Posted in General Posts by Nicki Celestino on 10/13/2011
To the desperate eyes and reaching hands
To the suffering and the lean
To the ones the world has cast aside
Where you want me I will be
I will go, I will go
I will go, Lord send me
To the world, to the lost
To the poor and hungry
Take everything I am
I'm clay within your hands
I will go, I will go
Send me
Let me not be blind with priviledge
Give me eyes to see the pain
Let the blessing you've poured out on me
Not be spent on my in vain
Let this life be used for change
I will go, I will go
I will go, Lord send me
To the world, to the lost
To the poor and hungry
Take everything I am
I'm clay within your hands
I will go, I will go
Send me
I want to live for you
Go where you lead me
I want to follow you
Send me.
This is my calling. My life. My heart. Jesus, name above all names. I will go. Send me.
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Posted in General Posts by Nicki Celestino on 9/30/2011
Last week I was sitting in the middle of the Galleria shopping mall food court at 2 in the afternoon eating a $7 meal from Chick-fil-a. After I picked it all over for the "good" parts, I threw away what I didn't want and returned to my seat for a little people watching action. At that moment I felt like I had been punched in the stomach. I was financially and physically able to purchase a $7 meal for lunch and I wasted it. Just because the french fry was a little more brown then I like it and the sandwich was proportioned in a way that I didn't like. That can be reason to throw it in the garbage. What a waste! There are so many people all over this world (including America) that are starving and would have done anything for that number one combo meal. What's worse is that there are people in other countries who work a lot harder than me every single day and don't make close to $7 in a week. The waste in American is astounding. The ungratefulness. Here I was sitting in the middle of a mall at 2pm on a Wednesday and the food court was nearly three quarters full. The mall is a place where greed is satisfied; for the moment. What if instead of being at the mall wasting money all of us were giving back and helping others? Was there no other activity that we could have been engaged in other than greed? I felt heart broken. Yet in my sadness the Lord comforted me by changing my mood to complete and utter gratitude. I was so thankful that I was able to afford lunch and the gas to get there. Who am I that the Lord should provide means for me to eat? Why aren't I one of the hundreds of children that die each day in Somalia because of starvation? The blessings the Lord rains down on me are immeasurable. It's easy for me to overlook things that are blessings in disguise. But man, I get on my knees and thank the Lord for a full-time job, an apartment, a car, food, friends, family, good health.... the list could be a mile long. Thank you Lord for teaching me a lesson over lunch. We should do it again sometime :)
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Posted in General Posts by Nicki Celestino on 9/23/2011
In ten months and seven days it will be July 1st. That month I will embark on an adventure greater than I can even begin to wrap my human mind around. For so long this 11 month trip has just been something that I talked about. Now it's a reality. The one true expectation that I have from this trip is to come back to America radically changed. I know for a 100% fact that this is going to be challenging. Really challenging. I hate bugs. I'm a relatively picky eater. I enjoy a nice, warm, comfy bed just as much as the next person. But we are not called by God to be comfortable. We have an extremely minimal time here on earth before we spend eternity in paradise. I am willing to give up 11 months of my comfortable American life to live in the dirt and smoosh millions of spiders and roaches with my shoes (granted there will be squeals of fear that correlate with the death of the large and frightening bugs). As of right now I don't have a specific, pinpointed expectation of what's going to happen on this trip. All I know for sure is that I will never be the same. And I'm certainly ok with that.
An overall expectation I have is for as many people as possible to meet Jesus for the first time. There is just something about the feeling you get when you watch someone who is lost become found. It wrecks you. I know that many people will be impacted in Asia, Europe and Africa with the work that our team does. The Lord is going to use us. I expect a level of persecution because of people's unbelief. But that's another challenge to pray through.
Finally, I expect to have the most fun I have ever had. And with a group of total strangers who I am bound to fall in love with. This trip will be unforgettable and I truly can not wait.
