Below is my testimony from the Youth Power Group. I appreciate all that God has done through the YPG, so that's why I decided to write this below. If you like, you can use it someday and cut and edit a few things at your convenience, so it can be readable. At least, it will be posted on my facebook. Thank you. This pic - I appear with my graduation cap and gown - is from when I was 20 y.o. - 3 years ago - I barely got my Associates in Arts degree. Everything was going really smooth, until I got sick and tired of life just because IT IS BORING. EVERYTHING started to bore me. Nothing amused me because everything looks mechanical and it starts with one day I am born, then I grow up, then I'm supposed to have friends, give myself to friends and family, marry one day, have children, raise them, grandkids and all THAT effort to die. Well, it ALL changed when I had an encounter with God. It wasn't easy. Believe me. I went to church every Sunday for three years and my life was the same: dull, lifeless, sad, depressive, EVEN jokes, friends or going outs didn't help. It was until I made the decision to give ALL OF MYSELF to God: dreams, goals, fears, doubts, EVERYTHING! I started to trust God THIS time, so I knew that the YPG would help me. Today, I can't wait for my major graduation in Dec., of 2010 for an English with a focus in Literature and a minor in Media Analysis. PLUS some background in Journalism classes, and ESL classes (English as a Second Language). All these will count for 7 1/2 years in college. I'm already dizzy by saying all these things... well... the thing is that I'm impressed of myself because I thought I would never get ANY TIME TO STUDY, just the way of how I was before... uh oh. Lazy, party girl, drunkard, excessive fun - which was temporal - to the point that I would not care about important stuff and my obligations, and other things that I prefer to not state now for the sake of my fingers pressing the keyboard - as of this writing -, but you get the idea. What can I say today? Thank you, God and YPG for helping me out! I never thought I could EVER reach THIS far today in the U.S.... by being a college student and BE happy ... I'm aware that I still have to learn a LOT to become a succesful woman. By succesful, I don't mean to have money, houses, car, but the INTERIOR. One needs to start with the interior self - spiritual -, so the goodness can be shown throughout the exterior. "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matthew 6:33). I'm not lying, it says on the Bible. Why do you want external things if you're interior is not good? If you want to take a closer look at this, just look at those rich people's actions and the kind of rewards they receive. Did they do good deeds and received So what I'm doing right now is to get closer to God... closer to Him in prayer, fastings, faith, in my behavior, in my attitudes, etc. God and His church is my Father, Mother, Family, Best Friend. He is my everything.
Marcia del Refugio Quijada Ruiz
YPG Phoenix, Arizona
March 26 at 3:28am
