I was surrounded myself with P. Rigo, P.Amos, P. Albert, Joey, and other Christians, I started to develop a desire and a passion to be apart of ministry. I was at the church five to six days a week. I was involved in youth group, a Christian rap group, Urban Flo, audio and media production, and more. I always had the thought of doing ministry for a living. I didn’t know how and I didn’t know it was possible for me because I felt inadequate. Little did I know that those are the people God is attracted too.
School wasn’t a priority nor was it encouraged in my family, so the way I interpreted this was, it was optional drop out of school at the allotted age or continue schooling. I never had many goals, the only goals I had were, possibly graduate, live on government assistants, and have a family. This is all I knew because this is how the majority of my family is living.
Pastor Amos and I were walking and talking one day and he told me that if I graduated high school I could join Masters Commission for free. This was a three-year discipleship program for $4,000 a year. I was so stoked; this became my goal and my motivation to graduate high school. In Masters Commission you travel around the U.S and minister. Through out my high school years I was able to travel with the Master Commission, which stirred up a stronger passion to serve in ministry.
Fear And Complacency
In 2011 my focus was derailed. It was my senior year and I started to become complacent. It was an exciting time for me because I was the first to graduate high school in my family. That satisfaction and excitement was temporary. I got a job at a restaurant and I saw myself working at this restaurant for the rest of my life. I lost my passion to be in ministry. I stopped surrounding myself around Christians and the negative environment at work was pulling me down. I felt lost and felt depressed. I was disconnected with my mother, father, friends, brothers, and the church family. It was rough; I didn’t see myself going anywhere in life.
The same year I was suppose to join Masters Commission they changed the program and it was now a full credited Christian Bible College through School Of Urban Missions (SUM). I struggled with school, so the fear of failing overwhelmed me, and so I copped out a couple times. Pastor Melody cleared my head, and finally I gave in and I joined SUM. It was the best decision I made. I would have probably still be working at the restaurant depressed. I’d have gone back to eat and the same people that were hired with me are the still working there, and I think to myself, “If I have allowed my fears make my decisions to go to school I would have been miserable working at this restaurant.”
Lost It All In One Night
I joined the college living at the dorms and it was the best decision I made. My dreams started to come to pass. I don’t like to boast or toot my own horn, but I look back and I worked very hard, at the time it didn’t seem like hard work, because I enjoyed what I was doing. I started working with a youth group in Fort Collins, CO called, One Life through Pastor Melody. I interned at New Hope Greeley, I was involved with the maintenance team, leading Little Rascals (kids outreach program), leading children church for one service, I was a service producer at another youth group called, Crossover. I eventually became an Assistant Youth Pastor. I did the videography for the church. I did devotion at New Hope Academy, and was apart of a mentorship program at another school, to top it off; I later got hired and paid to do what I was doing.
I became complacent and replaced my relationship with Jesus with my ministry and cut out the basics, reading the bible, and intimacy with God. It was a slow process; I started to burn myself out. I started to fail in my schooling, everything became obligations, and I started to produce poor results in everything I did.
My grandmother was diagnosed with cancer in 2013and this took a toll on my family and I. This weighed heavy on my heart. She passed away January 2014. This shook my pretty hard. Sunday morning around 12 am I started to pack all my stuff and I left, no notice to anyone. I sent Pastor Amos one last messaged and left the dorm, my job, my church family, and my dream. I lost everything I ever worked for in one night.
Life Outside the Bubble
I didn’t communicate with anyone associated with the church, not even my best friend. I was ashamed but at the same time I felt relieved and free. I stay incognito for a couple months. I found a job at Radio Shack, and I was happy there and I ranked up pretty quickly to assistant manger and later on manager. Sadly to say, I saw myself making this into my career.
They say that once you have experience God and have been in the ministry you can’t escape it. Everyday I saw broken people in need of Jesus and I knew that I could give it to them, but I refused because I was bitter. I didn’t want anything to do with Christ or the church. This burden was so heavy on my heart, I had thoughts of sharing Jesus and I wanted to, but I didn’t.
