27

Today is the first day of my 27th year of life. I returned home from 8 and a half months of missionary work in South America 3 weeks ago. I haven’t even been back in Santa Cruz for a month and yet I’m already neck deep in work; I’ve also already accrued some new testimonies that could eclipse some of the ones from YWAM. Where do I start?

Well, I’ve moved into the “Protégé” Internship House. When I was praying about my arrival into the house I felt like God was putting it on my heart to really try and spend quality time with every other intern individually and strive for unity in the house. So, I’ve tried to be really intentional in getting to know everyone in the house and so far I really like everyone. However, in the process of integrating into the house I’ve consequently neglected some of my other friends in the process (I’m not even sure if everyone even knows that I’m back or not). This is something I really want to remedy in these upcoming weeks.

As far as the actual work for the internship, it’s going really well. I’m directing the college-aged ministry with another intern named Jared. So far we’ve only put on one event (an informal pre-launch hangout at Santa Cruz Diner), 2 dozen people showed up and it was a great time where everyone seemed really stoked on the upcoming college season at Vintage. The majority of my time so far has been spent planning upcoming events and connecting with new college students on Sundays. Our college group is called “Vantage” and our first night is this upcoming Tuesday, October 11th. Coming back from YWAM I feel like I’m walking in a new boldness that I know I didn’t have before, and God has been blessing it. Every person I’ve approached on Sundays has been excited to talk with me and not only friendly but enthusiastic about the college group.

Enthusiasm… I still have mine. Since I’ve been back God’s opened the doors for me to teach, and teach enthusiastically. My first week back I had a chance to speak to Scotts Valley Calvary Chapel’s high school youth group and it was such a big encouragement. Not to over-exaggerate, but there was a powerful moving of the Holy Spirit! I was invited to teach on any subject that I wanted to, so I decided to speak on the most life changing thing that I learned in YWAM, the source of the majority of all the revelations that I received: The importance of having a daily quiet time with the Lord. I used a ton of Bible and yet I held a group of 15 high-school kids in full attention for my 30 minute class. After I spoke about having quiet times with God I ran an exercise where I had everyone do a “mini” quiet time reading through Isaiah 55 (a chapter that stood out so profoundly while I was preparing that I knew it was the section of scripture these kids were supposed to go through). After the exercise I opened up a time of sharing where everyone who wanted could share what they heard God telling them. I asked if anyone wanted to share and hands shot up like popping popcorn!

One kid who’d never been to the youth group before and wasn’t a Christian but who just came with his friend had my favorite testimony of the night. He said that after first praying by talking to God as you’d talk to a friend, doing his best to have faith that what he was reading was the inspired word of God, and reading intentionally and expectant that God would speak to him he felt like God was telling him that even though there were many good pleasurable things in the world he still felt like there was a missing piece inside of him… a piece that he felt after reading the Bible he could only fill with God! I was thinking “Are you serious!” this was seriously like this kid’s first time at church and he came up with what Christian’s generally described as a “stereotypical” concept of who God is all on his own. Needless to say I was freaking out excited for him, and was literally jumping up and down confirming that the Holy Spirit was revealing things to him. Another cool testimony came later that night as I was grabbing a snack with the other youth pastors after the group wrapped, one of the kid’s moms texted the main youth pastor to tell him that after the teaching her son couldn’t stop talking about how the Holy Spirit had spoken to him through his quiet time, and that when he got home he wanted to lead his family in a time of worship with his guitar and that he’d never done that before! She asked if I was ever going to come back and teach again, or if I had time to mentor her son.

I also got to speak at my old elementary school, Baymonte in Scotts Valley and it went great as well. I spoke on the concept of “Saying ‘Yes’ to God” and even kept the K through 2nd graders attention. I did two chapels in front of over a total of 200 kids, and I got invited to come back and speak to the Jr. High later in October. Not only have the speaking engagements gone well but God’s opened doors to discipleship among some of my old friends as well. Not only that but I’ve been encouraged with the number of college kids I’ve met through Vintage that have been interested in meeting with me one-on-one and going deeper with their faith. Last night I went to Christian Club meeting called Intervarsity on the UCSC campus and got to meet a bunch of students that I’d called and emailed through the connection cards that they’d filled out at Vintage Faith. God just continues to put people in my path that are open to what He has for them and also people who’ve been able to encourage me.

One more quick testimony: While my internship at Vintage Faith provides me with free rent it doesn’t pay anything, meaning that upon my return to the States I’d need to find a part time job to pay for food and gas money etc. Well, I re-did my resume and went to santacruzjobs.com and only applied to one job and sure enough they called me for an interview, it went great, and I was offered the job yesterday! I’ll be working for a company called Easter Seals that provide one-on-one respite care for people with disabilities, and I’m going to be partnered with a Spanish speaking client on a schedule that will be designed around my ministry at Vintage Faith. What an answer to prayer, a social service job that is part-time, in my career field, that works perfectly with my schedule, and let’s me continue to practice and learn more Spanish! Thank you God!

So even though I’m now 27, un-married (and no where close to be), and un-rich, at least I know I’m walking in the will of God. I’m seeing His anointing on me since I’ve returned and know that I’m where I’m supposed to be for now. So I just gotta keep this up and truth Him.