It was a Friday night in May. The people gathered in the audience filled with almost as much anticipation as the students that would soon proceed in alphabetical order. It was graduation day. The music began and the soon-to-be high school graduates of 2016 proceed to their seats. The speaker, a kind preacher of a local church, began to give his speech. He sent us off into the world as proud graduates of 2016. But before he did, he gave us each a souvenir. He gave us each a peso.
At the time that peso did not seem life-changing by any means, just a nice memento from the night I received my high school diploma. I put it on my dresser along with a few other knickknacks and didn’t give it much thought. I went on to start the next chapter of life. I was determined to change the world by way of an English classroom. I graduated from a small Christian university where one of their traditions is something called Missions Emphasis week, which is exactly as it sounds, a week used to promote missions. I had the privilege of participating in this week twice before graduating. The first time I heard the presentation for GoCorps I thought, " Yeah, that’s cool, but I’m good. The next year I heard the presentation, I thought yeah okay, that would be cool. However, something that is important to know about me is that I am a very practical person. Going to a different country to work as a missionary seemed very impractical. So, again the idea went to the side.
Then the spring of 2020 everything changed. No one came back from spring break. Now maybe it was that I was coming to the end of my college career or maybe it was because I had a lot of extra time on my hands, nonetheless, I began to think about what I would do after I graduated. I remembered GoCorps and began looking into them, because just looking at a website couldn’t hurt anything, right? I ended up meeting with one of the coaches. What harm could that do? None, at the time. I continued my summer and worked at a summer camp for a month during the pandemic. But do you know what the theme of that camp was? Evangelism, spreading the gospel. When I came back from camp I knew I had to fill out the application for GoCorps.
I would love to say from there it was smooth sailing, but it wasn’t. I had a lot of doubts and uncertainties. I was struggling to understand God’s sovereignty. I knew he was God, but I didn’t understand what that really meant in my own life and how could he know the direction of my life before I did? This whole idea of a calling seemed highly unlikely. I had so many questions about evangelism and purpose. I doubted my ability to do to evangelize. I kept thinking if I couldn’t approach people in Walmart about the after-life, then I couldn’t be a missionary. But then, God revealed something to me. When I was student-teaching, I met a substitute who had spent 10 years in Africa as a missionary. She told me most of what she did was relationship building. That really opened my eyes, but still, I was not convinced that this was what I was called to do. Then, I read Mark 14, which is where the story of Peter walking on the water is found. Jesus says to Peter, “Come to me”. Jesus gives Peter the ability to walk on water so he can reach him. Peter just has to keep his eyes on Jesus and walk. When I read that story, I felt God telling me to keep my eyes on him, to stop worrying about my future, and focus on him. That’s when I finally decided to stop trying to close the doors God was opening and committed to two years teaching in Mexico City as a goer.
5 years before I was committed to teaching in Mexico City I was given a peso. To many that peso may seem like a coincidence, but I think it was more than that. I think it was God foreshadowing just a small part of his plan for me.