About Me!

 Hello there! 

My name is Alayna Avila, but my friends and family call me Laney. 

I am from Albuquerque, New Mexico and attend Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tennessee. It is at Southern where I felt God’s call to go out and serve as a Student Missionary for 9 months! 

 I was raised Seventh-Day Adventist, and I attended an adventist elementary school. However, wasn’t until I got to Southern that I decided that my faith could no longer be the faith of my parents, but my own. I did not attend an adventist academy for high school, but a public school for high school. I chose Southern because I felt as though the Lord was calling me there. 

When I started my freshman year at Southern I hadn’t realized how involved in mission work the school was. I had heard lots of mission stories growing up. The beautiful miracles God had done in the scariest moments of missionaries lives. It wasn’t uncommon to hear the stories, but to be hearing the stories of people my age, of how up until a few months ago they had been in completely foreign places. I felt it was something I might be interested in doing, someday. Now was not the time to take a year off, I had a goal. That goal was work hard, get into nursing school, survive, finish, and then I could do whatever I wanted after that. However, I learned that sometimes the more rigid your plans are, and I thought that that was a rough draft, the more God likes to insert Himself into your plans and mess them up. 

The last vespers (worship service) of my freshman year, was the Student Missions dedication. This service is special because all of campus comes together and prays over all the student missionaries that will be serving during the up coming school year. My mom had actually come to attend the service with me because she came to help me pack up my dorm room. At the end of the service an appeal was made for people to come to the front of the stage and show that they were willing to be the Lords servants. I felt a small conviction during this, a tugging on my heart, but I was too afraid to move. I thought “wait what? God you cannot be possibly calling me right now, you’re crazy! No! No! I won’t go!” A prayer was prayed over all who had committed their upcoming school year to serve God. Once the prayer was finished, and we lifted our heads, my mom looked over and me and says “I think you should have been up there” referring to the people who had gotten up from their seats and walked to the front of the stage when the appeal was made. Those who know my mom know that she is a Godly woman. She is a beautiful example of a woman of God. So for her to have turned and said those words to me terrified me, because it meant that I had really felt God call me into the mission field. 

We are all called to the mission field. As a follower of Christ, that is what your life is all about. It’s just harder for those who don’t choose to go to foreign countries to see it. But it’s true, you are an everyday example of Christ wherever you go, and that within itself means that you are a missionary. Jesus gave His disciple’s the Great Commission, but what we forget to remember is that we are still Christ’s disciples, and it is still our job to carry the Great Commission out. Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Yearly, we should be fulfilling it. It’s not easy, but where in the Bible does Jesus say it ever will be? 

I went back home after feeling that conviction. I lived my life as I normally would, met someone very special to me that summer, and I was ready and excited for the upcoming school year. I had completely forgotten about the conviction that the Lord had set in my heart. However, God didn’t let me off that easily (when does He ever let us off easily?) When the Student Missions vespers that happens every first semester came around, I was excited. I loved hearing the stories of the returned SMs. However, when the appeal for those wanting to make themselves available for the Lord and serve Him for a school year came, I felt my conviction again. It grew louder, and louder, and louder, until my ears were ringing with it and I finally screamed in my head “OKAY GOD FINE! YOU WIN I’LL GO BE A MISSIONARY! BUT I’M NOT GOING UP TO THE FRONT! I’M NOT GOING TO MAKE IT PUBLIC FOR ALL OF MY FRIENDS TO SEE SO STOP!” The conviction grew quiet, but then again it grew louder, and louder, and louder, until once again it was ringing in my ears. I screamed “FINE GOD I’LL GO! I’ll go up.” I pushed passed my friends and went up to the front. I’m sure they all thought I was crazy. I felt like I was crazy. During that prayer I held back sobs (although tears were streaming down my face). I could not believe I was giving my year (my life) to God to serve Him. 

You’d think that that would be a beautiful thing. How marvelous it is to let the Lord work in your life. But it is in fact terrifying. When you surrender your plans, and your life, to God it is so scary. It is scary because you are no longer in control (I mean when are we really ever in control?). 

The next few months consisted of wanting to completely back out to wondering “Wait why do you want me to go to Bolivia?” I was working on my student mission application and wondering how I’m going to be able to do this. 

At the end of the school year we have something called an exit retreat. It is where all the student missionaries planning to go out for the upcoming school year get together. Honestly, I was really close to not going. I was sure I didn’t need to go, I thought it wouldn’t really serve a purpose. I thank God that I was wrong. Those three days were such an incredible blessing. I met the people I would be serving with, and got to make connections with other student missionaries going to different places around the world. 

Sometimes your plans aren’t Gods plans. Sometimes fear blinds the plans that God has for you. That is where faith over fear comes in. And it is so hard. It is so hard to have faith over fear, because when God finally asks you to take that step out in faith, your fear only grows. 

The entire summer before I left I lived in denial. Which I’ve realized is a pattern I tend to have when I am jumping into something new. I lived in denial the summer before I went to Southern, and again I was doing the same thing. It was also really hard when I felt in someways I wasn’t getting the support I needed. Even though that hurt, I needed to realize that this just wasn’t scary for me, it was scary for the people around me. The people who loved me were scared too. All I could do was put my faith and trust in God, and know that even though there were people who struggled to support me, God called me, and that was all that mattered. But when I got on that plane to Bolivia, I had all the support and more than I could have ever dreamed of. 

God worked tirelessly in my life that summer. He is still working in my life, and I know He will continue to for the rest of my life until I reach eternity. 

2 Timothy 1:7 says “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self control” (ESV) 

Jeremiah was a youth, and he told God he couldn't do His will because he was only a kid. I think a lot of us can relate to Jeremiah, we exchange the word “youth” for whatever our reasoning is and tell God no. He in turn says “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”  Whenever I read this passage I love to put my name in it, and my mission in it. “Before I knew you Alayna Elizabeth (Laney) Avila I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a missionary in Bolivia.” I will continue to change that last part because I know even after this mission God’s plans for me will change.