Life Story

My Journey with Jesus
All my life my mom has taught me to have a close relationship with God. I’ve been in catholic schools since I was four years old and I have been going to church every Sunday since I can remember. My mom would also go help an all-girls orphanage since I was little and I would go with her. She coordinated activities throughout the year to help them out, so they could haveeverything they needed to grow up and have a good future. I learned and took her example to do what’s right and not to do what’s wrong, but I would only do this because I was taught to do this and thought it was what I had to do.
Unfortunately, when I was eleven years old I lost my dad, and that’s when I started to learn and realize that before my family, my friends, before anyone God was alwaysgoing to be there for me in the good times and the bad times as well. I was still very young and didn’t really know God, but I was meeting Him. I started to appreciate life and all the blessings I had. I started to see things from a different point of view and focused on all the small things that one usually does not see, but play a big role in our world. I was young so I didn’t think anyone wouldsee things in the same way as I did, I didn’t think I had someone to share my thoughts with and they would understand or feel the same way. So I kept my thoughts to myself and was very grateful and amazed how God could be so good that He gave me eyes to see, water to drink, a family to love, and everything else I have. I kept this in the back of my mind all the time, kept going to church, and wasvery involved in school. I was my class representative, I did science fairs each year, I did community service, and participated in every activity I could.
Last year, when I was in tenth grade things started to change. My best friend Stephanie was in my school’s forensics team and one of the assistant coaches was Marly. Marly graduated from my high school and she is a leader who told Stephanieabout Young Life and they started going together to club and campaigners. Stephanie would talk to me all the time about Young Life and how great it was, but she never really told me what it was. The second semester I was invited to a Young Life sleepover, so I went with a couple friends. It was truly, as they say, the best weekend ever! I had so much fun and learned a little bit about Young Life.After that I went a couple times to club and finally I decided I wanted to go to camp.
Camp was a life transforming week. Not only did I have the best time with all the activities we did and all the games, but I got to meet some very important people in my life and learn about their lives as well. I knew I always had a relationship with Jesus, but that week helped me realize that Jesus loves mejust as I am no matter what. I also learned that as my life would start transforming my behavior would as well and not vice versa. I started understanding so many things which I doubted and came back home with a different perspective about God’s unconditional love and life in general. After that, I met every day for a month with everyone from Puerto Rico that went to camp. It was great to dedicatetime from each day to God and have people to share it with; it was a learning experience that I would never change.
This semester I went to a mission to the Dominican Republic. I stayed with girls from the same orphanage I had helped my whole life, but in another country. We went for a week and brought them smiles and the love they needed, since they don’t frequently receive it. I learned aboutmany girls’ lives, their backgrounds, and how they got to that orphanage. It was really hard hearing some stories, since you can’t do anything to change it. So I did all I possibly could to make that time I spent there the best time they could have, filled with love. Those girls were so happy and they explained how they were grateful for that orphanage because they could have a place to live,...