Testimony for Cuba

My name is Lauren Williams and I am from Monroe, North Carolina. I am going on this mission trip because I want to do all I can to help spread the Gospel of Christ to the world. Eventually, I want to become a foreign missionary to help people live better and I think that this trip is a good way to start that mission-minded lifestyle.

I grew up in the middle of the Bible Belt in a Christian household. As a child, my parents attended church every Sunday and they made sure I went to Mission Friends and Girls in Action as I grew up. The idea that I needed Christ as my Savior was instilled in my mind at a very early age. As a result, I accepted Christ at the age of seven during a Vacation Bible School at a local church.

As I began to mature into my teenage years, I regularly attended youth on Sunday and Wednesday nights and, with our new youth minister, began going to camps and conferences such as Fort Caswell in the summer and the Edge Conference at New Year’s. In 2005, I got my first true taste of missions work when we went down to Gulfport, MS to help with disaster relief from Hurricane Katrina. This past summer, 2008, we went to Golden Isles, GA and built a playground for a youth estate for sexually and mentally abused children with a group called TEAMeffort. I was so moved by my experience there that I decided to apply for a staff position this summer there.

My church began going to Cuba during my freshman year of high school. The next year, one of my best friends went on the trip and came back with such an inspiring experience that I made it my goal to go on the trip before I graduate. I have been saving up for this trip since that year and I can’t wait to go this year!

Christ is a huge part of my life. I know that God wants me to go into missions to spread His Word. I live everyday to advance towards that goal. I want to do my best to make sure that my dreams and God’s Will for my life correlate. I am planning to get a degree in engineering and go to Seminary so that I can help people physically and save them spiritually when I grow up. Since language is so important to missions work, I also plan to minor in linguistics and have already taken both Latin and Spanish at school so I can communicate better with those I will be ministering to in the future.

This mission trip to Cuba is just one of the many steps in the Plan that God has already revealed to me for my life. I know that the best way to show my love for Christ is to show my love for others.

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' –Matthew 25:40