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Msn. Adrian’s Life Testimony (Jan 8, 2017) 

A self-supporting Missionary Life

Matthew 28:19-20 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Part 1. First steps on Christianity:

I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior after a traffic accident in Guatemala. When I was in 12th grade (the third year in the high school), the school bus crashed with a truck coming to school. I had heard about Jesus many times at my church, but I used to reject the idea to give him the control of my life. On that day, my life was out of my control and afraid of dying. I realized that God would be in control of everything and only he would save me from death and condemnation. 

After accepting Jesus, I was baptized and I started to serve God with a worship team at my local church , and after that as a teacher at a Sunday school. At the age of 23, after praying for an opportunity to study abroad, God gave me the opportunity to come to South Korea in 2008.

Part 2. A disciple of Jesus:

My training as Jesus' disciples began here in South Korea. I came with the idea to be a straight A+ student. I failed in my majors terribly. Korean students got crazy with studying. They had the Spartan spirit to study hard. I had almost no chance to be in the top 10, except in the English class. However, God had a different plan for me. Before coming to South Korea, I met a Korean missionary, Josue Ham to serve Guatemala UBF. He sent me with the word of Mark 11:22, "Have faith in God.”  

He told me that studying will be hard, he was right. He also told me that whether I succeed or not, the most important thing in life is to have faith in God, he was right again.  For that reason, I started to attend the Yeongeon UBF church in Seoul and deeply studied here a Bible study. In Guatemala I was teaching Bible stories at a Sunday school, but here I became a Bible student.      

One of the biggest lessons I learned was to have an identity as a Jesus' disciple. I was not so seriously committed to the Jesus’ calling. I received Jesus’ salvation and I was happy with that. I was very challenged with Matthew 16:24, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” In Guatemala, even though I was involved in the church, I lived my life, as I liked. Here, God trained me with new disciplines such as: Early morning prayer, Quiet time, Testimony writing, Bible studies and also Evangelism. I remember the summer vacation of 2009. We were studying the book of Romans and it was so graceful, that my shepherd might encourage me to memorize Romans in Korean.

Step by step God was shaping my life and I surrendered my will to his will. Back in the university, I joined a Christian club called IVF where I got to know professor Choi. After join a graduate school at Chonbuk National University, I got to know IFC and this was a gift from God to experience the environment of being a missionary among students from many parts of the world. As you may know I graduated last year and fellow workers at my laboratory were to worry about finding a job. They even questioned me why I attended church and did not search for a job instead. After praying for a job, God gave me one and also the opportunity to go to Mexico.

Part 3. A self-supporting missionary life:

My field of work will be Mexico. God has been so good to me during these years. Last year, even before getting my degree in August, I started to work in a Korean company. This company is opening a new factory in Saltillo Mexico and I will work there with a three-years contract, starting this Friday. It is a new beginning for me. I decided to grow up not only to be an expert in Mechanical Engineering, but also to be a spiritual leader. I want to ‘seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness’(Matt 6:33) for the rest of my life. My vision is to become a spiritual leader for Latin America and the world. My mission is to be a witness of God's love and mercy, and share the good news of the gospel wherever I am.

In the beginning I was afraid of being called a missionary, but after praying and listening to God’s words, I learned that evangelism is Jesus' great commission to every Christian. After all, by definition a missionary is someone who carries the good news and shares it with others. Christians are called to be missionaries. Evangelism is a basic part of our Christian life, like Bible study, prayer, worship and fellowship.

In conclusion, based on Jesus' calling me to go and share his word as a self-supporting missionary, my advice to you is as follows: "Think globally, act locally.” This phrase now is mainly used in the context of the environmental challenges. However, we are called to make disciples in our places first and then to the nations. I pray that many of us can become missionaries all over the world and share the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. “Go and make disciples of all nations, and surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Amen!

My prayer topics are:

1. I pray for God's help in my self-supporting missionary life decision. May God reveal me his  word and grant me the opportunity to share it with people around me not only by word but with my actions as well.
2. I pray for God’s guiding to Saltillo UBF church in Mexico and having a good community of faith  to co-work with them sharing God's word there.
3. I pray for God's wisdom in my job. I will be dealing with Korean supervisors and Mexican workers. May God help me to find grace in the eyes of foreigners.
4. I pray for God's blessing for my marriage and future plans. I want to marry a woman of faith and commit myself and my house into to the service of God.
5. I pray for God's mercy and have the opportunity to share time with my family and friends in Guatemala. I visited my family only once during the last 9 years.

Last but not least, I pray to come and visit you soon. I will remember and continually pray for you. 

One word: Go and make disciples of all nations.​