Guest Post: James Yi!

At my last ministry I had the wonderful opportunity of working with and mentoring a group of college students from UMBC and Towson CRU, this summer I get to proudly watch a few of these students go away this summer to places like Ecuador and Africa to serve in Summer Projects, one of these students in James! I am asking James to share his heart with you today, he will be traveling in just a few short weeks to Botswana, Africa, will you join me in prayer for James?

My name is James Yi and I am currently in my final year at UMBC pursing a B.S. in Mathematics. I want to share with you some of the most exciting and humbling experiences of this last year.

Despite what seems like constant struggles in my college career, I have been heavily devoted to a ministry called Campus Crusade for Christ. As you read this today, Crusade is actively involved in over 3,500 campuses worldwide. UMBC has been fortunate enough to be part of this movement for the last three years.

Through Crusade, I had been blessed with the opportunity to serve at MetroKidz where I fell in love with not only the community, but also our fellow volunteers. Our team, led by Colleen, began to spread the love of Christ throughout this area. Serving together every Wed. night was a life changing experience.

MetroKidz was where I developed a heart for young children. Witnessing the struggles these children experience on a daily basis broke my heart. It made me realize how blessed my family was and how much I took that for granted. This was definitely an opportunity for me to give back to the community.

I want to share with you a story about one of the kids I worked with every Wed. by the name of T for the sake of personal privacy. T is in the 2nd grade and lives fairly close to where MetroKidz was held every Wednesday. To say this kid is hyper is an understatement. There have been many occasions where my body has taken the place of a jungle gym for T to climb and I loved every minute of it. Beneath all of the hyper behavior, there was much more to T than I knew at the time.

One Saturday morning I visited T's family alongside a couple other volunteers to meet his family. That morning I had a full list of families to visit, but immediately I knew I would be spending majority of my time talking with T's family. I began to listen as T's mother poured her heart out to our group on her front steps. T's family struggled financially, spiritually, and emotionally. T had recently lost his sister to social services. While listening to her talk, I could see a boy crawling to the door. As I focused my vision towards him I could see his body was deformed to the point where his legs were immobile. It turns out T's mother was raped by a family member and this boy was the result of the tragedy. My heart began to melt on their front step as she continued to tell us the struggles that T's family endures. Through these daily struggles, it amazed me how much she devoted herself to prayer and how firm and grounded this woman's faith in God was.

Despite all of the madness surrounding T's life he was the most easygoing, energetic, ambitious, and optimistic kid in my class. As much as I wanted to be the one teaching T, he taught me how to love and inspire others despite what Satan is doing in our lives. I no longer went to MetroKidz selfishly looking to change lives, but to learn from each and every one of my kids because that's what T taught me.

The day I stepped foot into T's house for the first time was the day I made a dedication to devote my final summer as a college student to go on a summer mission trip to work with young children. I prayed for God to guide me to a place where He wanted me to serve this summer. At Radiate (Crusade's Christmas conference), I found myself in awe at an answered prayer. God has led me to join a team to serve in Botswana, Africa to work with orphaned children and students at the University of Botswana. Praise the Lord!

In order to travel overseas this summer I must raise a total $5175. I have roughly $1900 left to raise by July 2nd. God is in full control and I cannot wait to see what He has in store these next few months. I ask for your helping hand as I humbly attempt to fulfill the Great Commission this summer. There is nothing more my team and I need than your prayers. Please pray that God will provide for us financially, for safety overseas, and that we may be fully dependent on God and not ourselves.

It was a pleasure being able to share with you all what God has been doing in my life recently. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this! I leave you with a quote from a book I am currently reading, "A Million Ways to Die: The Only One Way to Live."

" If I believe the salvation of my neighbor rests wholly upon my words and witness, I might knock on their door every hour. If I believe it rests wholly on God's sovereignty, I might never knock at all. However one works it out theologically, on a practical level the line between God's sovereignty and human responsibility must be kept taut. Tension after tension, always trying to find the sweet spot: This is the life of a Christ follower."

- Rick James

God Bless!

If God is leading you to support James financially if you click his name it will take you to his secure CRU site where you can make a donation.