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– by Alina Garcia Hernandez
God has blessed the Sword of the Spirit abundantly and in many ways. It was his idea that our communities would exist and live in such a distinctive way. In our communities we seek to live radically our call together with other brothers and sisters in a covenant relationship.
Our communities have families and single people. However, many young people who are living in community today have been chosen in a very singular way – a way not even our founders could experience.
Many of us came to community life without anyone “checking with” us, we simply were born or grew up here. I am certain that God wants that to happen for a reason and I trust that we have been chosen that way to do and to be something special for God.
I have taken the task on to discover the perspective of many brothers and sisters who have experienced this and I will publish one story at a time. This is the story for this week:
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Adel Chahín, Fortaleza de Dios Community, San Pedro Sula, Honduras
The lord called me very personally during a summer program in which I decided to get out of my comfort, my home and my family to serve God. I can say that, after those 90 days, God touched my heart. I experienced community life, together with brothers and sisters from communities in other countries. When I went back to Honduras, I was completely convinced: my call is to live in community.
Before my conversion, I had some doubts. I went to the community events because my parents went. I saw it as a family calling, it still wasn’t something personal. I never felt, or have felt rejected because of being a ‘community kid’ and I haven’t felt more accepted either. Over the course of many years, the Lord has taught me that I am not better or worse as a person just because I am part of this people.
Personally, I am grateful to the Lord for choosing me to live this. I hadn’t been born in community, I would have chosen this calling because once you experience the life and fellowship of the community it’s hard to imagine myself refusing to live this life or belonging to it.
God’s will is truly perfect. There is no other word to describe his will when he chose me to live this calling. I am happy to have been a ‘community kid’, but I’m not very likely to talk about that much or glory in it. God calls each person at their right time. In my case, even though I had been a community kid for many years, God gave me a personal call and I responded when I was 17 years old. I believe that for me to be born here depended 100% on my parent’s decisions before I was born. God called at my family’s door before I was born and my parents were already experiencing community life. Glory be to God! I am thankful with the Lord that ever since I was kid, mi parents taught me the values of Christianity at home.
If I could identify some moments in which God explained or allowed me to understand why he brought me here ‘without checking with me’, I would say: getting to know my wife and life companion in this community life, to see with my own eyes the conversion of many, many young people through the power of the Holy Spirit and to continue to build the bulwark in developing new leaders.
I accept and love this call. I surrender completely to God and I serve my brothers and sisters intensely and giving my all every day.
I would encourage all those ‘community kids’ to listen to God’s voice that calls you and asks you to give him your lives. It is a way of life that it completely worth it. God has fixed his eyes on us and he has chosen us ever since the day we were born. Let us not waste the grace God is giving us abundantly. Let us put our hand on the plow and let us not look back!
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I love that nobody checked with me! I thank God for the blessing of giving us that special gift for this life that he thought for us, to live it, to love it and to defend it as Christ’s work. I am a community child and a child of God.
Alina Maria Garcia Hernandez, Verbum Dei. Mexicali, Mexico.
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Alina García is a member of the Verbum Dei community in Mexicali, México. Adel Chahín is a member of the Fortaleza de Dios community in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
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