Sunny W.- on mission in Brazil

I’ve lived most of my life in the sun­shine of Phoenix, AZ with my fab­u­lous family: my par­ents, two older brothers, their wives and chil­dren. We are greatly blessed in our loving friend­ships within our fam­i­ly—we spend as much time together as pos­sible and actu­ally look for­ward to hol­i­days!

After grad­u­ating from ASU with a degree in Art History and minor in Music, I set­tled in a cor­po­rate career, spent lots of time singing on the side, and found hap­pi­ness in my com­fort­able life. Call me a slow learner or late bloomer, but I’ve had the dream of serving as a mis­sionary since col­lege. Last year I looked around me and thought to myself, “Self, what are you waiting for?” And so the hunt for a life-changing-Christ-focused-expe­ri­ence began.

So many orga­ni­za­tions want to ben­efit a place or a cause without seeing the con­nec­tion between all of God’s cre­ation. We can “Save the Whales” or “Save the Rainforests” but unless we “Save the People” all else is futile. The only way to change the world is to change people’s hearts. And how do you change a heart? With another heart. To love and be loved is the only thing that gives us hope in this life, and to rec­og­nize that all love flows from the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit gives us hope in the life to come.

I came across Heart’s Home’s web­site and felt an instant con­nec­tion with the simple mis­sion of love. After researching sev­eral other orga­ni­za­tions and vis­iting the Heart’s Home in Brooklyn I knew that its mis­sion echoed my own heart’s desire: to save the people, one heart at a time. To abandon myself, to focus on Jesus through prayer, to allow God’s love to grow within me so much that it shines through me like the sun, warming everyone around me—this is the expe­ri­ence I see pos­sible as a Heart’s Home mis­sionary.

In July I’ll leave for a 14 month mis­sion to La Fazenda do Natal (The Christmas Farm), the Heart’s Home vil­lage near Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. I am so excited to share this expe­ri­ence with all the mem­bers of the com­mu­nity as we draw closer to our Savior Jesus.