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Posted in General Posts by Nicki Celestino on 9/13/2011
Ten years ago if you would have told me that I would have fallen in love with missions I wouldn't have given you the time of day. Ironically, growing up I went to a very missions oriented church. I was always involved with the send-off services and flag decorating etc. My belief simply was that "someone else will take care of it." I was a content pew sitter going through the Sunday ritual. I began to get more involved with church activites just before entering junior high. I led groups, worked the sound booth and participated in my community projects with the church. It wasn't until the summer before my sophomore year in high school that I went on my first mission trip. I couldn't believe I was really calling it that since we were only going 600 miles away to a little town of what seemed like 100 people, on the Oregon coast. We spent five days there doing service projects and putting on a VBS (your typical mission trip agenda). After that trip I was never quite the same. I wouldn't say that there was any life altering moment or devine revelations from God on that trip. It was just the simple fact that I went. I went somewhere other than my local church to talk about God. That summer we had a speaker come to our church to talk about missions work he was doing in Asia with people who needed eyeglasses. There wasn't a poignant speech made or riveting pictures presented but God stirred my soul for the nations. I still fought Him and my desire for missions laid dormant. After my freshmen year in college I went to the Christian concert Creation Northwest. I was in just a rut spiritually. I felt like I was going nowhere. I was depressed and had no direction in my life. My life was a constant state of pure apathy toward everything. At the concert, I shared these feelings with my best friend's aunt. After that emotional conversation she led me to a particular vendor's booth called Teen Mania Ministries Honor Academy. I had never heard of such a thing. She claimed it would be perfect for me. She was right. After just a few minutes talking with the representative there I knew this is exactly where I had to be. I took the brochure, sat down on a blanket in the grass and cried. I hadn't cried in years. God was calling me. He was calling me to come back to Him and shake off the enemies apathetic hold he had on me. 19 days later I moved my entire life 2000 miles away to a little town in east Texas. My year as an intern there changed my life. I spent 365 solid days devoted to seeking Christ. They placed a huge emphasis on going out on missions. I also learned so much about how missions doesn't just mean being muddy in the slums in Africa. It means to GO. Go anywhere and proclaim His glorious name. The Great Commission was emblazened in my heart. After many sermons on going I still fought God and told Him, "no, I am a sender. I will give people money to go to the things I can't." I was afraid. However, a requirement to graduate the internship was to go on a mission trip with Global Expeditions (the missions branch of Teen Mania). Due to finances I couldn't make it out of the country. I spent two weeks in Alaska. I would like to tell you that that experience radically changed me but it did not. I returned back to Texas for the final weeks before graduation. I was about to be finished with my year and I still had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I expressed this concern with my manager at work who is a close friend of mine. She said to me, "Nicki come to my office and look at my map. Pick a country to go die in." Clearly she was kidding. But that's the moment I knew. I am called. There is a calling on my life to go. It took a simple sarcastic joke to awaken something inside of me. The next week I heard about The World Race for the first time. Three of my friends and I planned to go. I was excited about life. Excited to change the world. My room mate the following year was in management of Global Expeditions and was planning to move to Thailand after her stay at the internship. Needless to say, we talked missions like it was goin' out of style! That year I became so excited and one fire to do something. Anything. In the summer of 2010 I was a team leader for a week trip to Baja Mexico. I will never forget that trip. God used every minute of it to solidify in my heart who I was in Him. Several months later, I went to Panama for a New Year's mission trip as kind of an assistant leader type deal. This was such an eye opening experience. I knew I was called for a greater purpose. I returned home with a new passion for helping others. I started volunteering and giving of anything and everything I had. Then I read the book Radical. If you haven't read it stop reading my blog and go pick up a copy. It wrecked me. As soon as I put it down the World Race popped into my mind. I went to my computer and Googled it. July 2012. That was it. God might as well have been sitting next to me saying "ummmm.... what's the hold up? click apply now already!" Then I did. All I know is that I am called, just as we all are, to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ where ever we are.
Here I am Lord. Send me.
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