So, let's get formal introductions out of the way, shall we? :) My name is Lacynda, and I am a missionary. Actually, I have been a missionary for 16 years. From inner-cities to rural fairgrounds, from Australia and New Zealand to Mexico and Honduras, I have enjoyed a life of living by faith, and watching God accomplish amazing feats through my life and through the lives of others. I have had the amazing privilege of touching many hearts, but also the humbling reality of being touched by so many dear and wonderful people throughout this world. It is through relationships that I have ministered, and it is through those relationships that I have received the most amazing and wonderful ministry to my own person.
Before I came to know Christ, I was a church kid and a minister's kid. Not a pastor's child, but I belonged to a pair of dedicated youth directors who seemed to involve me in every aspect of their ministry. My other sisters lived fairly disconnected lives from the ministry of my parents, but somehow, I was always drawn to the intricacies of their planning sessions, the long drawn-out meetings with their staff, and the exciting testimonies of their adventures in the world of teen ministry.
Yet, amidst the family ministry, I was a struggling preteen. At the age of 12, I began to ask serious questions about my faith: why did I pray to a God who I could not see? Why did I raise my hands to God who did not reach back down and touch me? The answer of the elders in my church was not to question my faith, but rather to do what I knew I should do as a "good Christian," and wait for God to give me the faith needed to grow deeper in him.
This answer simply was not sufficient for my ever-increasing inquisitions, and I began to seek for answers to my spiritual questions outside of the church. It was a friend in elementary school who introduced me to the first answer that actually made sense. "You can't find God because He's not up there in heaven, He's inside you already. You just have to release His power." She gave me a small lesson on how to increase my prayer life by praying with a crystal in my room, to help me focus more. Thus, my introduction into the New Age religion was birthed.
At first, I only prayed with a crystal. Then, I began to be fascinated by fairies, unicorns, and spirits. The spiritual and fantasy world became one-in-the-same in my mind, and as the years passed, I became more aware of an ever increasing change in my own life. Though I was on a desperate search for God, and was very active in my local church as a singer, youth worker, and children's teacher, I was developing a growing distaste for the church. I found much more satisfaction in my own prayer life than in the mundane religious rituals of my small Pentecostal church. So, I feigned my way through each service, and then rushed home to explore my growing world of spiritual enlightenment.
There is much that I could say about what I experienced during the four years in which I was engulfed by the practices of the New Age religion. Without any outside influences, I discovered new doors of opportunity every day. And with each passing experience, my acceptance of the supernatural and extraterrestrial became more lax. By the time I received a visit from three "beings" who were ready to teach me how to meditate deeper and go further in my spiritual quest, I was so accustomed to the uncommon and unexpected that their appearance did not even phase me. The newly-found friendship quickly grew into nightly visits, and I felt a power as I had never known as I delved deeper into the spiritual realm.
It was on one particular day, as I was walking into the living room of my house and began to speak against my own free will, that I suddenly realized that the power I had found was not so easily controlled. Fear gripped me, and I began to question the depth of my involvement with the three spiritual mentors. I attempted to stop using the crystals and to step away from my practices, but quickly learned that that was not an option. I was trapped. Fear was a daily companion, and yet, I was compelled to continue. It was obvious that the power that I felt was not my own, and that I had very little control over it. My family life began to fall apart: my sister and I were fighting constantly, my parents and I were at constant odds, and my personal life seemed completely surreal when I was not in meditation.
In the summer of 1999, my parents literally forced me to go to youth camp. Youth camp was once my beloved summer past-time. Now, I despised the deeply moving services and the spiritual environment that seemed to always make me want to run and hide. Although I had delved deeply into the New Age religion, my heart still longed to know God personally, and my tormented spirit was torn between an innate desire to flee but a deep longing to stay and find the God I so desperately desired to know intimately. One particular Thursday night, the speaker spoke on a subject that struck me to my core: the need to step out of the box that we have created around our lives, give up control to our Creator, and allow God to be our governing King and Authority.
