
What did God teach you during your time at Miami School of Missions (MSOM)?
My ministry and leadership style totally transformed during my year at MSOM. The coordinators Leke and Mari Lewu completely molded my training around a John 15 attitude, nothing can take place outside of the vine, outside of Jesus. It was so clear that all the leaders were so grounded in the Scriptures because they put their relationships with God before anything else. In Miami I learned how to lead from a Jesus-centered spirit and vision, not from a self-sustaining space. I’m so grateful for this because it’s one of the most important characteristics to build into your ministry to avoid burnout and always have the humility to let God lead your work!
I also took away so many practical skills, writing lessons, studying the Bible with people more in depth, and also how to lead meetings. Leke was great at crafting our minds to be critical and balanced. To curtail our leadership not from an either/or approach, but from an and/both vision.
I’m so grateful for the linguistic immersion that I experienced as well! MSOM was exactly what I was looking for when it came to improving my Spanish and being trained in ministry. I’m so grateful to David and Jessica Pineda for showing me how to create family in the local church.
What advice do you have for other young people who want to pursue being trained for missions?
I would advise young dreamers to pursue their dreams and fully achieve it! This is not something you can do half-heartedly! Moving to Miami, Florida from Cincinnati, Ohio was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Even though I didn’t know anyone, and didn’t know what my life was going to look like a year from then, I knew that God and the kingdom would take care of me! This year has been the most formative year to my decision of going into paid ministry. If you want to know if ministry or missions is for you, you gotta be willing to go all in and make some big daring moves! God will not only take care of the rest, but he’ll give you a vision for what you can do with your life. So much of the training for missions took place in just the choice to move to a new place and get acclimated to a new city and new people. It was scary at first, but the family I found in the brothers and sisters in Miami took my fears away so quickly, and I fell in love with the Church and the city! Going on missions I’ve learned, it’s always about the people, not the place, so be open to wherever God might be prodding you to go!
What do you value most about your relationship with brothers and sisters in South America?
I still remember my first SAMS Missions Conference in January 2023. Being able to meet my brothers and sister from all over South America was life changing. My connection to them is so important to me that I decided to travel and visit them that summer. I went to Buenos Aires, Argentina and Santiago, Chile. Witnessing their faith and their devotion to God and the body was so inspiring. Even at the conference in Broward, FL it was so evident that there was this unity and this sense of family in a group of people that only got to see each other maybe once or twice a year. The brothers and sisters in Brazil always encouraged my spirit and reminded me that God will provide despite the obstacles.
I value their worldview and their cultures, as well as their strength in creating family. I remember in Argentina we visited one of the house churches outside the city, we ate together and had a Bible discussion, and I remember feeling so welcome and connected. It didn’t make sense, I had just met this group of people and yet they felt like family. I can only imagine how the disciples must have felt in the first century, when visiting sister churches in different cities.
Can you share with us your dream for God’s kingdom?
Although God ultimately led me back to Cincinnati, Ohio to do ministry I still hold onto my dream of doing missions in South America. As of now, I want to build up the Midwest and the churches in the Ohio Valley Region. I’m definitely aware of how much need there is in South America, but there is also a lot of work to be done in the US as well.
One dream I’ve had after spending the year in Miami and meeting a lot of brothers and sisters in South America, is creating a summer missions program. Where disciples can spend a month sharing their faith and encouraging churches abroad. I would love to do something like that, to open up more eyes in the states to see how truly amazing the Kingdom of God is!