One of the many stories, yours is in the making!

My name is Francisco Sastre,
I am a proud Gator,
I serve at FRC Doral and this is my story:

I have called FRC my home church since I moved to Miami two years ago. I have looked forward to every Sunday morning since I stated attending first at Cooper City, then at FIU, and now at our current Doral location. I love worshiping at FRC! At the end of service, I am always emotionally and spiritually cheerful having spent the morning worshiping through amazing music and receiving inspiring messages. Experiencing God on Sundays is a constant renewal of my spiritual strength and a reminder of God’s love for me. For a long time, I thought that was all I needed to continue growing in my faith and discovering God’ purpose for my life. I was wrong! Although, I had been part of some small groups in the past, I had not been involved in any ministry or committed my time to serve at FRC. For the most part, after service every Sunday, I would, according to some, “sprint out of church”! As a full-time graduate student, I have come to realize that there are not enough hours in the day or days in the week to get all the reading and writing done that is required. Therefore, I would “promptly” leave church after the service to get back to the endless pages of reading and assignments waiting for me at home.

However, the last couple of weeks things have been very different. I have been helping with the set-up on Saturday mornings and I have been serving actively with the newly singles’ ministry. Also, recently I had the privilege to take part in the outreach event at Starbucks introducing FRC to people in the community. So, what changed? Where did I find the extra time? Did I give up graduate school? Well, not really. A few weeks ago as I was leaving church I was invited to participate in a singles’ groups that was being formed. What I did not realize then, was that that small invitation opened the doors to many opportunities of service. Prayers were answers in that short moment since, until that point, I have been struggling on how I could serve God by getting involved at FRC and make a time commitment that I did not believe I had.

I wish I could say that God has rewarded me with 40-hour-days for my commitment, but that’s not the case. However, the rewards of serving are much greater than extra hours in my days to get my assignments done. Only in a short time, I have come to realize many things about serving: the blessing of worshiping does not have to be limited to one day as there are seven days in a week and many opportunities in each and every day to worship God; service is not only about setting up a stage or preparing an agenda for a small group, but it is about building friendships and finding love and support; unconditional love is as much of a part of the offering given in the acts service as it is a gift that is received through the experience of serving; and although we are ultimately being God’s instrument with our service, God is answering our prayers and meeting our needs through our commitment.

Personally, I thought that time was an important issue preventing me from serving during this stage of my life. I thought that my normal routine was enough to grow in my faith, but God had other plans for me. Ironically, one of my favorite verses from scripture speaks loudly just to that…“In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). Next time you see me, I probably will not be “dashing” out of service to get home, so come and let me tell you more about how amazing my life has been since I accepted God’s call to serve. And, in case you are wondering, I still have plenty of time to do my schoolwork, but I am having a lot more fun than I have had before!