Seeker of Christ Story

I can remember those Sunday mornings where we had to get out of the bed at eight

o’clock to get ready for church. Even though I didn't feel like going to church, I had to go every

single Sunday with my family, no matter what I thought. While my family tried to develop in me

this routine of a Christian life, I didn't feel like a Christian, I just went with the flow because

that’s what they did. After a few years, around two or three, I started to get involved with the

church because my parents demanded it of me. During this time I started to accept that that was

my responsibility and tried not missing any of it. When I was around 12 years old, I had a

moment that I called my first actual experience with God.

At around 6pm on this day I was laying down in my bed, and I started thinking about my

life and different areas I didn't like. This was an unexpected moment because it wasn’t common

for me to do self-reflection on my life, but the fact I was getting older started changing me. I

realized something that changed me forever. I began thinking about how I act in front of church

people and how I was behaving when I was with my friends. Just thinking of this made me start

crying, and as much as I tried to stop crying I couldn't. The tears continued for about two hours

to the point that even my head was hurting. Since I didn't understand what was happening, I

called the person who was my mentor at that time. He listened to all the things I was going

through, and I was able to share everything without hiding anything.

After my first real encounter with God, I decided to get more involved with church and

youth group based on personal decision, not because my parents wanted me to. I started to rise

up as a leader of the youth group in many ways and even started helping with the younger kids in

church.. I felt like I was ready to take the next step in my faith journey. My pastors, Francisco

and Josue, started to prepare a group of people to be baptized. As I came to understand what
baptism represents, I decided to be baptized next to my dad, who was also baptized on the same

occasion. The day of the baptism, I had to present a short testimony about what God was doing

with me; while sharing my story, I started crying and was left speechless and unable to finish

because deep inside me, I was feeling something. I felt the conviction that I was truly doing what

I was meant to do.

This year I started to get involved with Young Life and this is where for the first time I

met Scott. He has become my mentor; he has helped me grow in my relationship with God. At

first, I would go to Young Life activities because I knew other people who went to their activities

, and they would invite me. After I actually started understanding what it was really all about, I

decided to get more involved. I went to more clubs and even to more campaigners. When I was

14 years old, I started to be trained to finally become a Young Life leader.

I went to a camp for training and here I was put through a faith-line test with Hember

Manriquez. For this test, you were blindfolded, then you had to wait seated for around 30

minutes just praying. This was my first experience having a time of extended prayer, and it was

such a moving experience with God, I even cried. Following that time, a leader came and picked

me up to take me to a rope line, and he left you waiting in the line. When it is your turn, you

have to cross to the other side with the blindfold on. Not only are you blindfolded, but as you try

to navigate the path, there are two people screaming at you, one acting like God and the other

acting like Satan. This moment was so impactful for me that I was moved to tears; the person

acting like Satan started shouting out things that were so common in my life that it made me cry.

Something he said was you are not going to do it.

In the following section, the person acting like God took you for a walk going up

multiple stairs and each one of these steps represented questions. These were the type of
questions that can make a person doubt their faith. For example: “Do you believe God is

actually real?” When I returned home, this was a question that I was still thinking about. Then

Covid-19 came and this impacted not just my emotional life but also my faith in God. During

this pandemic, there were days that I doubted if I was actually a Christian. I think this has been

the biggest challenge I have been through because I didn't pray, was surrounded by non-Christian

friends, never read my bible and multiple other things. I was deeply impacted when one day I

woke up depressed thinking if God was actually real. Multiple questions came to my mind that

day, for example: “If God is real, why does he let us suffer?” or “Does God even love me?”

This depression made me realize that I actually needed someone to help me with my walk

of faith. That person was Scott, who as I mentioned before is my mentor. Before this time, I

didn't fully understand what a mentor was. During this season, I was able to share with him my

questions, and he gave me several verses from the Bible that helped me come to the truth and

answers. I loved this because even though it had been a long time that I hadn’t been reading the

bible, I looked for those verses just because I didn't want to look bad when he asked me about it.

I was not expecting what the verses taught me. He led me to the story of Job. I was able to relate

this to what I was going through, because Job lost everything, even his family. However, even

though he lost all of this, he never doubted God's purpose.

In the process of coming back to school in-person post Covid-19, both of my best friends,

Cadmiel and Malachi, left the school. Before Malachi left, I was able to talk to him. In this talk,

something that I was not aware of came to light in the conversation. He said he was thankful for

everything I did for him, but what impacted me the most emotionally was the fact that he said,

“You saved my life.” He continued by telling me that two weeks before he met me, he had been

planning to commit suicide. Not only that, but he stated, “Before you, I had no friends.” When he
told me this, we both started crying because even though I didn't realize it until that time, God

had a purpose with me. God wanted me not only to be his friend, but he used me to save my

friend’s life. This moment powerfully impacted me, and not only did I decide to grow more in

my relationship with Christ, but I also wanted to help other people in their faith journey.

To grow in these spiritual goals, I decided to go to a summer camp, but this time as a

leader. I was in charge of the 10th grade boys. During this camp I heard things from one of the

leaders that I had been through, and, I connected to these young men in many ways. Even though

I came away from this experience with multiple things like relationships with them, what I will

always remember are the words “Tov Meod” which in Greek means you are the best of the best.

Lastly, I have been growing more recently. I have been reading more my bible and praying more.

I am still a leader for Young Life and I can see how God has shaped me to be an impact for kids

and teens, and help them know more about Him.