Going Global for God: Calerdone shares experiences

Editor’s Note: Kayla Calderon is a 2017 graduate of Bay Area Christian High School and has become a seasoned traveller, having visited more than a dozen countries since leaving school. She is the newest member of The Post Newspaper staff and will periodically share her experiences across the world.

My name is Kyla Calderon and I can, fortunately, say I have done more than the average 20-year-old. Since graduating high school, my feet have landed in 13 different countries around the world, my eyes have seen sights I never imagined it would, and my heart has been changed and touched by the people I have met along the way.

I grew up in the League City area and graduated from Bay Area Christian School. Strong biblical truths had been given to me my whole life, but I knew there was something more for me. I knew there was more to this life than sitting in church service every Sunday and going to youth group on Wednesday.

In the middle of my senior year, I was accepted and fully committed to attending Sam Houston State University in Huntsville to study Criminal Justice. Or so I thought. Even as I told all the people who asked where I was going to school, something did not feel right.

In January I attended a weekend event planned by my church. During one of the worship services at Bay Area Church, I heard the word “Go”.  I believe it was the Lord speaking to me and at the time all I knew was that college was no longer an option. 

Uncertainty hung in the air, but I was very certain there was something new for me on the horizon. The next week after that conference I talked to one of my friends who had gone on a couple of mission trips and asked for her advice. She named four different programs, but one stood out to me I could not shake.

The World Race.

The program I did choose was a nine-month mission trip traveling five different countries around the world to be discipled and love those we came to contact with. The program was underneath the organization Adventures in Missions, whose vision was for people to come and share the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ and be radically changed by his love.

And that is the very thing that happened.

I visited the poorest of countries, including Haiti. We walked from shack to shack to see families of five or more living under a stone roofed house that was the size of my kitchen. When we came to them, they gave us their nicest chairs, their best blankets to sit on, and their biggest of smiles. 

When I looked into those dark, beautiful eyes I did not see the sorrow of life behind them. I saw the hope and joy that only Jesus brings. These people had nothing materially, but everything spiritually. 

We would laugh with those dark-skinned Haitians as we sat and talked. We would play with the kids in Botswana who marked us as climbing gyms. I can still hear the sound of the ocean and see the crystal-clear water as we camped out at the most beautiful island in the Philippines. 

Something that I have learned through all my travels is that it has never been about the beautiful sights I have seen, but the people I have met along the way. The Haitians who we laughed with within their tiny homes. The giggly pre-school South African kids we would play with. The Filipino boys who were in the boys’ home we ministered to in Manila.

The memories of the people I have met will be the ones I will remember for the rest of my life.