The first few months of the school year are a busy and strategic time for our Destino staff and students! We celebrate that many students have begun new relationships with Jesus! Here’s three stories told by Destino staff members.
Lauren, University of Minnesota
Veronica (above left) is a freshman at the University of Minnesota, living in the dorms on campus. She filled out a contact card and our Destino team has gotten to meet with her. Her second appointment was with one of my teammates, who brought along one of our student leaders, Lizeth (next to Veronica).
Lizeth and I have spent many hours together over the past year! From our first meeting after she filled out a contact card last fall, to helping her write her personal testimony, to sharing our faith together on campus, she has grown immensely in her walk with God.
In their meeting, Lizeth had the chance to share her testimony with Veronica and explain how God has used Destino in her life. As they talked, it became clear that Veronica wanted to hear more about how to know Jesus. Lizeth explained the gospel to Veronica, and she prayed to receive Christ that day! Right afterwards, she came to our Fiesta Friday and had the chance to meet our Destino familia. What an amazing answer to prayer — for a new sister in Christ, for our student leaders to grow in their heart for evangelism, and for new students to be welcomed into our Destino community!
Daniel, Los Angeles South
During the first few weeks of the semester we promote Destino and approach hundreds of students, inviting them to be a part of our faith community and know Jesus. Richard (above right), one of our new interns, sensed the Holy Spirit leading him to approach a young man named Mario (above left). After talking for a bit, Richard invited him to a Bible study just a few hours later. As we finished the Bible study, I could tell Mario had more questions. As we processed the content, it was evident he was ready to commit more. “Eternal life begins with the decision to believe Jesus’ death on the cross pays for our sins and to invite Him to rule in our hearts, yielding to His leadership daily,” I shared. This resonated with Mario, he wanted this. So we prayed together and as Mario prayed so sincerely, we were confident in his salvation.
Lauren, University of Central Florida
We had over 200 spiritual conversations the first week of campus! Pricilla was one of the students we met. She talked through a spiritual interest survey with my husband Kenny, and I called to follow up with her. She began to share her desire to get a master’s in counseling, and I asked her what started that passion. She vulnerably shared about a painful past in which she had encountered abuse and saw her dad thrown in jail. It was a counselor at a domestic abuse shelter that had made a significant impact in her life. I asked how she felt about God after all she has been through, and was able to share my own testimony of struggling with God’s goodness in the midst of suffering. She told me that she believed in God and had seen him change people’s lives’, including her dad, who is now a strong Christian after God changed his life while he was in jail for dealing drugs in Colombia.
Pricilla understood the gospel intellectually, but negative experiences with judgmental Christians, on top of all the pain she’s been through, had made it hard for her to trust God or live for him. We talked through my process of surrendering my life to Christ and choosing to live for him. I asked her if that is something she wanted at this point in her life. We prayed together and she said yes!