This is why…

I was in a class where it was said that there are people who love to have times of silence to think, and there are people who prefer to talk and have music playing. These people are also the ones that find it a little scary to be in their own head – I’m one of these people.

So here’s a little into what’s been on my mind lately (a bit scattered)…

I’m here in Spain, as a missionary with YWAM (Youth With a Mission), serving as staff for the current Voice for the Voiceless DTS (Discipleship Training School), and I can [finally] honestly say that I am enjoying it. There are times that I find it really mentally/emotionally/spiritually draining, but it’s the challenges that really get me going, truly.

As the months have been moving along, I continue to wonder “What is truly my part in this? Why am I here?”. Many people would make comments about how I’ve impacted their lives, and such, but words are just words until they make it to your heart – at least that’s how I feel. In my heart, I just didn’t feel like I was merely here to just be a staff for each year’s DTS – connecting/changing lives with those who enter this base; and it finally hit me.

In the past couple of weeks, God has been slowly revealing to me (or maybe He had been revealing this to me ever since I got here, but I just hadn’t been paying attention) that I’m here to work with the Transformation ministry, here on the base. The vision of this ministry is to bring transformation through the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in societies and nations. What I love about this ministry is that part of the heart of this ministry is to begin sharing God’s love with our neighbor, our community here, and begin forming relationships and impacting lives close to us. This is what God gave me the opportunity to part of at home with our Dream Center – we love our city!

We love our city here as well. We love the people in it, and love sharing God’s love with it. With the start of this DTS, we began to work with a homeless shelter, where we’ve provided dance-fitness classes. The question arose, “why are doing a zumba class? what does this have to do with evangelism?”

If you want to make an impact/change in the life of anyone, you have to get to their heart, you change their life. Touching a life, means taking time with them, in their interests, in their needs. Giving someone an ear, or sharing time with them, touches a heart, breaks down walls. Once those walls are down, they’re willing to trust you more, and are more open to receiving. That’s the best time to introduce them to who is this that is inside of me, loving on you.

Just recently, a buddy of mine got to experience this why. After weeks of spending time with the people that come to this homeless shelter, and him taking the time to talk with one of the guys there (we’ll call him friend), there came a time when he was able to share the FULL gospel with friend and even ask friend if he wanted to make the decision to allow Christ into his heart and follow him. Friend said yes. THIS IS OUR WHY!! And now that we have this relationship, we can continue walking with him, and helping him in this decision. It doesn’t end there – this is only the beginning.

This is why I am here – to watch God move and change this community. THIS is “Meet No Strangers”. The cool thing about this, is that God has chosen me to be part of this movement. If it’s zumba that will tear down walls and open up doors, it’s zumba that I will lead. If it’s an art class, I lead an art class. Whatever it takes! Now I merely ask…