Hi! My name is Makenzie Lester, and I am so excited to be going to Costa Rica and Guatemala to share the love of Christ and be the hands and feet of Jesus! It will be such an honor to partner with Him in what He is already doing!
A little bit about me: I am from Bakersfield, Missouri (a small town on the Arkansas state line), and I am 19 years old. I am currently attending Evangel University where I am double majoring in early childhood and elementary education! I love kids and I value education so I cannot wait to get to pair the two together. I love Jesus and people, sunrises and sunsets, spending time outside, reading, traveling, hanging out with my friends, and being active!
I am so thankful to have grown up in a Christian home and had the opportunity to see the faithfulness of the Lord through my family and how they chose to live. I always went to church, but I would say it wasn’t until my freshman year of high school that I really fell in love with Jesus and developed a personal relationship with Him. Galatians 1:10 (“Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ”) convicted me and I realized I was living to please people. I focused so much on what others thought of me, and that took away from my ability to serve Christ and live for Him. I realized that something needed to change. I began reading my Bible and learning scripture, and I fell in love with it! I began to slowly care more about the opinion of the LORD rather than of people. Once His words and Spirit began to fill me up, my life became more about Him than me! My prayer was that people would see Christ in me and that I would be light to those around me. I want my conversations to be full of grace and seasoned with salt.
One of my favorite verses at the moment is Psalm 68:19 which says “Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens”. I never want to stop praising God for the love and grace He lavishes on me. He daily bears my burdens because He cares so much for me (and YOU!), and I am so grateful.
