At 25 years of age, I never imagined that I would pick up and leave to a different country, especially a foreign place. I will be going to Mexico City today because I simply said yes to God a few months ago.
December 26, 2015. At 5:30am, I was dropped off at LAX to catch the 7:35am flight to St. Louis, Missouri. I was headed to Urbana, a Christian conference - or so I thought it was.
I was at my lowest of lows. Lost. Sad. Lonely. Miserable. Anxious. Alone. Depressed. Those are adjectives I would have never used to describe myself, but those were strikingly accurate. My friends and family continued to think I was the extroverted, loud self that they knew me to be. I chose to allow them to continue to think that everything was fine. I decided to attend this “Christian conference” because I needed God to meet me somewhere, and I asked Him to meet me there.
On this plane ride, Vera, my travel buddy for the week, enlightened me that Urbana is a missions conference; VERY different from a Christian conference. After being enlightened with this important detail, I decided to go brewery hopping in downtown St. Louis during the lunch and dinner breaks. I had no intentions on going on missions, so I was not taking copious notes like everyone else. All I wanted was for God to meet me there.
God definitely met me at Urbana.
Vera and I would leave our Days Inn room everyday anytime between 5 or 6am and return back to our warm king size bed anytime between 9 and 10pm. Needless to say, it was a tiring day everyday. We actually slept in until 8am one morning! Vera, who was and still is underage, did her own thing during the day while I attended the conference sessions and brewery hopped alone.
I’ll be honest. The Schlafly Tap Room had awesome stouts; however, I got real buzzed. I ended up walking into one of the 5-star hotels in front of the Gateway Arch, and I took a long nap in their lobby. I accidentally missed a conference session that evening.
One of the other days, I had been walking around all throughout the conference and all over downtown. I ended up in the huge convention room where they sold books and had different booths set up. Walking around, I was honestly looking for a chair to sit on. I was utterly exhausted! Every chair I saw was occupied, and the floor was wet due to everyone tracking in the rain. I could have walked out of the convention room and found a chair, but as I wandered around, I FOUND A CHAIR!! That glorious chair was at the GoCorps booth. I sat down, and a GoCorps representative started to talk with me.
She asked me what I was studying. I told her I was studying to become a teacher. In the back of my head, my sole thought was, “I’m never going on missions.” She continued asking me questions and informing me of the perks of going on missions in my 20s. She then asked me, “If you were to go on missions, where would you go?” I told her Mexico because I have grown up with Mexicans; love the people, love the culture, and the food is amazing!
The GoCorps representative had a huge smile on her face. “Well, there’s a teaching position in Mexico City!” HA! There was no appeal for me to go and teach in Mexico! I would be giving up a potential salary job that paid anywhere between 60k and 80k. No way was I giving that up! I had worked so hard to finish my undergrad and now my grad studies. While all these thoughts were running through my head, the GoCorps representative simply said, “Just think about it.”
Alright. Instead of thinking about it, I shared this encounter with my Days Inn small group. There were five of us: Vera and three other boys from a different room. As I was sharing this, I started to come up with a plan. I told them that I could work for a year… or two. Then I could financially fund myself to go on this two-year missions trip. That sounded like a brilliant plan!
Well, Nick, the guy in the corner of the room, just bursted my bubble. “Yuri, you could do all of that, but would you really be trusting God?” Seriously dude? MY plan was going to work. Well, it was until Nick asked me that question.
I wouldn’t have been trusting God if I were to go through with MY plan. I was attempting to go on my own finances, my own time frame, and on my own account. So then, my brain went far left; I started to think that maybe, missions really isn’t my calling.
From that point forward, I asked God to close the door on missions. If I didn’t submit an application, that would be me closing the door to missions. Still, I struggled to download an application. All throughout this process God placed so many people to encourage me and assure me that this was my calling. The ones that stuck out to me are the following:
Andrea Williamson and Mrs. Jeanine Duncan. They were both my master teachers during my teaching credential program. They do not know each other, but their stories were very similar. Their story was that they had a chance to go on missions at my age, but they both did not take it. They said that they regret not taking that opportunity, but they are happy with their lives. After Andrea finished sharing her story, she boldly said, “Okay, how much should I write the check for?” I was stunned. At that point, I had not yet decided on even applying, and Andrea was willing to support me? WOW!
Wicky Locke. He had come down to Southern California to visit friends. As I shared with him my dilemma between getting a salary or no salary at all, he encouraged me to go on this missions trip. He said, “You can’t take your BMW to the grave.” For those of you who know me, I have a minivan on it’s last attempt to get anywhere, but Wicky was and is right. You can’t take your materialistic things with you to the grave. You can’t take your things with you to heaven.
So what then was my purpose? My purpose for getting a job was not only to do what society expected me to do, but also get paid so that I could get a new car, splurge on myself, and much more! That’s not a fulfilling life. You work to pay off the car, the house, the furniture that furnishes your house, the little trinkets that Pinterest deems cute and necessary, and so much more.
So yes, I decided to apply for missions while praying that God would close the door on missions. I was brutally honest on all my applications. When I had to fill out a psychological evaluation, I made sure that I filled it out during my lowest of lows.
In one of the application processes, I had to talk with the psychologist so that he could determine I was all there and all good! During the conversation, I’m sure he was going through a check list or something, but my impatience made me blurt out, “You know, I have anxiety!” I blurted this out hoping that God would close the door once in for all! The psychologist informed that I had situational anxiety, meaning I was not at the clinical level where I had to take medication for my mental health. After he clarified, he simply said, I was good to go.
A few weeks thereafter in May, I received my acceptance letter to United World Mission to join their ministry in Mexico City!
So here I am waiting for my flight to Mexico City! I am about to board so talk with you guys later!
Thank you for reading! :) 3