Over the past five years of my Christian life I have grown a lot in my faith, but nothing has compared to the growth that I have received since I started the World Race. When I entered into the World Race I was a luke-warm Christian. I read my bible daily, but it was not always for the right reasons. I didn’t read to satisfy a desire to know more, but often found myself reading the bible just to say that I had finished another book. I did not hold true to the promises I had made to seek after God with all of my heart. On top of all of that, I was working a job where I found it hard to share my faith and I was struggling to find true joy in my everyday life. Luckily, the one thing I did have was a desire to grow. This desire is what drove me to sign up for an 11 month mission trip that would rock my world.
It is through my growth over the past 3 months from training camp until now that I have received two baptisms. One being baptized by the Holy Spirit and one being by water.
Training camp revealed to me that I had a lot of past issues I had buried in the past and not truly dealt with. I was able to cast most of these, but was still hanging onto pain from one thing from my past. As I was hanging onto this pain, I was keeping myself from moving on. I was keeping myself from growing. It was then at launch, two days before I flew out to Bolivia, that I was able to get over this pain. As I did, two different things happened to me. One of them was being consumed with a power that was new to me. Energy came into my body and didn’t leave. It wasn’t like a shock, but was more like a combination of heat and goose bumps at the same time consuming every inch of my body. During this experience I also received a crystal clear image. The image was of me standing in a valley reaching up towards a rainbow. I was surrounded by countless people and as I was reaching up towards the rainbow the eyes of the people around me were opened. I was unsure of what this meant and was honestly a little scared to know what it meant. But, I pressed in and came to an understanding of it. I was standing in the valley of death. The people around me were people that had their eyes closed to the power of the Lord. They were dead to sin and were not yet alive in the spirit. As I was reaching towards God, the rainbow, the eyes opening was signifying me helping people open their eyes to the power and Glory of our heavenly father. God is the one that saves people from their earthly desires and instils in them a new heart with new desires. So, God was telling me that I would be leading people to Christ and that he would be opening their eyes. I would also not just be reaching one person, but countless. This experience revealed to me a calling. A calling to reach those that have not yet experienced the Gospel. It is a task that I am intimidated by, but if God is on my side then all things are possible. Through this experience of sensation and vision, I was baptized by the Holy Spirit.
When I was a baby I was baptized by water in a catholic church. I didn’t make the decision and had absolutely no say in the matter. Because of this, I made the decision that I wanted to be re-baptized. I wanted to proclaim my faith to the people around me and let the water wash me clean in the same way that the spirit did. So, on August 11, 2014 I received my baptism by water by three amazing men; Jake, Justin, and Josh. It was on this day that I proclaimed my faith to all of those around me and made a dedication to follow the Lord in any path in my future. I do not know what this will look like, but no matter what my future looks like I will be carrying the Gospel on my lips. This is because there is no life without God. I have found more joy and purpose in something that I cannot see than I have ever experienced in living for myself.
