Trinity alumna and member Marissa Riviera spent nearly two weeks in Traverse City, Mich., for a mission trip and a donation from Trinity helped her get there. 

Riviera has been on multiple mission trips in the past. She has served local communities through manual labor and education, this time, she was on an evangelizing mission trip. She said it pushed her to talk about God in uncomfortable situations and help tell others about Him. 

“Freshman me would have never have said that I should go and share the Gospel by sparking spiritual conversations with people in public settings,” said Riviera. However, she knew this is what God was calling her to do. 

Next step in the journey

“I was at a point in my walk with God where I had finally surrendered and understood what that looked like. I felt like I trusted him enough to be dependent on what he was next preparing me for,” said Riviera. She said the opportunity to spend a few weeks of the summer evangelizing lined up with her availability and she was able to raise the funds she needed to go. “I wasn’t forcing myself to go, but I was taking those steps of faith and leaving it up to God.”

Riviera’s dad, Eric, died 11 years ago after a battle with leukemia. She said knowing that God is her heavenly Father and always with her gives her peace that she wants others to know about Him deeper and the security and peace they can have as well. 

“Our relationship with God is not like any other relationship we will have in our lives. He knows us better than anyone else. I felt the joy of the Lord so much on this trip. He is so gracious and comforting,” said Riviera. 

The mission trip was through Cru, a Christian organization based on many college campuses. Riviera and the other attendees had conference sessions to help them prepare for conversations they would have with their audiences. They met with people in public areas and also students at J1TC, which are J1 Visa international students living in the Traverse City area.

Conversations that change lives

“Successful evangelism is about taking initiative in steps of faith and leaving the rest up to God,” said Riviera. “We were going on the beaches and sparking conversations about life and faith.”

Riviera said the groups doing evangelizing had some pre-determined conversation starting questions, but it was up to the small groups to select someone to approach for the conversation. She added that she was nervous at first, but became used to the process. 

“It’s not me. It’s only by the Holy Spirit that I’m able to talk about Him,” Riviera said. One of her first conversations was with a woman in her late 20s at the beach in Traverse City. Riviera said she asked her questions about herself, her life and then asked the question that usually sparked the religious aspect, “What do you think happens after death?”

Riviera said the woman told her that she grew up Catholic and went to a Catholic church. They discussed her personal relationship with God and how she could get involved with a local church. 

“I felt pretty confident after that conversation,” said Riviera. In addition, the team would hand out a booklet of the Gospel message to those who were interested.

She was able to apply the topics from the teaching sessions into the conversations as well. She said having sessions like, “How to share your faith,” and “Cross cultural communication” was helpful for having the discussions with people she didn’t know. 

A Difficult Encounter 

Riviera said most of the conversations were met with good discussion, until the group came upon an atheist.

“He said he had taken a thousand classes in college and he couldn’t find a reason logically pointing to Christianity being a realistic, scientific religion. He even told us we were pushing people away from religion and doing a bad thing,” said Riviera. She said the conversation wasn’t productive and left her feeling defeated. “I felt shut down. It hurt me because I could see that his heart was very hardened. It was a circular conversation rather than moving toward a point. I felt such a heaviness in my heart.”

Riviera said her group members helped remind her that this is what God was calling them to do--to have conversations--and she was moved by God’s word in a group study on the parable of the sower to continue. 

Learning from each other 

“I had been longing for a community of sisters in Christ and I got exceedingly more than that from the girls on this trip,” said Riviera. 

She said having the ability to socialize with other females in similar situations was good for her soul. In addition, Riviera said the students were discipled by one staff member, who would meet with them individually and really got to know them and work through personal faith topics with them. 

Riviera said she came to realize that her emotional maturity was different than her peers after she lost her dad at a young age. She expressed that emotions are also difficult for her to identify. In one session, she said the students were told to reflect on one negative thought they continually have and share it with one person. Riviera shared it with her assigned staff member. 

Through that session, she and her discipler reflected on the thought and the verse 2 Corinthians 10:5, which said, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 

“I really thought about how God’s Word challenges the negative thoughts that I have. It is so, so beautiful how God’s Word is a love letter to us,” said Riviera. 

By the numbers

Out of the 13 days in Traverse City, Riviera said she evangelized 10 days. With her teammates, it results in 773 conversation initiations, 443 spiritual conversations, 214 Gospel presentations and 9 prayers to receive Christ into open hearts.