Building relationships in Tacoma

By Emilio Vega, Go Now missionary and a student at TAMU Kingsville

I had the honor of doing mission work in Tacoma, WA. We were able to work with Discovery Church. It was such an amazing experience because there were many opportunities to share about Christ everywhere we went.

There was an awesome opportunity when we went Christmas caroling around our community and I had an opportunity to talk with a high school student from the church. His name was Conner. I went up to him while we were caroling and called him by his name which made him super excited and opened an avenue to talk with him. He shared with me about how he dealt with severe home issues,all while he was dealing with depression. The more I listened, the deeper it went into a relationship where he could trust me.

As we got to the conversation about Jesus, he had issues in truly knowing God was real. I asked why he would question that and he told me how school was teaching him about evolution. He was conflicted on what he should believe. Earlier, he had told me about how he loved computer science and that he created software that was fully running. I shared with him how God is our creator. I told him just like how he created his software and gave it purpose, it is the same with God. Look at your DNA: it contains the makeup of who you are and what you’re going to look like. It is our genetic code. So there must be a creator.

As he listened, he felt confident to reconnect with his faith. As we were ending our caroling around the neighborhood, I asked if I could pray a prayer for God to reveal himself to him and that he is able to have a true and never-failing relationship with Jesus, having confidence and true understanding that God is real. It was so awesome seeing him walk away happy and confident knowing he was heard and now he could go on knowing what’s true.