March 16 Chapel

Hi girls! We hope your remote learning is starting off well. In today's chapel post, you will read Victoria and Ava's testimonies. After reading their stories, you can do our activity!

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VICTORIA:

I grew up in a Catholic home. My parents got me baptized when I was only a baby in Puerto Rico. The baptism symbolizes my parents introducing me to God however, at this time I was only a baby so I do not have any recollection of my baptism. Since a lot of my family lives in Puerto Rico, my family and I lived/ visited throughout the year. My grandma (my moms mom), became somewhat of a “faith teacher” to me. Every time I was on the island, my grandma would take me to church, talk to me about Jesus, and basically introduced me to Christ. I went to a catholic private preschool and connected with God there. When I was 5, I was asking my parents how people die. My parents explained to me that there are different religions and that they called their heavens different names. I was very curious about religion. It’s weird to think about how curious I was about life/religion as a 5 year old haha.

A few years later, Catholics need to reconfirm their faith because now they are old enough to understand. So when I was six years old I had to get ready to do my first communion. During this time I was fully aware of my faith and the acceptance of God in my life. To get ready for my first communion I had to go through a year long preparation called catechism. My mom signed me and my brother up for catechism in Spanish. Every Tuesday after school, I went back to my old preschool and learned the Lord’s Prayer and all of the Hail Mary’s for about two hours. On the way there my mom would make us practice our prayers in Spanish. Some days we were not in the classroom but in the church. They showed us the correct way to accept the body of Christ and to take a sip from the blood of Christ. I felt pretty lonely during that time because I didn’t have any friends that went with me to catechism. But then I started to realize that it was a time for me to be with God and to focus on Him. When it was time for my first Communion, my mom straightened my hair, put on my vail, and I slipped into a white dress. When it’s your first communion, you first go through the mass and then you have a little celebration with friends and family to celebrate your day with the Lord.

Fast forward to second grade. It was a good year with friends and my faith until the doctors diagnosed my mom with breast cancer. I remember the day she walked through the door to my living room. My dad told my brother and I to sit down. My mom came in with a scarf wrapped around her head and I was really confused. My dad told us that she had breast cancer and explained to us what that meant. My mom unwrapped the scarf on her head, and I was in awe. I have never seen my mom like this, ever. I just remember crying and hugging her cause I didn’t know what was going to happen. But then somehow I felt some light come into my heart, and it felt comforting. After that I saw the good that came out of this hard time, I told my mom that I would wrap her head with the scarfs every morning and I would help her take them off at night. After that day, I wasn’t sad anymore because I knew that everything would be okay.

When I moved to middle school it was a bit scary, I came to Monte Vista alone. My faith throughout middle school grew and blossomed into something that felt different. Even though I had some hardships with friendships I still felt like I wasn’t alone.

As sad as it is, during my freshman year of high school I started to lose my faith. I wasn’t praying as much and I kinda lost myself for a minute. But then I went on a Mexico trip in November of freshman year and that changed my life. I found God again and it really helped me find myself.

This year, sophomore year, it was hard in the beginning because all of my friends left to attend different schools and it was really difficult. I began to adapt. My mom at the time was going through some hard times with her arm not really working and some job issues. That took a toll on me and I began to discourage myself, and I stopped opening up and talking to people. Then one bad news came after the other and the doctors diagnosed my mom again, with stage four breast cancer. I couldn’t believe what was happening. Everything started to collapse and I didn’t know what to do. But then November came back around and I went on the Mexico trip again. I saw my favorite kids who live there and I got to interact with new ones as well. It was a great trip, it really was. But I still didn’t feel normal. I felt more sad, and more lonely. In January, I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I thought that everyone just hated me and that I was a problem to everyone. I cried almost every night. It was so hard. Everything just fell down and I felt that God wasn’t with me anymore. I lost sight of Him. Then towards the end of January, my grandma, my faith teacher, passed away. I couldn’t breathe anymore, I couldn’t take anymore bad news. I couldn’t even say goodbye because she was on the island and I was in California. This was the hardest season of my entire life and I felt really abandoned by God.

Today I’m still struggling, I’m still not back on track with myself and with God. I know that He is still out there, but I just haven’t found Him yet.

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AVA:

I grew up in a Christian home, every Sunday we would go to church and and I went went to a private Christian school my whole life. I accepted God when I was about five years old but at the time my faith wasn’t really my own.

When I was eight years old I made the decision to get baptized but I remember I was really nervous because I didn’t want to stand in front of my whole church. So my cousin and I got baptized in her pool. When I got to middle school I finally started to get what it meant to be a Christian. It really became my own faith because of the worship at our schools chapels. Whenever I was in worship it was like everyone around me disappeared and it was just me and God.

Even though I was really close to him I struggled with feeling guilty all the time. Even when I didn’t do anything wrong, I would blame myself. I struggled with for almost all of middle school. But then I realized that everyone makes mistakes and God will always forgive us.

I was now going into freshman year. I was really nervous because I only had one friend but we ended up finding a good group of friends. Even though things were going well, I was still trying to figure out who I was. So I decided to join Sisters. Sisters helped me find some amazing girls who I am still really close with. Going into sophomore year I was asked to help lead it and since then I have really grown close to God. Earlier in the year though I struggled with some things. I thought that I had to fit in and I wanted everyone to like me. But I realized that popularity isn’t that important and I needed finding a new group of friends and they are amazing people.

One thing I encourage to everyone is that you are perfect just the way you are and you don’t need to change for people because that is something I still struggle with but I know that God made me the way I am for a reason.

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ACTIVITY:

In the past when we've shared faith stories, we also did life timelines! That's what we are doing today. When we share our testimonies/faith stories, it is good to reflect on our past, on how we have seen God moving in our lives. One great way to reflect is to write and draw it out in a timeline.

So, take some time to yourself. Put your phone away, put your distractions away, focus on God and how you have seen Him work in your life. And, when you're ready, make a timeline of all the major events in your life, the kind of things that really shaped you to be who you are today. Some of these events may be happy milestones, some may be difficult or sad ones. Whatever it is, write it down on your timeline, doodle a little drawing to go with it.

Click this for some timeline inspo. But, make it your own, be creative with it!

Lastly, talk to God. Tell Him anything and everything. Be honest with Him. Thank Him for the life He has given you. Praise Him for the blessings you have. Ask Him for guidance in the unknown. Ask Him for comfort in the chaos of the world, in the problems we have.

We love you, girls! And remember, we are always praying for you. Don't be shy to contact us for specific prayer requests. We also hope you really use this chapel time to connect with God!

- Your Sisters