I offered Sally extra help, I made pleasant conversation which was ignored; I tried everything but buying my way into this woman's life, and nothing worked. She looked at me with such disdain, I'd have to look away. 

It was my first year in college. During Spring Break, I traveled to Juarez, Mexico with a small group of fellow college students. Through a ministry called Casas por Cristo, our team helped to build a house for a family of 5 who had been living in a bus. 

What distinguished the followers of Jesus from all other people at the time was that they believed he had authority from God and they felt an obligation to do what he commanded them.

There was a year of my life that I lived in a van with 9 other people. We were a group of 20-30 something’s traveling the states trying to understand what missions in America looked like and understanding the American church. We traveled over thirty states and met incredible people along the way.

El deseo innato de servir a los demás ha sido una constante en mi vida desde temprana edad. Esta inclinación no proviene necesariamente de las enseñanzas de mis padres o de la educación religiosa que recibí en un colegio católico jesuita desde los cinco años.

I have learned that I have a heart to help others; to help set them free from circumstances I was a slave to myself. The key here is “was a slave to myself.” I can only help people get “free” from areas I am free from myself. That or walk with them in the same journey I am walking in too. At the end of the day, I think we are all searching for freedom from something.

The other night I was getting in line at the 7-11, there was a man buying beer and another man standing very close behind him balancing a bag of ice at the cashier closest to me. When the next cashier opened her register further past these guys, I started to go around them; assuming the man with the ice was with the man with the beer. As I did this, the man with the ice grabbed the large bag and practically shoved me out of the way to get to the cashier before me.

“We prepared and served 300 meals today, and did not have any leftovers,” my cousin said as she rested her feet and legs. She’d been gone since around 9:00AM...it was 12:45PM. “Our guests were waiting for us as we pulled in, knowing there’d be food and friendship, if just for an hour.” 7 days a week, 365 days a year there’s a meal for at least 300 people every day.

Well, I did and for me it ended up being one of the most vulnerable asks ever. I had to ask a couple of friends to come and help me move. Now, I know a lot of people get help moving, even me, but this was different. They had to come to my house and PACK my belongings in bags, boxes, and suitcases. We had to move my mattress and a recliner chair and I couldn’t help at all. I can’t begin to explain how humbling it is to sit in a chair and direct my friends how to pack up my underwear draw…

Loving people starts right where we are. Giving people a ride…cooking them a meal…grabbing a cup of coffee with someone…praying for people we like and for those we don’t!