His Timing
Going on a summer mission with Cru was something that I definitely wanted to do this summer, but I didn’t really know where God was calling me to go. After a very long and stressful application process, God put Puerto Rico on my heart. I knew for sure that this is where God wanted me this summer. By the grace of God, I was able to raise all of my support and even go over the amount needed. I knew there were going to be challenges with being on mission, but I knew in my heart that God was calling me to something bigger than myself.
The first week consisted of a lot of trainings on different topics such as; prayer, bible content, community, and evangelism. I got to know my fellow teammates better, while learning how to talk about spiritual things with students. The first week in Puerto Rico was definitely a little overwhelming with all of the information we were receiving, a lot of it being new information to me. Before going to Puerto Rico I was never the one to talk about spiritual things with people or be a leader because I never thought I was capable. I always thought “Oh there’s someone better out there for that” or “I don’t know enough to talk to people about Jesus”. Being in Puerto Rico taught me that God uses ALL of us in different ways. HE gives each of us different spiritual gifts. The more I started to trust God and let go of any anxieties, the more I began to see this.
Once the second week started, we began to go to campuses four days out of the week. Like Allison said in the previous post, University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras was on strike, so we had to go to a lot of different campuses in the beginning. We would go to campuses and talk to zero students. I remember in that second week I started to question why God had even brought me here. During that week we continued to pray and asked God to bring us students to talk to. As time went on God started to answer prayers in HIS TIMING.
Once we all found out that the Rio Piedras campus was opening back up, we split into two campus teams. My team was on the University of Puerto-Bayamon campus; which is one of the campuses we went to in the second week. The first time we went to this campus it was full of students and was scary at first, but right when I stepped off that bus I knew God wanted us to be there. I had one of the most unforgettable days of my life on Bayamon’s campus during my third week. My fellow teammates and I were able to create some great connections with students who were involved in a Christian group called LaConfra. One day they invited us to sing some worship songs with them. They told us how they would always use the piano in the student center and sing songs, sometimes students would stop to listen. That day we decided to join them and it was incredible. In that moment when we were all singing, some in English and some in Spanish, we were all just so free. It was an hour of nonstop worship in the student center with tons of students passing by, some would actually stop and sing along. In that moment not a single one of us were embarrassed or ashamed of our God. It was just so cool to see how God was so present in that moment and seeing other students so passionate about God. The students we met in LaConfra were so on fire for God and wanting to make his son Jesus known, it was inspiring to see. As the days and weeks went on, our relationships with the people in LaConfra grew. We showed them some of the ways we do outreach, community, bible studies, etc. and they would show us how they did things. It was nice to hear different perspectives and hear the things they wanted to see change on their campus.
When I got the opportunity to go to Rio Piedras campus, Allison and I became friends with a girl named Tiffany. Whenever we would meet with her she was always so hungry to learn and passionate about the gospel. She wants to see change on her campus and is willing to serve God in any way she can. Anytime we met with Tiffany she always inspired me to stay hungry and trust in HIS plan for your life. It was refreshing to see how much she wanted to serve and be a leader. Throughout the rest of the mission we developed a lot of relationships with students, everyone in Puerto Rico made us feel like we were at home. They would invite us to play basketball with them, attend bible studies, and their club meetings. We went from having a week where we talked to no students to having an overflow of students from different campuses impact our lives and touch our hearts. I became more comfortable with talking to people about spiritual things. I knew if I went up to a student to talk them it wouldn’t be me talking, it would be God speaking through me. I began to rely on God for wisdom, strength, and guidance because I know I can’t do any of this on my own. In those five weeks I took huge steps of faith that I would have never taken before. I shared my testimony at a Sunday service my team and I led at C.A.F.E church. I was so nervous because I was going to share my life story in front of people who I had never met me before, but God put it on my heart to share my story. I remember when I got up there I had a whole paper full of words I was going to say and ended up not looking at the paper at all. I completely trusted God with what he wanted me to say. We held a training for college students, where I was able to teach students in Puerto Rico what my teammates and I had been learning and how they could impact their campus. I was discipled by one of our staff leaders named Tabitha, who is a strong woman of her faith and always pushed me to go that extra mile. I ended up having so many great conversations on campus with students about the gospel where as I know me before this trip would not have been able to do so. The whole time I was in Puerto Rico I was pushed out of my comfort zone, but I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. God calls us to be more than just comfortable, we are meant to take bold steps of faith.
There were times on this trip where I was tired spiritually and didn’t want to talk to students. That’s when I would pray to God and ask him to strengthen me, so that I could continue to do his good work. Being on mission really taught me how to completely submit to God’s will and not our own selfish desires. As I go back to school and as I’m here at home, I hope to continue to be a light to anyone I’m around. There’s so much work to be done on this earth and God wants to us to join him HERE and NOW. Not later, not tomorrow, but NOW. I realized that being ambassadors for Christ requires us to test our limits and not be comfortable. I want to be more of an advocate for justice, hope, and peace like Christ is. Being in Puerto Rico showed me that God is everywhere and is working in every little situation. He did so much in the five weeks I was there and I know that he is still doing amazing work. While in Puerto Rico, God provided in ways that we didn’t even ask for. He watched over us as we joined him in his great commission, as he is always watching over his children. My heart is definitely still in Puerto Rico and I will continue to pray for the island. I am not the same person I was before Puerto Rico and I give God all the glory for transforming in a way that only he could have known was possible. Sometimes we doubt what God is capable of and in Puerto Rico he clearly showed me that he is capable of ANYTHING. Before I go I want to encourage you that even when you think you are capable of nothing, God shows you otherwise every time.
