Hi everyone!!!
My name is Maria Fernanda Aparicio, better known as Mafer!! I am a 19 years old girl from Guatemala, who lives in constant adventures in the crazy life that God has given me.
I was 13 years old when I got saved; it was on a mission trip in the Dominican Republic. That was the place where I decided in my heart to start following the Lord. I was working with this Little boy named Ricky and he helped me see things in a different way. It was at that point where I decide to live out the thing I had been saying. I decided to start following the Lord fully. I decided that I wanted to work in the missions field as a full time missionary, from that time on I started to work as a translator on mission trips, in my free time (I was still in school during that time), it wasn´t easy all the time I had my ups and downs like everyone else in my personal life and in my spiritual life, but God has never left my side.
So now I will live my greatest adventure with God… I am going on the World Race/Gap Year!!!!! 9 months, 3 countries, where I will be growing, and learning more about God; loving people to the fullest, and following Jesus till the end.
I have special passion for missions; at a young age God gave me a love for missions and a Passion for the orphaned and people who are in need. I Love to travel, love adventures, and more important I love God with all my heart, a perfect combination, to join the World Race/Gap Year.
I am very happy about this new adventure, but I am also very nervous. The idea of living for 9 months with a group of people seems like it can be challenging sometimes, but I know one of the best thing we can learn from each other is to help each other to walk deeper into a relationship with Christ. I LOOOOVE my squad, they are the best squad that a person could be placed with. To be honest I have never been good with a large groups of people, it scares me a little bit, I’m often afraid to be myself and really share with people who I am and the struggles I have in these kinds of groups, but this will be the best place to let myself be who I really am and open up about who I really am. I grew up differently than most of the people on my squad but I am learning how to find my voice in my differences. I want to be able to speak with boldness in a way that is loving and graceful. I want to reflect Christ in whatever I do.
On the other hand I am very excited to see myself in the way the Father sees me, to build in my relationship with the Lord, to help others and see how the Lord uses me long with the other people on the squad to change the lives of people around the world. I am excited to see other cultures and meet new people. I have worked as a translator for a few years now, for a few short term teams, so I am excited to know how it is to be on the other end of things getting to participate in the fullness of what the Lord has for my team.
Here are some fun facts about me:
I enjoy painting and if it’s a craft on Pinterest I will probably try it out at some point, you could also find me at any time in the kitchen trying something new found on Pinterest. On my quiet times I enjoy writing (but that’s just for me), reading books (romantic, and fantasy and of course the Bible <3), babies are my personal Paradise, I loooove to take care of them, any baby is like a smile that God sends me.
Food, who doesn´t like food??? My fav is Italian food, pasta is never bad for me, but I will add a little bit of Asian flavor in my list, orange chicken is always a winner for a good dinner.
Music is an important part of my life, I am an emotional person, so music can always touch my heart, no matter the mood I am in that moment. I can hear any type of music, but pop is probably the one that I hear the most, apart from any type of Christian music, I enjoy Spanish and English but prefer worship in English.
I have to admit that I love TV and movies, specially if they are romance or have something to do with superheroes. I love to spend time watching tv shows and new movies all the time.
My favorite is one movie that I first saw when I was 7, and now 12 years later I can watch it and is like the first time, and that movie is … A walk to Remember (Nicholas
Sparks, I know…) but in my defense I must say that this movie has had a great impact in my life, it is very simple, and maybe a story that you can see in many movies but, really, I think that without this movie some parts of my life would had been very different. Now TV shows are a complete different thing, I like some good drama, funny stories, or superheroes, just to have a good time, so with that being said, my favorite TV shows are The Flash, Baby Daddy, and Home and Away (Australian TV show).
I know that many of you reading this are from the States, so let me tell you a little bit about growing up in Guatemala. I’m just out of high school, so the main difference that I would mention is the schools; in school in the States gives you more freedom, for example, you can choose your own classes most of the time, you choose the classes that you want to take, that doesn´t happen here in Guatemala, the school has already chosen the courses that you have to take, without other giving you options, also I didn’t have the option of drama club some things like that; and MOST sadly my friends, we don´t have a yearbook or prom… sorry friends, of course you can find many others differences, like food, holidays are also very different,
Halloween is VERY different and it is weird to find someone that actually does the Halloween thing here; we don´t have thanksgiving, but some families like to do it just because. It is very different but I have been blessed to be able to live both cultures, and I like and enjoy both.
If I could go anywhere I would love to go to Cairo, Egypt because I have family there to visit, I want to learn more about the culture, to understand more of what my cousins do there, and to get to know them more. What a historical adventure it would be!
I also want to go Swatziland, this is the place that has always been on my heart to go to and work with the orphans, I want to go and love the people who feel unloved. I would also love to go back to the Dominican Republic to go and work with the Ministry that I worked with a few years ago, these people left an imprint on my heart and I would love to go back and visit them.
Something that is very important to me, that I will take with me is my charm
bracelet, it has a lot of meaning for me, and it represents many people that have
change my life.
So these are some of the important things that you should know about me, and what
the Lord has done in my life. Thank you so much for reading, I hope you learned lots about my life, I can’t wait to get to know you!
Love,
Mafer
