Transcript
Sabrina: What's up Church, my name is Sabrina. I'm on staff here with Salt Company and I get to hang out with people like Gigi every day and I'm pumped that you'll get to hear more of her story. So let's jump in. Gigi, start off by telling us about the last five years of life. How you got to Cedar Rapids. How you started following Jesus. Give us a rundown of that.
Gigi: So it's funny because I accepted Christ exactly five years ago. I was in my freshman year and it was 2016, and I went to a funeral at my church. And at this time I had been in church since ever because I came through a Christian family, but I was just like living the life that my parents told me to do and my heart wasn't really there. So after this funeral, I was like, oh, life is really short. Is the life that I'm living going to end like I want it to? So when I realized that I was like, okay, so what can I do? Like, how can I live for God? And I came to talk with my pastor and I started to go more to church and study. And really, really, how can I do this right? Like, I started to go to Bible studies and see how God wants me to live my life. How could I bring people around me to help with this in research for them and to know Jesus. How I came here. So I came to a high school program just for a seven months, supposed to be for seven months. And I went to a Christian family here, too. And their oldest son, he goes to Salt in Ames. And when I finished high school, I was like, oh, what can I do? It was the middle of the Corona thing. It was 2020. So I was like, okay, should I go home? Should I stay? What should I do? And, you know, but then I decided to do college here. So I started going to Kirkwood. And when I first started this brother, his name's Logan, and he was like, oh, there's this church Veritas and they have a Salt Company there, a college ministry. You should go. It would be good for you. And I'm like, I don't know anybody, but I was like, okay, I don't know anybody anyway. So let's go and see what it does look like. And when I saw I was in connection group and after I was in Fall Retreat and I was here every week. I'm like, oh, everything happens really fast. But it was great. And yeah, it was kind really unexpected, but was really good at the same time.
Sabrina: So good. So good. Yeah. One thing I really admire about you is just your ability to care for community and in the way you invite people into community. And I think back to reach week. So we were on campus for for two weeks after students moved in and as students would come hang out with us, we'd ask them like, how did you hear about Salt Company? And they would point back to you every time they would say I'm friends with Gigi or, yeah, Gigi invited me. I live next door to Gigi. And so, yeah, tell us a little bit about your community here and what you've seen God do in that.
Gigi: So it is funny because when I first started, I didn't have the community and all these people they passed through my life this last one year and ten months-ish were really important to me. So at first I was the one that needed help. I was the one that I don't know anybody. I was the one that doesn't have a church. And this was really important to me, and I really want to be able to understand the words and to be part of something here. So now that I am able to, I want to help like everybody as possible pretty much, you know. And since I'm international student, I know how hard it is be far from home and they don't have anybody and the family is not here. When something happened, you always count on your mom or your dad or with your family in general. So I point students to see that the church is also a family. And we are here for them, whatever they need or with anything. And even far away from home, God is everywhere. So He Is looking for everybody and a lot of them come from countries that don't know God like nothing, no idea about it. So God's saying they're here for one reason, just like he sent me here for one reason. And this is a great opportunity to meet Him and maybe even come back to the country and be missionaries there. You never know.
Sabrina: Let's go. Yeah, yeah. I remember at the beginning of the semester when you rolled into Veritas with like eight friends you had just met. They were all international students and you were introducing me to all of them, right? And they all were just excited to be a part of a church. Some of them were believers, and some of them are not. And yeah, you just went out of your way to be an everyday missionary. You live that out so well. So last week at Salt Company Jordan asked every student to write on a piece of paper like, what's your purpose in life? Do you remember what you wrote and what did you write down?
Gigi: Yeah, okay, so that week my Comp 1 teacher sent my assignment and one of the question was like, What are you going to do with your life? And as I think about that. And after Jordan asked this, I was like, okay, so this message would be a really great like, it's like what I need. And I wrote, I want to help the most amount of people that I can to find Jesus. And it's not about me. It is about God. So what can I do with my life to help those people to know this amazing God that we have.
Sabrina: So good! He is amazing. All right. Gigi, thanks for sharing more of your story. If you see Gigi around church, go up, introduce yourself. Get to know some of the students that are always surrounding Gigi. If I think about our mission statement as a church, so our values of like raising up mature disciples, sending out everyday missionaries, glorifying God. Gigi lives out every single one of these, like I know our video is about being an everyday missionary, but she lives out every single one of these and I want us all to be more like Gigi. So thanks for joining us. Thanks for sharing your story. And we'll see you later.