For my senior year spring break, I decided that I had spent enough weeklong vacations from school partaking in stereotypical college spring break activities and go spread some radical love with my college ministry.
With nearly 100 of my TCU & Christ Chapel Bible Church peers, I flew to Belize on what happened to be the inaugural Southwest flight to Belize at the Denver airport – which meant we were treated to Belizean treats and dancing before we even left the U.S.
Every morning and night I ate and prayed with wonderful humans. Every night we were invited to hang out on the pier to stare out at the ocean and sing about our Savior.
Have you come to the end of yourself? Do you thirst from a drink from the well? Jesus is calling.
When I travelled to Belize, it is an understatement to say that I was at the end of myself. I had been through a hellish 6 months and brought to what I thought was the end of myself. Life brought me to my knees and left me looking back wondering how things had gotten so bad – And why? It was during this time on the pier that I looked up. In awe at the stars and God’s ability to plant these Christ-following people in my life, I surrendered my heart to the Creator of all things. Give it to God. I don’t know if I’d ever cried such happy tears, especially under the circumstances I found myself in.
During the day, I was at the mercy of a school full of children who at some points literally drug me around their recess area. I got to ask them if they knew how much Jesus loved them and hear their unanimous “Yes!!!!!” before yelling more and running off. I spent some days away from the children digging irrigation trenches for the Feed-A-Child farm and trying to memorize scripture to distract myself from how much I was sweating. Time of my life.
At the end of the week before sunset, I walked into the ocean to declare my love and commitment to Jesus by getting baptized in front of the whole trip cohort. It was surreal and I felt a weight lifted from me when I came up for air. God is SO GOOD.
crypto lauren 