MGO, three letters that mean so much to any member of ULL's Chi Alpha. These letters stand for Mardi Gras Outreach. For those of you who don't know, Mardi Gras Outreach is where ULL's Chi Alpha leaves and goes to other college campuses throughout Texas. Instead of staying around Louisiana for the craziness of Mardi Gras, we go and volunteer our time with Chi Alphas in Texas.
My MGO team was at first a Mystery Team but we soon found out we were headed to Texas A&M in College Station, Texas. Just giving a shoutout to my amazing team : Kelsey, Lance, Allison, Phuc, Cody, Robert, Mia, Ja'Larrya, Mario, Lauren, and Victoria. I really feel like I bonded with every one of y'all and we made a great team.
As I said in my last post, a big thing that was on my heart that I kept praying for was Boldness. I knew that MGO would not let me down and that I would be given opportunities to be bold. One day on MGO we went to the campus of Texas A&M in order to do a type of 2x2 that they called Treasure Hunting. Mario, Lance and I were paired off and we set out in search of who God wanted us to talk to.
I need to briefly explain Treasure Hunting. You take about 5 minutes and you pray for the Holy Spirit to send you images or visions of "clues" that you need to look for. Well one of my clues was "textbook." I hate to admit it, but I kind of doubted that my "clue" was really from God because college campuses are full of textbooks. With the three of us each having cour list of clues, Mario, Lance and I began to walk around the campus.
At first it seemed like we were having no luck. We were on our way to the Oceanology building because that's where we felt our clues were leading us, when we passed right next to a library. We made the decision to pass through the archway outside the library in order to get to the building. I saw a girl laying down on a cement block and she was reading a black textbook. My original vision was a black textbook but I did not write the color down. Something inside of me stirred and I wanted to go talk to her. We were about to walk away because I was too afraid to tell Lance that I felt that we should go talk to her. As we were almost to the other side of the archway, I heard a voice saying, "Tiffany, this whole time you have been asking me for boldness. I am giving you an opportunity right here, right now to be bold. Why would you let this slip away?" I knew it was God and I knew what I had to do. I looked at Lance and said "I really think we should go and talk to that girl." I led us over there and started talking to her.
The girl was really kind, and after talking to her for a little bit Lance noticed that she had a tattoo. He asked her about it and she said it represented Strength because she was going through a lot. This led to us telling her why we were there and telling her that we would like to pray for her if she let us. The girl said she was not a Christian but she would gladly accept prayer. I prayed for her and even though I have no way of contacting her again, I'm believing that she was saved or that she is seeking the truth. Just knowing that for that one moment I was bold enough to do something I never thought I could do, made all the difference. She was honestly one the only person we had time to pray for in our short time on the campus so if I hadn't been bold enough to talk to her, I would have missed out on the beautiful opportunity God had put right in front of me.
Our entire MGO experience for my particular team was definitely focused on us. Normally for MGO our Chi Alpha goes to other Chi Alpha's and helps them with stuff on their campus. We definitely did that but Texas A&M's Chi Alpha taught us so much and fed us spiritually. It felt like a four day retreat! I learned so much about the Holy Spirit, God, and myself.
One of the activities they had us do was to show us how we can prophesy in the Holy Spirit. We broke up into two random groups of six and then we got in a circle and partnered up. My partner was Victoria. Mrs. Becky told the people in the middle (in my case it was Victoria) to close their eyes and ask God "If the person in front of you were an animal what animal would they be?" Even though I really did not have to do anything but wait, I closed my eyes and was kinda jokingly saying okay God what animal would I be. A rabbit, the most random animal to me, popped into my head. I never think of rabbits and I totally just thought I had thought of it because I was trying to think of something. When Victoria opened her eyes to say the animal she saw she immediately said "I think I saw a rabbit." I was so shocked by this all I could do was freak out. It definitely proved to me that I was hearing from the Holy Spirit, whether I realized it or not.
Another very crucial part of MGO for me was discovering some truth about myself that I did not even realize was there. At the Sunday service, we were asked to stand in front of the church so that the members of the church could pray for us. The girl that prayed for me started saying "God wants you to know he is proud of you. He sees that desire you have and he loves you for it. He is very proud of the person you have become and will continue to become." It was in that moment that I realized that I beat myself up over little things all the time. I always compare myself to others and think that I'm not doing a good enough job or that I need to do more. The truth is, God does want me to do more but when something does not necessarily go my way, I should not beat myself up over it. God is proud of the woman I am becoming. He is proud of my desire to do his will. As long as I continueto live for him, I have nothing to worry about and he will use me for extraordinary things. A few days after this, we were doing an activity where we had to write our struggles to God. Then we had to pray for God's response. At first the response I got from God was not about my struggles. God's response was completely about how proud of me he was and how I should not keep beating myself up over the small things. It confirmed that I really did need to be proud of myself for how far I have come and just continue living for God.
Words cannot express how absolutely amazing MGO was. My team was so fun, amazing, and we grew so close. This is one of those memories that will live on with me for a lifetime. I don't care what my other friends and family did for Mardi Gras or where they went because there is no possible way I could have had a more amazing time celebrating Mardi Gras than I had on MGO in College Station, Texas. I can only Thank God for his greatness and majesty!
