I have never been one to live the traditional life. I love to live life adventurously, spontaneously, and passionately. From a very young age, I knew God gave each and every one of us passions to pursue, and I always believed life for me was meant for more than working the typical 9-5 and living the suburban American dream. So those who know me well were not surprised at all when I told them about this trip I would embark on for the next year. Many of my close friends responded simply with, “You would..”
I was born and bred here in Los Angeles, with an older brother James, and a little sister Carolyn. I went to study mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, but I soon realized it was not what I wanted to do the rest of my life and it was around this time I seriously considered becoming a firefighter. With my parents not to happy about that idea, I chose to study architecture instead. It was by far one of the best decisions I have ever made, as I thoroughly enjoyed what I studied and believed I had found my passion in life. Upon graduating I was set on attending graduate school to get my M.Arch and going the whole nine yards to eventually open my own firm, but God told me He would take me a different direction. Only little did I know what that direction would be..
That summer, my interest in firefighting found its way back. And it came back hard. I immediately enrolled in an EMT academy, took fire exams and the CPAT, looked into fire academies and paramedic training schools. My career goal is to become a firefighter on a department here in the LA County area to get onto CA-Task Force 2. CA-TF2 is one of two USAR teams in the country organized by FEMA and USAID that specialize in urban search and rescue, disaster recovery, and emergency triage and medicine and are deployed internationally to respond to natural and man-made disasters.
Was this the direction God had in mind?
I love missions. I feel at home when I’m on the field, and life is right when I’m out there serving the Lord, witnessing God working so powerfully in His people. It is on the mission field I see people so passionately hungry for God, and where I see God raising up his soldiers. What a beautiful thing it is to see God’s people from all over the world, of different nations and different tongues, worshipping the Lord as one body. To see how God loves with no boundaries, and to see firsthand that we are all in fact one family – God’s family.

My first missions trip was a day trip to Tijuana, Mexico in sixth grade. I still have the McDonalds toy one of the children gave me before we left. Though I was raised in a Christian family, it was not around this time that I realized there was more to life than living for yourself. Since then, I have had the amazing opportunities to serve on many more missions teams to Mexico, Belize, and a Navajo reservation in Arizona.
Sophomore year in college, I went on a summer missions trip with my church to serve with Mexico Caravan Ministries in Tijuana. It was here I met brothers and sisters not much older than me, so devoted to the gospel, giving up a year, two years, to serve the people there. I felt God working in my heart, making me ask questions, making me wonder if He wanted my life for missions. I strongly considered taking a year off from school to serve with the ministry there in Tijuana. But it was not God’s time for me..
Fast forward a couple years and a couple more missions trips, last December I found myself at missions conference called GKYM in San Diego, not expecting at all what God would show me there. It was there He reminded me of the passion He had given me for missions, and He told me that now was the time I would commit at least one year to the nations. It was also at this conference I learned of this Christian organization AIM and their World Race program – and long story short, I applied and here I am.
So what comes after the World Race? I will have lost one year. One year I could have spent getting closer to my career goal. One year I could have spent in the fire academy, going to paramedic school, and applying to fire departments (fire depts usually hire once every four years). But God is slowly changing my perspective. He is slowly making me let go of this too. He is making me realize I need to be open to whatever His will is for me and I’m expecting Him to show me much of it during this next year. We must suffer for His name (Acts 9:16) and I may be in for one heck of an awakening for how God wants to use my life. It’s scary to think about, and I couldn’t be more excited.
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