My name is Rebeca I am 18 years old and I am from Bolivia.
I will tell you how the Lord came to transform my life. In 2017 a group of young Adventists arrived at the town where I lived, and held a book fair. I was curious to see me, it turns out that they also sold some corn pancakes and I did not have money so I returned to where my mother was and asked her to please give me money, my mother gave it to me and said: “Buy and come back quick to the store.” I stood talking with one of the group leaders, who turned out to be a teacher of the Adventist College where the young people came from. He started talking about boarding school, because I didn’t even know it existed. The school was about an hour from where I lived, and he told me that this boarding school was Adventist and that I could be able to apply and then wait for them to accepting me, at that moment the restlessness entered into me. Then I went back to my mother and said smiling “Mommy I’m leaving” and she replied “yes go away at once, get into their car and bye” but really what she wanted to say was: “¡oh wow! stop talking nonsense please” .

That year I wanted to leave but my mother refused and I could not register. Then the following year the miracle happened: my mother agreed. That day with I arrived I was happy at the school to register, but the secretary told me that I could not because the quotas had already been exhausted. I returned home sadly, I really wanted to enter that year. As if that were not enough, during that year many problems occurred at home. I had to find another job where I could earn more money. Much of my time was working and studying, so I couldn’t do anything else that I enjoy. Like playing soccer, or going to my workouts. There were days when I left work late and arrived so late for classes that sometimes they wouldn’t let me in the classroom. During that time teachers called me into the management office and gave me reprimands for being late to school.

The effort I put in gave results, because there were people who also helped me as the school’s watchman. Every time I was late she let me go in. The problems never ended. My family was declining more and more, and the problems were increasing. As we were going through a difficult economic situation, we had to borrow money and people always came to collect and I could not facing the fights and discussions. In 2016 I tried to register again, this time they gave me hope to enter and told me to present the necessary documents, when I arrived home with my brother I told the news to my family, his words were: “If you want to go you have to do it alone, look for the documents yourself because we don’t have time.” Throughout the day my mother spent her time working, just like my brothers and I was 15 years old, so I didn’t know where to start, finally I received instructions, I went to all the places I had to go and got all the documents except one. The only one missing was my school record from years ago and the principal of the school where I was at that time refused to give it to me. The requirement that they asked me to obtain it was for one of my relatives to sign it. That day only my brother was at home on his day off and he was sleeping and I needed his signature, but he refused to give it to me. Finally my father appeared and he signed it, so I came to the end of the line to present the permit and the secretary with a smile handed it to me and said: “I hope it is the right decision” and I replied, “I will strive to So be it”.

The next day I went to the boarding school and presented everything and the secretary told me that everything was fine and then gave me a photocopy containing a list of things to enter the boarding school. They had accepted me! After that I had an interview with the director and he told me many things and at the end of the interview he said welcome!

In March 2017 I would have to be there. My mother was sad and turned my gaze to the side so as not to cry and so my mother would see me happy. I could only go out to see her one day every three months. I spent two years in that boarding school in which many tests surrounded me, but they were a great blessing, in time I made the decision to baptize, but my mother did not accept I to become an Adventist, because my family belongs to an Israelite religion. As a result, the first year I was not baptized, the second year there was a week of prayer, the title was “Be light in every place and moment”. The Lord called me to be part of his flock and without the permission of my parents I made the decision to be baptized. I would have liked that some of my relatives were there but none of them attended. Even so, I felt the joy and joy of the whole church and my classmates, once I entered the water my heart was filled with joy, tears started forming in my eyes. I knew then that I had found the right path to salvation.

By the grace of God I find myself in this institution to learn and train in the area of nursing. I know that with God’s help I will achieve it, it was not easy to leave where I came from, but I am sure that it will not be impossible to return. I have the promise that all of this will be rewarded in heaven. I look forward to my savior, but first comes first: Preach the gospel and I hope to do it healing as Jesus commanded. As Jesus did. Blessings for all!

By: Rebeca Rodriguez.