Looking back at my
spiritual journey, I would honestly say my life was sold on Christ when He
reached down and saved me, and that is what has made all the difference with my
outreach, eventually leading to missions. At the time I received Christ at the
ripe age of 12, I hadnot been out
of my country, let alone the state of California!
From that time on,
the Lord was preparing me for a life of outreach…. reaching out in my public
high school, including my many international friends. I did not realize at the time why I had such a passion to make friends with people from all over the world, including Syria, Mexico, Cambodia and Vietnam. I learned from them about their cultures, their religious backgrounds and I was able to share mine. I
found it challenging yet rewarding at that time to stand up for my beliefs, and
I knew from that point, my life would include sharing the Gospel and traveling
the world. (Now I know those two
things work PERFECTLY together!!)
I began my
traveling in a university study-abroad program, living in Spain and Costa Rica,
and focused on my Spanish studies as a way to communicate right here in Los Angeles with the huge Hispanic population. After graduating from college, I was hired by a private Christian school nearby my school, Pepperdine University,
and it was there I met my spiritual mentor, dear friend and partner teacher,
Christina. After school, we would go on long walks and talk about our “walks” with the Lord. She would challenge me with what she was
learning from Fuller Seminary with such topics as spiritual warfare, missions
and the gifts of the spirit. At that time, I did not realize how much I
still had to learn about the Lord and His ways! She encouraged me that summer
to sign up for a short-term mission trip and right away I asked her
“but how?”. She suggested I simply google “short-term
missions” on the internet, and I ended up in Costa Rica with a group of
high schoolers that summer!
It was on that
short three-week Costa Rica trip that I was able to use my Spanish, leadership
and friendship skills that eventually led to a high schooler encouraging me to
lead a trip next year. So the following summer after my teaching year, I
once again googled “short term missions”, but this time I found AIM.
I discovered I fit perfectly into a leadership role with my age and experience
and ended up in the Dominican Republic with another group of high schoolers,
this time from all over the USA! I loved the opportunity to use my God given
skills He put in me from birth to teach, love, encourage and share about Him
with others who are lost and hopeless in this great big world.
After that trip, I
thought short-term mission trips to Spanish-speaking countries were my set
path….that was until Urbana 03, a missions conference filled with tens of
thousands of college age students. There, God side-swiped me with the idea of
earning a free masters while teaching English in China. It was not only perfect
logistically, but spiritually. He was fulfilling a promise He had given me to
“teach teachers how to teach”. I ended up in southern China at a
teacher’s college and spent two years teaching, discipling and stretching my
own comfort zone so that Jesus Christ may be told to many who have never heard
His name!
I
suppose that brings you up to my life in missions today, but not quite. On that
trip to China, I not only earned my masters and started a jewelry importing
business, but I met the man of my dreams…the one the Lord created for me! He
was also serving overseas in Tibet and we knew from the time we were engaged
that we would travel and do missions again, but this time together. So here we
go, embarking on the race of a lifetime, one of truth, life and a price.
One He already paid for in full.
“You
do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price.”
~1 Cor 6:20
