Fusion

     I also was very impacted by a certain little boy. This boy’s name was Jose. Jose   began to slowly teach me again how I had to open myself up to people. He really began to teach me how to love all over again. At this point in my life I had become very callused and cold towards many people. I had lost a sense of feeling towards others. This was very sad because I have a call to work with people. Jose began to teach me that the only way that I can make an impact is to let others in. I can try my hardest to keep people out of my life, but then I will never really be able to help others. This was a lesson that I really needed to learn. Jose is a friend that I will have for life. I am actually sponsoring him right now and will continue to for as long as I can. Through this experience there has been a passion that has been brought to the forefront of what I feel my call is. I feel a very strong call to work internationally. Through this I hope to begin to bring relief and hope to those and their communities affected by HIV/AIDS. I especially feel a large call and push to go back and work within the Central American culture. This experience I feel has given me a clear path in which I can use my call and my education to make a difference in this world and to bring the Kingdom of God into the present.

    I know this trip was about loving through service. If building a house was all we did then with that experience alone I could write a million things I’ve learned and how much of a better person I’ve become since. Yet thankfully, I will take away more than that. While in Georgia I learned another facet of love. I saw the side that takes the hurts and pains of others and literally helps them bear it. It was a blessing to help build a home for someone desperately in need of one. However, I will be forever changed because of the impact that was made on my life by my team members, and the impact I was able to make in theirs.

   The people on my team had a huge impact on me as well.  The three young men who joined us are so inspiring.  Just to see these guys, only a couple of years older than me, and to be able to look at what God is doing through them, it just makes me want to do so much more than the little I do.  I’ll forever remember them as my brothers and I hope they’ll always inspire me to let God keep using me in all I do.  Fusin together really showed me the body of Christ and I really felt like a family, the way a family should be.  That was a good feeling.  And to see what God can do with all our gifts, when he brings together all his parts, that was a very beneficial demonstration. I felt like I was privileged to spend a week with such people and I’m glad that we’re still keeping in touch a bit even if it isn’t quite the same.

    Dilma, her name brings a smile to my face every time.  Dilma impacted me the most on this trip.  Dilma is a 24 year old who not only has HIV but has Down syndrome.  Dilma’s parents divorced when she was young and her mother remarried.  Her stepfather sexually abused her and when her mother and stepfather died she was forced to live on the streets often times having no more than dirt for a meal.  Luckily, her father who had been remarried found her but unable to take care of her she was brought over to the orphanage.  Dilma has the mentality of a seven year old but she is one of the most thoughtful and caring people I know.  Dilma isn’t one of the “pretty little kids” so the people often forget about her.  Right when I arrived she clung to my side. At first I must admit I was a little unhappy at this because I wanted to be closer to some of the younger and “cuter kids.”  It’s funny how sometimes when you ask God for something is seems like he’s quiet and at other times he clearly puts something in front of you and tells you that this is what you’re supposed to do.  This was the case with Dilma.

   Having one purpose for that week was what impacted me the most. It has been a real fast pace year for me, so getting out of the school environment and committing to one goal for the week was a blessing.  That goal was to serve!  That is one thing I can say excited me, seeing a need and being a part of the healing process for that need.  The look on Sheala’s (future owner of the house) face when she seen the progress we made on the house had an impact on me.  Her saying, “it’s starting to look like a house” propelled me to do more.  Realizing that the energy and motivation behind the whole Fusion and every mission trip was actively showing itself through the obedience and righteousness of others compelled me to evaluate where I stand.  What we did not only benefited the people we helped out, but as a result of our wiliness to give, we also received.

   I was impacted the most by evangelizing, bonding with CRADA- a rehabilitation center, and the fusion we were able to accomplish as a team.  We met an incredible Mexico team of four men: Ron Sylvester, Edgar Manuel Corzo, David Martinez, and Daniel Brito. These four men hungry to serve God and our team was not the exception.  Our little ENC Mexico Fusion team was small in number, seven and a half in total but tremendous in God’s presence.  We had already sparked in connection, but it was not until we met our other half that FUSION sparked as a whole.