Last week a missionary visited our YWAM community in Madrid, who is now preparing to move to South Africa to work among the poor, the needy and children at risk.

She said   “a short-term mission trip to India was the turning point in my life, and I’m very thankful to Jitu for giving me that opportunity”. It felt nice to hear that I had been an instrument in God’s hand to shape the calling and destiny of this young person.

Then I looked around, Vanesa was sitting next to me and then there was Patricia.

And I realized that this project of short mission trips to India was dreamed and given birth to by these two wonderful women. They are the real heroines. Patricia and Vanesa have in them a tremendous ability to love different cultures. Not only do they love India but they also the believe that Spaniards can impact in the nations.

Today Vanesa has completed 20 years since she first joined YWAM, a global movement where young people come and learn radical obedience in following God.

When Vane walked out of her parent´s house to join YWAM, she was thrilled. She was diving into the unknown but with the security that “HE will not leave her, nor forsake her”. Culturally and socially, it was like “swimming against the flow”. The common belief was that the young people of her age should look for a stable job and secure income, and that serving God was for nuns and priests.

You cannot commit to someone unless you know the person, you cannot know the person unless you invest your time to know that person. God is a person and HE calls everyone to know HIM.  So, Vane took that step wanting to know this God of the Bible.  Little did she know that this journey would lead her to discover her original design, a compassionate heart seen in her work with children at risk,  orphans, the homeless, women in vulnerable situations and the poor.

The journey of growing in our knowledge of God leads not only to self-discovery, but also to knowing God´s heart for others enhancing our capacity to love them. The transformation helps us to develop a mindset of the Kingdom of God, breaking the walls of ethnicity and cultures.  Vane was told as a little girl that she should just keep quiet and carry on when things were tough.  Through her growth in God she has learnt that not only does she have a voice but she can be a voice for the voiceless.

For me, Vane is like a lamp on the lampstand that continues to shine, encouraging many to come out of darkness.  The handwork of God the creator, an example of the “transforming power of God”. Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink… out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

When God Wants to Drill a Man– Watch His methods, watch His ways 

When God wants to drill a man, and thrill a man and skill a man, When God wants to mold a man to play the noblest part, When He yearns with all His heart to create so great and bold a man. That all the world should be amazed, Watch His methods, watch His ways: How He ruthlessly perfects whom He royally elects; How He hammers him and hurts him, And with mighty blows converts him into shapes and forms of clay Which only God can understand, While man’s tortured heart is crying and he lifts beseeching hands; Yet God bends but never breaks when man’s good He undertakes; How He uses whom He chooses, And with mighty power infuses him, With every act induces him to try His splendor out, God knows what He’s about.

-Author unknown