Standing at the altar, I wasn't sure what to pray, but my heart yearned to know God deeper. I raised my voice slightly and began to sing a song: "Amazing Love, how can be that you, my King, would die for me?" A sound like thunder shook the entire stage, and my head shot up as a voice rang in my ears loudly, "I am not your King." I searched the stage. No one was at the microphones. Maybe someone had a microphone in the back, I assumed, and I bowed my head and began singing again, "You are my King, You are my King." This time when the voice thundered, it was so loud that I covered my ears, and the floor shook so violently that I fell to my knees. As I glanced around, I realized that no one else had felt the tremor. "I am not your King!" roared the voice. "How can you call me your King when you have done all of this to me?"
A large transparent screen appeared before me, and I began to watch excerpts of the last four years of my life. I watched as I committed shameful acts in an effort to bring myself into deeper meditation, and with each scene that flashed upon the screen, I saw crouching at the foot of the bed thousands of demons screaming, "We almost have her! Just a little more!"
I was terrified. I was mortified. I was repentant. I fell to my knees that night, and found the God that I had been searching for for the last five years. When I arose from the altar, I was a new person.
The next two years were some of the most horrible moments I had ever experienced. The three spiritual mentors who had once visited me in friendly manner were now forcing their presence upon me each night. Terrified, I would hide myself under the covers of my bed and listen to their taunting mockeries: "You think you can be free of us that easily? You will never be free. You are bound to us, and we own you! You will never leave!"
One night, after months of torture, I began to pray silently. Just the first word left me lips: "Jesus..." Suddenly, the room fell silent. The spirits were outside the door, trembling. They attempted to come back in, and I called out again in a stifled voice, "Jesus!" Again, they fled. I had found the key to victory: not through my fear, or my power, but through the awesome name of the Savior who had found me in my sin and given me this new life: Jesus! I began to rebuke the devils in the name of Jesus, and began to see less and less of them.
My passion for knowing God was more fervent than ever. At 17 years old, I was desperate to read the word of God. I obtained a commentary, Bible dictionary, and two Bibles from a youth ministry I was attending, and spent my days studying, writing, and learning. I was amazed at how much God's plan for His relationship with mankind was so distinct from the religion that I had come to know as "church" and "Christian life." I attempted to share my new-found passion with my family, but they were leery of this sudden change in my character. I felt further than ever from my parents and sisters as the judgement of my past laid hold in my heart, and I began to cling to Christian ministries and other churches where I was able to grow in my faith. It took a very long time for God to mend the bridges that had been destroyed by my past actions (I can now testify that 7 years after my conversion, God did a supernatural healing work in the hearts of each of my family members, and we are now inseparable).
By the time I was 19, I was ready to serve the Lord with all my heart. I had signed up to go to Australia on a mission trip, but during the same month of my departure, had received an invitation to go to India for ten days and preach. The decision was difficult. A week before my departure date, I worked in the same Youth camp where two years earlier I had found the Lord. Kneeling before the altar one night, I cried out to the Lord in silent whispers, "Tell me what you want me to do. I'll do anything you demand of me. Tell me to return all the money to the donors who are sending me to Australia, and I will. I just need your direction! Please, tell me where I should go!"
It was during this prayer that a fellow staff member, an older pastor, came up to me and touched my shoulder. "Lacy, God has sent me here to tell you something. You are praying for his guidance for a trip you are going to take, but you cannot be used of Him until you are baptized in His spirit." I had grown up in the Pentecostal church, so I understood what he was talking about, and said, "Then pray for me, please."
I don't even remember him finishing the first sentence of His prayer. The power that came down upon me was stronger than anything I had ever experienced during my spiritual searches in the past. My heart was filled with an overflowing joy and I began to praise God loudly, in another tongue. I walked away from the pastor and lifted my hands and began to cry. The experience was overwhelming.
