Hi everyone!
If you do not know me, my name is Jocelyn. I am from Monterey Park, California, one of the hotspots in LA with the most boba/bubble tea options. Currently, I am a first-year majoring in Economics and hopefully Media Studies at Claremont McKenna College. I play for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps basketball team (GO ‘NAS!), and I am involved in the school’s newsletter and the Asian American and Pacific Islander mentor group on campus.
Although my school highly encourages first-years to get an internship for their post-first-year-of-college summer, I have decided to take part in the World Race: Summer Semester, which begins in about five weeks. Because I secured my spot onto this mission trip very late, I am hopeful that I will have fundraised enough within the next five weeks to go serve God in Swaziland! Please keep me in your prayers!
Ever since I’ve started college, God has been reminding me that now was the time to take my life to the next level. On the surface, this meant taking harder classes, speaking with adults, applying for jobs and organizations, and meeting new faces. Spiritually speaking, though, I felt that the only way to take my faith to the next level was to serve God on my first mission trip!
I am incredibly blessed to have found the Adventures in Missions organization. I remember looking through all the countries and selecting Swaziland without even reading the description of it. Swaziland was automatically appealing to me, because it was the only country listed that I had never heard of before. A few days later, I was curious to read more about AIM’s purpose in Swaziland, so I clicked to read the country’s description. Immediately, I got goosebumps.
Written in the second paragraph of the description: “You will get the opportunity to empower a generation of strong and confident youth for Christ by partnering with our dedicated sports ministry. This may include sharing your story and testimony as an athlete to inspire others, teaching the fundamentals of your sport to children and youth or participating in community outreach events.”
I remember rambling to my mom about how it just so happened that I chose the country focusing on sports. Being that I’m a collegiate athlete, Swaziland was the right place for me to be. I thought the coincidence was crazy, but I knew that it was God.
I have experienced my faith transform in a number of ways over the last few years. It has been an amazing, emotional, kind of scary, but fulfilling journey getting closer to Jesus, and I can’t wait to continue this in Swaziland. Thinking about learning a new culture and connecting with others and sharing stories while spreading the Word of God makes me beyond excited. I really can’t wait to start!
I still have a few loose ends to tie up, college being a big one, but in the meantime, I just ask that you keep me in your prayers. Many will probably say that it is almost impossible to raise $4000 in the next five weeks. Yet, I know that God will provide; nothing is impossible!!
Talk to you soon,
Jocelyn 🙂
