Villa Hermosa

57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”59 He said to another man, “Follow me.”But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

The scripture above is what I live by. I have spent my whole life sleeping, and now that I have been woken up, nothing is stopping me from resting. I want to live every moment, everyday, proclaiming the truth of Christ to the rest of the world. 

He was 15. He had no idea why he had gotten on a plane to travel to a country he had never been. The Principal of the school said that if you went, you would be out of school for a week so that is what drew him in. He had no idea what God was going to do in his life. His first day there, a little 6 year old boy ran into his arms. He had never met the kid yet the boy had already shown him an immense amount of love. By the end of his trip, he was in tears. He was so broken because he knew that he had been throwing his life away for such a long time. He was a lukewarm christian who focused more about being socially accepted rather than accepted into God's kingdom. And there he was in a third world country surrounded by children showing him the love he had never thought existed. Giving him the hope to carry on when he thought he'd ran out years ago. Showing him the faith he had forgotten about for a long time.

Now here he stands at age 16. He had found the love, hope, and faith given to him and is now spreading it to others who were once in his position. He has become selfless instead of selfish. He has given up his life of comfort to live the life of sacrafice. He has decided to not make his mission just coming on a one week trip once a year to a foreign country. He has decided to make his home amongst the poor and powerless. He shall eat with the poor. Work with the poor. Sleep amongst the poor. Cry with the poor. Experience life with the poor. The poor shall become his family and he shall become theirs. 

Over the past two years, God has guided me to a place called Villa Hermosa. It is a very large and rough area of the Dominican Republic, but being a missionary is about risking yourself for the love of Christ. Some may agree with me or disagree with me about what I'm going to do, but I'm not turning down a call from God because people don't like what I'm going to do. God wants me to move out of the United States next year after I'm finished with highschool and make my home in Villa Hermosa. College is a thing to talk about later, but for now this has become my decision. 

Today I got to walk around where I want to live, and immediately I drew a crowd of followers. I turned around to find about 15 boys and girls going wherever I went. I look back to when I first came here. I was young and clueless as to what was going to happen. I look at my life and am thankful that the one boy who ran into my arms has now turned into 15 smiling and crazy kids jumping, climbing, hugging, and laughing on and with me. Praise God that a kid who thought he would go no where in life has turned into a young man who has made something of himself.