God's Story of Chile [in my little life]

Since my sister studied abroad five years ago, I knew that I wanted to do the same. At that time, I was in ninth grade and in my third year of Spanish. I was in love with it. Spain was my country of choice but then, I also chose knee-high socks, hot pink highlights, and sequin-covered tennis shoes. Nevertheless, I was excited about the point in my future where I would get to experience a whole new world and create my own memories.

Fast forward a few years to my senior year of high school.

I was in my sixth year of Spanish and continued to enjoy every minute of it. I was so fortunate to have only six kids in our class, so I got all the one-on-one attention that I needed, which really helped my Spanish. I was more “Alyssa” at this point and knew that studying in Spain wasn’t for me. I didn’t want to follow the crowd and only knew of one person who had studied in South America (my ninth grade Spanish teacher – funny, huh?) so decided that was the place for me. Chile was about an 80% random choice between that and Argentina and the other 20% was because it’s a coastal country.  I’d made my decision.

Jump ahead one more year to my first year at college and involvement in Cru.

I went into college knowing I wanted a better relationship with God. I’d seen the way He had transformed the life of my sister, and I wanted him to do the same to me. I was learning and growing and so excited to be sure that God loved me. As I grew stronger in my faith and in my understanding of how important fellowship is and as the end of my first semester grew near, I started questioning my desire to study abroad. I was coming to the conclusion that being away from a strong faith community for an entire semester would not do me good, so, I began to pray. Where should I go? Do I stay home? Am I even ready?

Over winter break, I went to Cru’s winter conference and was thinking more and more about studying abroad versus going on a summer-long mission trip with Cru. At the conference, I gave up the decision to God and later that night, I found a brochure on the ground for Cru Abroad. Reading over the brochure, I noticed that 1) Cru only had about six locations to study abroad and 2) the only Spanish-speaking country was Chile. Boom. There was my answer.

God revealed himself and his plan for me in that obvious way but he continues to reveal himself in so many others. God is faithful and he loves to answer our prayers when they align with his will. Even if our prayers don’t align, he listens. He’s using Chile in my life to teach me a billion things and I can’t wait to try to figure it all out. 

Stick around this next semester as I reflect on my adventures, my findings, and my relationship with the King while studying in Chile!



Therefore,
Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.
And be sure of this:
I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Matthew 28:19-20