There are people that love you and care about your being no matter in what situation in life you are in. It was the summer of 2014 and I was working at Radio Shack, and I remember vividly, I was at the registered, I looked up and Charles Hefton, my life coach was standing 20ft from me. My mind couldn’t register who he was, it took me a quick second to realize who it was. He was living in a different city then, so it never crossed my mind that this man would come to my work, or that he even knew.
Well, he visited my church and found out my situation. That was the beginning of a realization that people genuinely care and love me and it was not about product or results. That brought me so much joy that he would go out of his way to come and see me at my Job. I meet with Pastor Rigo & Pastor Amos a few times as well, and Pastor Albert came to my store to see me. Those are people that you want in you life, people that will meet you where you at no matter where you are at.
6 Months After the Fall
I went back to the Bible College I was attending before I fell away. I went back bitter, stubborn, and a little rebellious. I tried to avoid ministry and the staff at New Hope Greeley. I put on a fake face when I interacted with people. I just wanted to get my B.A and leave that place; I didn’t want to do any type of ministry. It was the closes thing I had to a college degree. I feel like I gave Pastor Melody (SUM Greeley Advisor) such a hard time when I went back, but through all of it, she was so patient with me. At the end of the school year I was moving out of the dorm, and she sat me down and shared her heart with me. She started to snivel, at the end of the conversation I realized that she genuinely cared about me and about my future. That conversation changed everything.
I worked hard to stay involved with the church that summer, but I had to work a lot of the time. That summer (2015) she introduced me to the World Race. She posted a video on my Facebook page and at first I didn’t understand what the video was for. I thought she wanted me to make a similar video for the church. She later on explained what it was. We both agreed that I should do it. And So I applied.
The Process
I applied to the World Race, and I was pretty pumped about. I applied for the Expedition Route because their focus was in the 10/40 windows (the most unreached people groups live within the 10/40 window). I got accepted to late and so they moved me to the Fusion Route. God knew what he was doing because everything worked out great with work and school.
I have never been so vulnerable with finances the way I was when I started to fundraise. I had to raise $16,362 for the trip. The last dead line before launch was $10,000 and it was very overwhelming because the fundraising processes started two months before launch. I started to fundraise but the income was very slow. I started to doubt that I would make the deadline. I started to doubt, and I told God, “if you really want me to go you will provide.” I started to prepare myself and started to think to myself, “it’s ok if I don’t go, I will go next launch date.” I had no one to turn to. I couldn’t turn to my mother or father, my brother just started his own business, and many of my friends are college students. I felt hopeless.
I started to use my own cash, my own credit cards, and savings to reach each deadline. In this case, if I didn’t make the $10,000 deadline I wouldn’t have been able to get to launch nor get a refund. My Pastors were promoting me in the church, which was a great help! I did fundraising, I sold tamales, shirts, wrote letters, and sold food at my church. I am grateful for all who contributed. It was a lot a work, on top of this I was managing at a Radio Shack and going to full time school.
I was vulnerable and I didn’t have any one to turn to but God. This taught me to depend on God. A lot of my prayer were, “If you really want me to God you will provide.” I prayed this 30 times a day.
At this time I had a Jeep Cherokee that I purchased in 2014. I owed $30,000 on this vehicle; there was no way that I would have been able to pay for this while I was on the race. I care about my credit score, so to lose this vehicle to repo would have been very discouraging to me. Nobody I knew would have been able to afford, nor would they have wanted a vehicle that had a great depreciation of almost $10,000. Literally five days before the launch date, my uncle sister was interested in the Jeep, and that same week, we had enough funds that allowed me to launch! These were bother miracles that God performed in one week! I have never experienced something like this, it was mind blowing and I praise the Lord that I was able to launch!
Welcome to Salvador Gallegos World Race Journey.
