When I started this adventure I never imagined all the things I was going to live during this process; from raising funds to training camp, everything was challenge after challenge, huge changes.
Since I was a little girl I always felt out of place and unloved at school and in my extended family. The place that should be a safe place, it was not so for me. In my family I was always the youngest and different to everyone else. Sometimes my feelings were justified, but as time went by even if they were not real my head and my heart were already programmed to feel that way, when I was 15 I felt already labeled. Samething was at school, I was used to be alone, I felt as I was inside a giant shell, I never had a group of friends where I could feel secure, this left a mark on me. Meanwhile this was happening God had a plan for my life, my relation with God started to grow through my interactions as a translator to missionary groups, with each group I learned more and more and kept filling my life with Him. This was my journey to get to Adventures in Missions.
The rest of this story is known for many of you, I applied to Gap Year and HERE I AM!!! Writing this blog on how in one and a half month God changed my life!! All my family and social wounds were healed and I became the person that God intended me to be. Before I left my country for training camp I could see the change in my family, in their support, I also started to see God’s hand moving in my finances, in fund raising, the miracles were already coming.
Training Camp, without any doubt, has been the most difficult time I have ever had in my entire life. These were the 10 days with more weeping, with more confrontation with myself and with God, the 10 days with more freedom in my life. During the first days they preached about healing wounds, about forgiving, they preached about shamefulness, they preached about guilt and of our identity. All these were themes with which my heart could identify in many ways, things with which I was still fighting with, wounds that were still open and that hurt every time they were touched. With each meeting, with each worship God made me cry but also He brought healing and freedom to my life, for the first time in many years I was completely happy, even though I know He is still working in some issues and that He will keep on doing it throughout this journey. It was the first time I felt I belong to a group of friends where I would not be judge, with whom I could be completely Mafer, without hiding myself, being the person God called me to be, for the first time I didn’t need to pretend in order to be accepted, I could be ME. God introduced me to this incredible group of persons with whom I can relate being me and feeling accepted and being loved.
Many of my wounds were healed in 10 days, many walls were demolished in 10 days, God changed my life in 10 days. Today I can say that God’s blessings for my life in these 10 days are the ones that allowed Mafer to come out from her hiding place.
After training camp, I had a month full of blessings visiting friends in Atlanta, more than friends, family for me and my Mom. Many more blessings came along with them, God kept doing miracle over miracle, He was opening doors where there was none. During the last 2 months I have seen God moving in every aspect of my life and I am very grateful for His work on me. I want also to say thanks to every and all of you that have supported me in this great adventure, in this journey with God. Thanks for helping me to get to the place where God restored my heart, where He restored my life and the way I love people. Thanks for keeping me in your prayers and thanks for helping me to raise the funds needed for this journey. YES I am funded!!!! Thanks Heavenly Father and thank you, now I can start my journey without any problems. Thank you all!!
Love, Mafer
