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Howdy! I'm a 27 year old American (Class of 2002 Texas A&M
Aggie—WHOOP!) who felt the call of God to serve as a missionary for
the Lord Jesus Christ to Milan, Italy for a year! On October 21, 2002 God spoke to my heart through a close
brother in Christ and challenged me to step out my comfort zone this
year! I was slow to surrender but found myself challenged by the
statement, “Don’t sell out to the American dream.”
All through
college, I had planned on finishing my Telecommunications
Engineering degree, getting a job, getting married, having children,
and serving the Lord in my local church. While all of these things
are well and good, I found that this was my highest aspiration…my
greatest goal. God showed me that I wasn’t keeping the doors open
for His leading…specifically in the area of missions. I had always
thought of missions as something that “other people” do. When I
allowed Him to speak to my heart, the floodgates opened wide! God
showed me that my goals and desires in life were not lofty…but
indeed too shallow and weak! I was internally settling for the best
that the world had to offer and not the best that HE has to offer…
God has used
authors like
John Piper to forever change my way of looking at life. After a
great deal of wrestling, the Lord has helped me to see that my life
is not my own...it's His. I know this sounds so "constraining" and
"restricted". In all honestly though, I've found so much freedom in
surrendering my life to Christ...as I've never known before! I've
adopted Philippians 3:7-8 as my life verse..."But whatever things
were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of
Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of
the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I
have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so
that I may gain Christ."
Leading up
to this…God used the Body at
Grace Bible Church
in College Station, TX to transform and forever enlarge my vision of
who He is, to stretch my faith in supernatural ways, to grow and
challenge my knowledge of the Word, to teach me how to lead, to show
me what discipleship is and how to disciple others, to give me a
love for the nations, to teach me about the beauty of a
gospel
that is absolutely free,
and to show me that Jesus Christ alone is all that I need…all that I
desire…and all that I could ever hope for! I praise God that He was
so faithful to plant me within a Body of Christ that would influence
me like Grace has…
After
serving the Lord for most of the first year in Milan, I found myself
drawn to the Italian culture, people, and language in a supernatural
way. In my heart were new desires to love and serve the people
of Italy so that Jesus Christ might be proclaimed among them and His
Kingdom constructed in their midst! Another miracle: God
powerfully worked through the prayers of His Body and allowed me to
learn Italian during the first year. He used all of these
things to motivate me to commit to a second year.
Halfway
through my second year, my desire to pursue the American dream was
completely gone and in its place was a strong desire to serve the
Lord Jesus as a missionary in Milan! It was a decision that
came naturally to me after God has prepared my heart. At that
point, I decided to pursue theological education at
Dallas Theological Seminary and to
join CrossWorld formally as
my sending mission. Currently, I'm in the midst of a four year
Masters of Theology degree to prepare me for church planting in
Italy! Each summer I go back to Italy to refresh my Italian,
reconnect with my friends there, and renew my relationship with the
local church there, Chiesa
Stadera. While in the states, I work with the CrossWorld
mobilization team to recruit men and women for God's work around the
world...
If you’ve
read the past few paragraphs and are skeptical about what I’m
talking about or curious about whom Christ is…please
email or call me…I
would love to talk with you! At the very least,
read
about how you can have a personal and intimate
relationship with the person who created you and alone can save you
from your sins—Jesus Christ!
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