Mariko Tinava
Bio:
- Hometown: Deleon Springs, FL
- Served: Chicago, IL 2004-2005
- Did Mission Year: After College
- Where They Are Now: Chicago, IL
What made you decide to do Mission Year-what was the draw for you?
I was in my fifth year of college when Bart came to do a chapel series for us. I thought it would be cool and it crossed my mind, but my mentality was “it would be better for someone else,” it's too much - too lofty of an idea, too much of a sacrifice, too Christ-like (and Lord knows I didn't/don't consider myself that much like Jesus). I mean, I did/do love Jesus very much, but dang, it was such a huge commitment! Anyhoo, after the first chapel, two of my closest friends told me that as soon as Bart mentioned Mission Year, they thought of me and said that I had to do it! So they went with me to pick up an application....that sucker collected dust for about one year. I found it while I was cleaning my room one day; it was a completely movie-like moment. I picked it up, dusted it off, and just held it and looked at it. And right then I knew, I just knew. I had been at a place in my life where I needed to learn certain lessons, and I felt like I did.
It was as if finding the application was the Lord's confirmation that it was ok to move on.
Describe the types of service and outreach you were involved with during your Mission Year.
I had two service sites - a daytime homeless shelter and an after-school program. Part of my church partnership was working with Young Life's junior high ministry called WYLD Life. The shelter - oh, the shelter! It was my place of rebirth and reawakening! I loved the men (and the women, too, but mostly men came) there! I love them still. Being there was an opportunity to pour and pour and pour, but it was also a place to receive greatly. The men there helped me see them and the rampant problem of homelessness in such a different light, and I thank them for it.
The after-school program was a great place to stay connected to my community; I worked with kids but was able to meet and interact with parents as well. The program went through some pretty hard changes during the year, but that in and of itself was amazing because we knew the good things being done could not have come from us or anything we provided for those children.
My junior highers were way too big for their britches but that was one thing I absolutely loved about them! Most people can't handle jr. high, but I love it because of their awkwardness and uncertainty! They were filled with questions and coolness, talent and doubt. It was fabulous being able to come alongside them to encourage and to foster a sense of worth, beauty, and wholeness, knowing that once they left our doors, they would not have it again until they came back through.
How are you different from having lived for a year in the city?
Ha-ha, I am much more “Puerto Rican,” or so I've been told. But on a more serious note...three words come to mind: compassion, brokenness, and vulnerabilty. They are all interdependent, as I cannot look through one lens withouth looking through the others.
In its original meaning, compassion is to literally “suffer with” another; and I find myself living in that state of heart, that state of being. I have learned that while suffering with someone, you yourself take on their pain and brokenness, which renders you broken as well. And when something is broken it cannot fix itself. Being broken means having to be vulnerable, because you cannot rely on yourself anymore; instead, you are forced (in a good way) to let go of yourself, to trust not in other people, but God in other people.
How has your Mission Year experience affected your future plans and goals?
Well, the WYLD Life ministry I was volunteering with, I am now coordinating.
I still get to work with the same people (which rocks my face off!), doing the same thing (and a few others as well), but now I get paid for it. Well, actually, I have to raise my own support, but therein lies another opportunity to trust my God to supply all my needs according to what he's got up his sleeve!
What did you learn about God during your year? What did you learn about yourself?
Dang, what didn't I learn?! Sometimes I felt like I was just being tossed around in a dryer because things, not only in my mind but outside of myself as well, had become so overwhelming I didn't know what to do with myself.
Then he would come, in all his infinite wisdom and tenderness, and unnecessarily prove his faithfulness. He taught me true strength can only be born out of true brokenness; I learned that a broken vessel reflects light better than a whole one, so my prayer is that he would keep me broken so his glory would shine through brighter.
