Testimony...through the most unlikely of places!

This was an application I just completed for the opportunity to Study, learn, worship, and have a time of discernment with the Lord in Scotland this summer. I learned so much about myself while typing it, so I thought I would share it. It got me thinking about what a testimony really is.

1. Why do you wish to participate?
I wish to participate for two key reasons. One, I don’t think it is myself who is wishing to participate. The timing of this mission and retreat comes at a time in my life that only His divine plan and Hands could form. Secondly, I am excited to have another spiritual adventure with LAVIM. After Honduras for going on three years each summer, I know the professional aspect and friendly grace that comes with this organization. I have been feeling drawn towards the mission field each season of my life-now it is a time of discernment with just me and the Lord, and fellow believers (my peers).
2. Describe your personal experience of God.
I grew up in a mega-church until the age of 16, full of electric guitars, blinking lights, and programs, stages, and flat screen plasma televisions everywhere one could look. The cross, or signs of the empty tomb were nowhere to be seen: something BIG was missing. My freshman year of highschool at the age of 15, I remember praying a prayer in the middle of Mexicali, Mexico following a nightly time of worship. I was on a mission for the Lord there, doing construction and leading Vacation Bible School. I remember a heart-wrenching message that came from the Lord Himself, through the mouth of our mission leader. He said, “Ask the Lord to make you UNCOMFORTABLE. Break away numbness. Await a challenge from the Lord to grow and challenge your faith in a radical way. So then I did the dumbest thing I could have ever done: I prayed that prayer. You see, it was not actually “dumb”, but to a world of consumerism, materialism and complacency, it was. Fast forward one year to the exact week of March 28th, 2008, and I was diagnosed with stage two Ovarian Cancer in both ovaries with fear of spreading to my entire body. Frightened? Yes. Troubling my faith? Most definitely. God works in radical ways with ordinary individuals to achieve extraordinary results though, doesn’t he? I can now say I understand that. Through my bought with cancer, I met one of my greatest lifelong friends, Daniel Walbert, who brought me to a church home in Granite Bay, CA where I called home. I not only invested myself in this thing they called the “Word”, but I meditated on it. I began to realize that blind faith does not include an uneducated faith. Seek your answers with only childlike faith, and seek the Lord continually! I worshipped and grew in insurmountable ways as I grew closer to my creator until I graduated highschool two years ago. Currently I attend High Point University in North Carolina studying both Business and Religious Studies as my two majors there. I love learning, and I love seeking. I am a curious person when it comes to religious Experience, and I fiercely pursue all that God brings into my life. I do attend two churched in North Carolina right now. I have always attended Grace UMC in Ruston, when visiting Mary Shankles (my grandmother and true Spiritual mentor in all senses of the word). While in High Point though, the two churches that are near to the church that foster a great program for young adults is St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in High Point, and The Journey Church of High Point. To be honest with you Mr. Norman and Ms. Coppit, finding a home church to not only attend but grow in, has been the greatest challenge of my years at HPU. I still attend regularly, yet long for a deeper connect to a church family and the Church as a whole. That is why coming back to California for breaks, or spending long months of the summer with my Grandma in Louisiana, allows for times of intense spiritual growth. I await the Lord’s timing with this…He has me in His hands!
3. Please indicate your state of physical and emotional health (the mission will include opportunity for some rigorous activity and travel hours will be long). Is there anything the team leader(s) should know regarding your health (allergies, diet, etc.)?
Now I threw out the “C” word to you, didn’t I?! J I am in great health now, by the grace of God. I am completely in remission and have had zero health scares since. I take medication regularly, but it does not affect anything in regard to my physical condition whatsoever. I am fit, enjoy traveling, and zero allergies or diet restraints.
4. Team members may be given the opportunity to participate in Iona worship services. Would you be comfortable doing this?I would be honored.
5. Please list your skills, your gifts for ministry in the church. What skills and talents do you bring to this mission that you perceive might be used at Iona?My heart has always been on the mission field. I remember my first mission trip with LAVIM to Honduras in 2010. I recall sitting in the hot sun mixing mortar and cement allowing my emotions of the earth get to my spirit. I glanced up at Carolina, the most precious depicition of innocence and God’s love that I have ever experienced. She just smiled at me. And later came up and gave me papayas from her garden. She said that she loved me and wanted me to “smile”. This story reveals some pretty fantastic aspects of our Lord and Jesus. First, the Lord notices us, and knows how to speak to us. I have always felt close to the Lord through SMILES. I was born with a cleft lip, and used to be self conscious about my smile. I love seeing people smile: to witness joy in the midst of a depraved world is rare and beautiful! That is why at High Point University I started a chapter of Operation Smile, an increibble nonprofit raising money for cleft lips and palattes. Now, many asked me why I didn’t do something in the line of ministry if it is my greatest passion? I believe that a smile, a comforting grin, is often enough of a witness to His grace, than anything at all. His mercy and grace allow us to smile each day-nothing of this world. We have created 10 smiles so far with Op. Smile at HPU. Very time we send an email to our 200 person team we leave with this: ”Keep smiling, and Keep looking up!!” Keep looking to the heavens for your Hope and Your smile. It will be perfected in Him. So, between my incredible run-ins with Jesus incarnate in the beautiful children of each mission I participate, and seeing God’s love and grace in SMILES, I also love the Hebrew language. I am studying my second year next semester, and am fascinate by it. We may not know all the answers of the mysteries of the bible, but It is important knowing why we believe what we believe-reading in the OT’s original language is part of that.
6. How do you perceive yourself, your gifts, your motives and your present and future role in the church and the world?It is pretty crazy, how after my short 19 years on this earth, God’s plan for my life is beginning to take shape. I called my Grandmother about a month ago....I said, “Grandma..the Lord has been speaking to me.” I expected her to say…ok..??? Instead she asserted, “Awesome, so what’s He been saying?!” My Grandmother saw this Lord working in my life even before I did. All I know now, is that I am in a waiting period in my life. I know my heart is on the mission field, and my strengths, from Spanish to Hebrew to ministry, are there. Yet, I have not felt his calling in any specific way at any specified time. So, now I am trying my hardest in school, and waiting for the next revelation from God. Something interesting from the Lord is that I always hear Him when I am walking somewhere. When I hear my feet stomp across the ground, I can almost hear His will being shown for my life. Maybe, God is awaiting on a plan for me to pursue something where I am moving for him-or serving for him in a physical manner, not just with my words. Talking, typing, public speaking, and debating comes easily to me-it is all I did for my entire highschool and Junior High. But physical service transcends words. Jesus WASHED His disciple’s feet…He didn’t say it would be a cool thing if He did. Let us all cleanse, let us all have the beautiful feel of the Lord walking…running…to serve.
7. Iona and its community is an ancient place in a modern world. How do you imagine an experience in a medieval abbey will influence your actions in the 21st century?
I just completed my course on Ancienct Christian Theology and Monastacism. I am not only excited for Scotland (a country of my heritage!), but also a true religious experience inside the walls of the great thinkers. I think it will just, leave my speechless and allow me time to breathe. It will keep me without words-without technology, so I can hear Him, and hear Him BOLDLY.