Have you ever heard of the expression “you’re just like your mother or father”? You know how it is, especially when you’re younger, you’ll say “I’m never going to be like my parents.” When realistically, you’re exactly like them. I know I am. I have the work ethic of both my parents combined with many other similarities as well. Something I was realizing recently is how I’m not just like my parents but it goes much farther back then that, in this case I realized how much I’m like my great grandfather.
I never had the privilege of meeting my great grandfather, but my grandpa told me about him. One day I decided to ask my grandpa how our family became Seventh-day Adventist. I come from a Portuguese and Filipino background, both of which are very well known for being strong in a different denomination, and I was curious what caused the switch.
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| My grandparents |
Great grandpa Joe (short for Joseph) used to work at a slaughter house back in the day. No, you didn’t read that wrong, I did say slaughter house. Its not the most flattering job but nevertheless that was what he did for work. As grandpa Joe was working there was a man who would come by and just hang out with them. He befriended my great grandfather, as well as his co-workers. That’s literally all he would do. He’d hang out and talk story with them. Oh and he always had his Bible with him and would also share what it said. There were times when grandpa Joe would say, “that’s what your Bible says, but mine says something different.” The next week, his friend came back with a bunch of different versions of the Bible and shared how they all said the same thing. Grandpa Joe was surprised as he looked at the Bibles, “you’re right, that’s the same Bible I have and it says the same thing.” My grandpa was 12 years old when my great grandfather Joseph and great grandmother Mary decided to become Seventh-day Adventist, all because of a man who decided to hang out at a slaughter house.
Flash forward to January of 2013. I had just come back from a semester of living on a cruise ship while traveling to 15 different countries. It was a study abroad program I decided to do to try to figure out my life. I had gone through a bad break up and really I just wanted to run away. My hopes were high that I would figure out something, career, relationships, honestly I’m not entirely sure what I was looking for. Part of me just wanted that “ah ha” moment where everything would just makes sense.
While I was volunteering for different ministry projects in countries like Ghana, I saw something that sparked my attention. One of the ministries I volunteered with was called City of Refuge. They rescue children that have been orphaned, abandoned, or trafficked. The children are provided with a place to live, an education, and they’re taught about Jesus as well. I had this mindset that all the kids were going to be sad and depressed because of the difficult life they’ve had to endure, but I couldn't have been more wrong. All I saw was pure joy. It wasn’t just the children that caught my attention but also the workers. They gave up so much of themselves and they looked so fulfilled. I couldn’t help but think, “I want what they have.”
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| Janelle & Karen |
When I came back to the USA I purposed in my heart that I wanted to do ministry. If you asked me what kind of ministry, I would have said, “I don't have the slightest clue.” That’s when God sent me a friend, like he did for my great grandfather. Her name is Karen.
I met Karen at a Friday night Bible study I was accustomed to going to. During the time when we shared prayer requests before going into the Bible study, I briefly mentioned my ideas about doing internships and asked for prayer. There was a huge application process, which included essays and a resume (both of which, I had no idea how to do). After the Bible study, Karen approached me and simply asked me if I wanted help with applying for the internships. From that point on, Karen and I embarked on a beautiful pathway to friendship. I would go to the church they were working with after work or school and we’d hang out for hours working on the application and socializing as well. Little did I know while Karen was befriending me, she was also showing me Christ’s love and was leading me to the precious Savior. Every time we’d hang out somehow it led to her giving me an impromptu Bible study.
I thought my personal walk with God was absolutely fine, but I really didn’t know Him or have a personal relationship with Him. In fact, before studying the Bible with Karen, I never really understood anything while reading the Bible. However, when I studied with Karen, God’s Word pricked my heart to the point where my eyes burst into tears. For the first time, I got a glimpse that Jesus loves me. Even though I was born and raised Adventist, I never understood that simple truth.
Flash forward again to June of 2015. I just finished up my last semester at a two year Bible College and had been offered a job with a ministry called It Is Written. My job description, teach people how to study the Bible and lead them to Jesus. My techniques may seem peculiar to some but its seemed to work for me. My tactic: hang out with people, be their friend, have my Bible with me, and share Jesus with them.
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| Janelle & Melissa |
The best example is with my friend Melissa. I would go down to her workplace every week and spend an hour sitting in her office. I start by just talking with her. I’d listen to her problems and find an appropriate Bible story or passage that applied to whatever she was going through. There were times when we’d spend the entire time studying the Bible, but most of the time it was talking and sharing some short devotional thought with her. Other blog posts have more details about my friendship with Melissa but I wrote this because I realized something with Melissa specifically. I realized Melissa and I have a friendship like great grandpa Joe and his friend had, or how Karen and I have. Only now, I’m “that friend.”
That’s when I started realizing that the best way to witness to someone effectively for me personally, is to reach them how I needed to be reached. This reminded me of the story of Joseph in the Bible. Joseph understood how God would speak to him, specifically in the form of dreams. From the moment Joseph is introduced, you hear about his dreams. Then a few chapters later you see Joseph helping others understand what God is trying to tell them by showing them how to interpret the dreams God gave them. First it starts with the prisoners in jail and then he even gets to help Pharaoh, the King of Egypt. As I was studying the story of Joseph, all of these thing started to click. Just like Joseph, God sent me people to help that are just like me.
