Young Warriors

About a year ago my friend Stephanie told me about a girl who was sold out to Jesus and missions and who might want to come on our June 2011 mission trip. Not long after my family and I had dinner with Stephanie, the girl Magan and her mom. We had a blessed time together and Magan signed up for the trip.

On the trip Magan surprised me with how quickly she jumped in and began to build relationships with the children. She was a natural with the obvious anointing of God upon her heart and vision. I could tell that God was doing a mighty work in Magan.

Last fall she went off to college but with plans to attend our January 2012 mission trip to Bogota. When it became clear to her that she was not going to be able to attend the January trip, I felt so bad for her when she sent me this message,

“Hi there! First off, how are you and your family? I miss serving with you and the rest of the team and I hope all is going well with everyone! I saw recently that the dates for the January trip were posted, and when I realized that my university goes back to school January 9th, my heart just sank. I know that God wants me here at UMHB, but my love and longing to be with my kiddos over there is still so strong. I kinda pushed it out of the way, just crushed since I felt like there was no other option or possibility. But when I began praying about it, I felt so dumb for letting something as silly as school stop God from working through me to reach those orphans. I’m continuing to pray about it and I’m still not sure what exactly God wants me to do. All I know is that He definitely doesn’t want me to give up on it. So my question to you is if you have any thoughts on this. Like, is there a way for me to go by myself or with a couple friends at the very beginning of January or December. I really have no clue as to how all of this gets worked out or if thats even feasible or anything really. At this point, I’m just trying to keep running towards God searching for the open door. I would appreciate so much your prayer and advice on this.”

I sensed the hand of God at work in this as I prayed with Magan and her approach to the whole thing was so Spirit like that I knew I had to help. We tried to work something out for her to go in December but it never materialized. Finally we were able to make a trip for her happen over spring break last month. Magan is back from her trip and we talked on Sunday and here is the rest of the story… so far… of what God is doing for her and through her.

First, she was able to stay with my dear friend, Nelda.  Magan told me about how every night Chris and Oscar and Javier would come over and they would have dinner and devotions and end with a prayer meeting. She said it was awesome.

She spent two days with our little friends at an orphanage in Madrid and was able to share her testimony of salvation and life with Jesus with three different groups of girls. She opened it up to questions from the girls and was amazed by the questions that the girls asked after each testimony. She said the questions were deep and sincere, like “How do know that God is with you all the time?” She was able to pour deeply into these precious orphan girls.

She was saddened by the amount of turnover in the orphanage. She didn’t see any of the girls that she had built relationships with the previous summer. She also took 100 hair bows and 50 Bibles. All the Bibles went to another orphanage that she visited later in the week.  She was able to spend time at a baby/toddler orphanage and at a safe house for aged out young people. All in all she said the trip was vastly beyond her wildest dreams.

Some people commented to her, “I can’t believe that you are spending your Spring break in an orphanage.” Magan simply replied, “I wouldn’t be anywhere else.”

At the end of our conversation I asked Magan a question and was delighted and blessed by her answer.

Matt: Did the Lord reveal anything new to you while you were there?

Magan: It is mind boggling what God is doing and how He is moving in Bogota and I am even more excited now to be involved. My friend Brittany wants to go there for six weeks in the summer and we had talked about it before I went so I was praying about trying to go as well. While there I prayed about it so hard and I came home convinced that God wants me there for the summer. The night I arrived home my mom was filling out the paperwork for me to go to summer school and she needed a yes or no answer from me about whether I was going to summer school. I really wanted to pray more about it before answering her but I felt the Lord saying, “I have this all worked out.” One of my scholarships required summer school but recently they changed the requirement so my mom said, “You don’t need to take summer school.” I knew in my heart that my parents have already been reluctant about me going on these trips and I knew that if they said no about this summer that that was it. I would honor their wishes. I told them of my hearts desire and they said they would think about it. The next morning my parents texted me that they were 100% behind me going to Colombia this summer. I had to sit down when I read the text message. I felt God saying with a big smile, “I told you I had this worked out.” One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that anywhere God has called me to I have always been apprehensive about it at the start, so many factors, so much to figure out, but once I let go and decide that God is calling me this way then the doors start to open and they open beyond anything I could ask for. Shortly after my parents said yes, a lady from my church contacted me to say that she wants to buy my plane ticket for the summer. God is amazing.

It is one of the great joys of my life to walk beside, uplift, and encourage, young warriors for Christ like Magan. I can’t wait to see where God takes her. She knows that the Bullen family is behind her 100%.