WHAT BLUEFIELDS MEANS TO ME

When I walked into Bluefields for the first time in the spring of 2015 before my freshman year, I felt like I finally found where I belong. Granted, I knew pretty much no one there but they were so inviting and accepting of me, a wee little high schooler. This meant a lot to me because I didn’t have the happiest of childhoods despite growing up in a Christian household. Bluefields felt like the one place where I could be myself and not get shot down or condemned for it. It was at Bluefields where I truly met Christ for the first time. I no longer had to wear a mask and pretend to be a “super Christian”; I could just be me, a semi-crazy, hungry, funny, random woman loved by God.
It was at Bluefields that I learned many important lessons: It’s okay to cry and be vulnerable because it is in your weakness that you are made strong, the struggle is real but our God is bigger, God created us the way we are and he doesn’t make mistakes and we shouldn’t have to apologize for who we are, if you want to make God laugh then you should tell him your plans, we have favor, don’t let me play finger smashers, we have more power in our pinkies than the devil has in his entire kingdom, and I am one of the main reasons bubble wrap was invented.
Over the course of my time at Hartwick I fell more and more in love with Bluefields and with the people in the college ministry Campus Ambassadors, the family I always wanted. There were several occasions where I walked down there just to escape from societal pressures, bad roommate situations, frustrating days, or just to relax and hang out with friends. Bluefields and CA has been such a blessing in my life, whether it’s playing Tick Tock Dan or murder in the dark, watching netflix and eating dominos, playing pool, or just taking a nap outside while I wait for my ride, and I never want to leave that part of my life behind me.
I pray that Bluefields and Campus Ambassadors will be as much of a blessing to you guys as it has been to me and I look forward to meeting y’all one day.