My First Mission Trip to Serve the Lord By Cindy Oriol
Once I was seated with everyone else at the mission conference, a minister started calling out the names of different couples to come forward and speak to us about their adventures of becoming a missionary. The Holy Spirit had spoken to their hearts about where their next adventure would take them to preach ”His Good News.” Some of them were headed to countries that were so dangerous they could not even share where they were going. One by one, a couple would come up on stage to share their stories. The husband spoke first, telling us that one day, the Holy Spirit placed in his heart to go to a certain area and teach, later that same day the Holy Spirit put the same idea into the wife’s heart. They spoke to us about coming together to tell each other about what the Holy Spirit had laid on their hearts. That is how amazing our Lord is. When things like this happen in our life, we just know that it is coming from the Lord. After all of them had spoken and shared their testimonies, they asked us to pray for them because they would go to dangerous territories, that we were not even allowed to know the name of the destinations. They were not afraid because they were on fire for the Lord. They were eager to help advance His kingdom.
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The minister asked if there were anyone of us that would like to dedicate our lives to the mission field. I had this overwhelming tugging in my heart. I could not jump up and run down to the stage fast enough. I fell to my knees, begging Our Savior to use my ransom life anyway He chose. My tears were out of control but, I cried because through all my despair He was with me. I was out of control and yet, it was the most loving experience I have ever felt. I then realized that this was part of His plan from the beginning when I was eight years old, and the Lord had placed on my young heart that I would take care of others in the mission fields. The plan that He had mapped out for my life. I laid on the cold, hard floor, crying my eyes out to Him. My heart felt as if would explode from so much of His love pouring into my body. I could feel Him holding me in His loving arms as a father does here on earth. He wiped away the tears as they ran down my cheeks. It was like an out-of-body experience. I was half there and the other half of me was somewhere else. Realizing that He had always been with me through every storm. I placed all of me down at His feet. I could not worship Him enough. I started thanking Him for never leaving me when I needed Him the most during my storms in life. He showed me how to love Him unconditionally, the way He loves us. But most of all, He showed me how to trust Him in all things. I did not want to get up from the floor. That was the closest I have ever felt through His spirit. I know He loves me and I desperately love Him. I knew that deciding to be a missionary was going to be a decision that would touch my heart and change my life forever, but I wanted to and had to do this for Him. I knew that this would make Him happy. He loves it when we are obedient and grieves when we are not.
