This past year I graduated from UofT with a double major in Health & Disease and Cell & Molecular Biology! I was blessed to have the chance to serve at Power to Change - UTSG since my 2nd year alongside faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. I will be returning to UofT this coming school year to serve as one of the new Campus Staff Interns for P2C! My favourite memory from my summer so far has been helping lead Summer Discipleship Groups (DG) for our community. Summer DG's have been a great way for those who are still living locally in the summer to still engage with the community and grow and encourage each other in our walk with God. It has been a blessing to see familiar faces and meet new friends, a joy it is to see how the Lord works in people's lives.
How has following Jesus impacted your goals and plans this summer?
As I am entering the school year as a Campus Staff Intern, one of my responsibilities this summer is to meet with different people in my life to join in partnership with my ministry through support raising! It has been a joy, day after day, to meet with many friends and loved ones to share about God's calling in my life to engage in campus ministry. I am full of joy knowing that I get to be used by God, and be invited to be a part of His mission to help students take their next steps with Jesus and proclaim the Gospel with boldness and confidence for the furtherance of His Kingdom!
Why is engaging in missions important to you?
Engaging in missions is important to me as it is a command from Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20, that is, the Great Commission. A passage of truth that led me to see the importance of engaging with students through campus ministry was Matthew 9:37, "Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;"". Missions has always been in my thoughts and prayers that if the Lord wills, that He can send me somewhere to proclaim Him. I then realized that the place that He has sent me to proclaim Him, is UofT. Seeing so many students that do not know Jesus, developed a deep compassion and excitement in me, to be used by God to share Him. In my time with P2C, we have engaged in many outreaches to the UofT community and it was there that I saw many students were curious to learn and hear more about Christianity and the perspectives that Christians have on certain topics.
What opportunities did you have this summer to serve God?
I and among other leaders decided to lead Summer DG for this year after many students have shown interest in joining and participating. During my time of preparing and serving the students, the spiritual climate was amazing, I was deeply encouraged that in the midst of the summer where many people tend to go away and become busy in other things, that there were students that dedicated their Fridays on a weekly basis to gather in community and grow in their love and knowledge of Jesus, to become faithful disciples and witnesses. Our program this summer is primarily composed of Bible studies and fun social activities, we engaged in a couple of series that we believed would help our growth and our witness to the world. We started with a "Gospel series", reminding ourselves of the Good News of Jesus so that we are clear in sharing the truth to the rest of our community. As of writing this, we are currently going through a series called "Surmounting Struggles". The goal with this series is to go through common struggles that Christians face in their lives so that we can be found faithful to God and seeking His guidance and help. That through these struggles, we hope that it is a way for the Spirit to work in us, to bear more fruit, and impact the lives of the people around us and have our lives be a living testimony that would draw people closer to Jesus.
How would you encourage someone looking to get involved or engaged missionally?
I would encourage someone to prayerfully discern and seek God's will in being involved and engaging in missions. It requires you to fully surrender your doubts, fears, worries, etc to God, so that by His Spirit, you can be filled with His love, confidence, boldness, joy to serve Him and to serve others. The Bible has helped me personally to discern my involvement to live missionally on campus, it was my love for God and obedience to His Word that I saw the importance of campus ministry. Seek out faithful brothers and sisters, your pastors, spiritual mentors, communities, etc who have engaged in missions, seek for their wisdom and guidance on how God had called them to missions. It was the calling testimonies of many that encouraged me to pray to God for these opportunities and alongside being obedient to God's Word that helped me take my next step into ministry work for this next season of my life.
Any other specific stories you would like to share?
Through the process of support raising, I was brought into contact with a local church where I was blessed to be used by God as His mouthpiece to deliver a sermon/message for their congregation about the message of the Gospel (Romans 10:5-17) and how we as believers have been sent by God to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to the corners of the Earth!
I am a part of a choral ministry and we had a fundraising musical concert this past July which is for a university back home in the Philippines to support students in their education. The musicale was based on a true story of martyred missionaries who visited the Philippines during World War 2 and showed their unwavering faith in the Lord amidst conflict. The songs covered the themes of the Gospels, faith, missions, etc and by God's grace people were encouraged in their own ways to start living missionally for Him.