The room disappeared into a white background, and I found myself standing alone. I lowered my hands as I heard the Holy Spirit speak inside my heart. He said, "Preach." I hesitated. "Preach what I tell you." His words began to flow from my heart to my mind, and as I opened my mouth to say what He was speaking to me, the words were in another language. Out of the white background, people began to slowly appear and walk forward. They were of different colors, different cultures, and wore differently shaped hats on their heads, which I perceived was significant of their tribes and nations. There were more than I could count. As they listened, they began to lift their hands in praise, fall to the ground in worship, and sing out songs to God with tears flowing down their cheeks.
The voice that was directing my sermon stopped speaking, and a voice said to me, "I am sending you to a people that is not your people, to preach my name in a tongue that is not your tongue." When I turned around, I was looking into a dark tunnel, and the figure of man surrounded by a brilliant light was moving toward me. "Lord," I pleaded, "You know who I am and you know what I have done. I'm not worthy of such a calling!" The Lord stretched out his hand and touched my face, and said, "You are worthy because I have made you worthy."
I lost consciousness and fell to the ground, but it was during that time that an unspeakable transformation occurred in my life. When I awoke, I was a new person. The shame and fear that had dominated my mind only moments before were now completely gone. An assurance, peace, and power rested in my soul. I began to praise the Lord, and during testimonies, I boldly said to my peers, "I don't know where the Lord will take me, or what He will do with me, but I know this: He has called me to be His missionary, and I have said yes."
The trip to Australia and New Zealand was a wonderful experience. As I traveled for three months with my ministry team of peers, we spoke in countless schools, churches, and events where I was drawn to look into the eyes of children. Children growing up in a world where God is not reverenced. Children searching for hope in a world where God is an option, not a priority. The Spirit asked me one night, "What will you do about bringing my good news to them? You once were this child, a small 12-year-old longing to know the Creator of the Universe on a personal level. Will you allow them to take the same road that you took?"
Thus, my passion for children was born. I returned to the U.S. in 2001, and by 2003, was working in an inner-city ministry focused on outreach to children who were from poverty stricken and broken homes. In 2006, the Lord opened the door to work in Mexico, this time on a long-term basis. For four years, I worked with a team of Mexican and American missionaries who took the gospel to villages and cities, and set up several churches and children's evangelistic ministries. It was during this time that I saw the lack of understanding of Children's ministries in the churches of northwestern Mexico. Transform was birthed in my first attempts at helping churches to establish ministries to children and elect passionate adults to be trained and equipped to lead them.
In January 2010, the ministry influence in Mexico through that particular organization came to an end, and I returned to the states. For the first year, I was a bit disoriented with the culture shock and the reintegration into a new life outside missions. But God was not done by any means, and within just eight months, I developed a deep sense of necessity to continue equipping and training the saints for the work of the ministry through teaching and discipleship. The Lord moved me to a new city, and honed my vision toward the discipleship of children's ministry leaders in the Spanish congregations of the United States. The doors of ministry have since reopened in Mexico, and new doors are opening in Central America. Transform Ministries has formed collaborations with several church denominations in the U.S. to train and equip local church leaders in Children's Ministry, to raise up new leaders, and to carry out evangelistic events, and the ministry continues to expand.
Each of us have been transformed by the renewing power of the blood of Jesus Christ, and it is our calling to transform our world with the testimony of that change. If you have not yet experienced that transforming power, God is ready to show it to you. His forgiveness extends far beyond what you believe He could ever forgive, and He loves you with an endless and passionate love. He created you for a purpose and has a specific plan for your life. Confess to Him that you have sinned against Him, and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for your forgiveness and then rose from the grave to give you victory over sin. It is by faith that we are saved, not by anything that we do, but rather a free gift of God to His creation. For those who choose to believe and accept His gift, He offers not only eternal life, but also an abundant life of healing and purpose right now.
Paul says in Phillippians 4:12-14,
"I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me... I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us."
Now you know my story. Let's hear yours: How are you transforming your world? Whether you are a mother, a businessman, a farmer, or a secretary, God is calling you to be an agent of transformation in the people around you.
Welcome to Transform Ministries! I'm glad you've taken time to learn a little about me, and I hope to hear from you!
Visit the website: http:/transformar414.wix.com/transform
God bless you,
Lacynda
Phillippians 3:12-14 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me... Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
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