Sandra Jaldin
Bolivia
I grew up in a Christian family. Usually, I went to Sunday school and participated in the activities of the church. That was my routine. I didn´t understand that I was a sinner who needed salvation until I was 12 yrs old. It was only when I was 16 years old that I realized that the life of a Jesus follower was more than that. I remember well one specific service when the visiting speaker talked about the work in the body of Christ. He gave an introduction for his sermon where, as a good Latin, he talked about soccer games. He said, "There are a lot of people who like to watch the games but there are only two teams and each team has eleven players." I don´t remember which Scripture he used, I only remember that he finished by inviting the people to be players and to stop watching. After the service I prayed to the Lord and said, "Father, I don´t know what being a player means, but I want to be one." The next year, we moved from the small church and began to help in a Sunday school class.
I started as an assistant and in a few weeks, became the main teacher - and I had only volunteered to HELP! I´m shy, so the first time I was in charge of teaching, it was a disaster...and I was teaching kids! I studied a lot every day, but even so, was not able to speak in public; however, the verse about asking for anything we need in faith came to my mind. So I started to ask for help with my shyness, that it would be less, and that I would be able to speak and the children would understand what I wanted to say. I still cannot say that I have conquered my shyness!
My dreams were to have a family, become a recognized professional and show the love of God. I have always liked I Peter 4:9 and 10, which tells us to show the love of God in its different ways. These were my dreams in the past, but God had different plans. In my last year of my medical studies in university, I realized that God was speaking strongly to me about missions. One of the battles I had concerning this call was what my family would think of it. They really do love God; in fact, I would say I learned to love God through my parents, but I know that their plans were not to have a daughter involved in missions. During this time, I met a missionary who, without knowing my difficulties, asked me what was happening. I appreciated how we finished our conversation. She said she would not be able to go and talk to my parents, but that she would be praying about my call. After I finished my hospital internship, I decided to do my obligatory rural rotation in an indigenous guarani comunity to test and see if I actually had a call from God to work in rural areas or just an emotional rush of adrenaline.
Getting back into Santa Cruz with a clearer idea that this was God´s calling, I spoke with the Mercado and Seng family, who already had an established ministry in rural areas.
I have struggled with finding my place in ministry and, more than anything, with how I should apply the desire that God has placed in me to work with adolescents and children. I recognize that many times I have not been the faithful servant that I would like to hear my Abba Father call me.
Every time I think understand something about God´s plans for my life, He changes things. The only thing that doesn´t change is my desire to act out and show His love in different ways, whether it be as a Sunday school teacher, as a doctor seeing patients, as a camp helper or in doing anything at all, no matter how small.