Let me introduce you to one of Ten2’s summer 2020 participants, Hayley Huls. She is a vibrant young college graduate who has a burning desire to live out the Great Commission and is engaging in the 2020 Ten2 motto of letting her mission be wherever her foot falls. She is currently residing in Mesa, Arizona. and is partnering with her local church to create efficient outlets for their church to volunteer in the community. For Hayley, this ministry is very close to her heart because of the past experience she has had with this volunteer program.
The Lord has been so faithful to provide a ministry opportunity to serve alongside despite the Coronavirus outbreak. However, Hayley’s personal and relatable accounts of going through COVID-19 further shows how God’s hand still leads his children toward growth. For Hayley, being a senior at college when COVID took the world by storm, not only did it alter the course of her final semester, but also posed a greater concern of a full-time job. Hayley has been called to full-time vocational ministry, yet now in a world where it’s difficult to personally talk with your neighbor, doing it overseas seems nearly impossible. When the Coronavirus was in full swing during the end of her last semester at college, she had a moment of realization that so many people were out of jobs, and that the challenge of finding a job for a newly graduated student attacked her with fear. Thoughts racked her brain of what was she was going to do now that international travel had an indefinite ban, and traveling missions is what she has been lead to do for many years. Hayley said that the loss of her last semester, questions concerning post-grad work, and doing full-time ministry were all areas she was honest to say that she had to grieve over. This is a new aspect for nearly every believer’s testimony of how the enemy is the thief of joy and how he tries to take our eyes off of the gospel and the heavenly Kingdom ahead and create division between neighbors because we so selfishly look only at our own circumstances. Yet Hayley has shown to be a strong. godly example of mourning the losses of dreams and aspirations, but also keeping her eyes on her earthly purpose.
Because Hayley has such a heaven-bound mindset, she said that being a part of the revised Ten2 program was a no-brainer! She expressed her disappointment that she was no longer going to Romania, but she still longed to be a part of a mission team. Hayley went on to say that by Ten2 being revised it was actually convicting because it took the focus of sharing the gospel from across the world to across the street. Through this whole process of doing missions in the middle of a pandemic, it has shown that people in our own communities are hungry for the Good News. Hayley said that now she gets to be more on the mobilizing end of missions by organizing and arranging ways her church can serve the community. As of right now she does not know all the mechanics of how it will work due to COVID. Yet, she does know that she is working along a team within her church, putting together volunteers so that they can go out within their community and help meet their needs. Missions comes in many forms, not just crossing over to a new continent.
Hayley shared that one area of prayer she would greatly appreciate is that she would “not run ahead of the Lord during this season of waiting and continue to say, ‘yes’ to whatever He asks her to do.” Through these changing times many perspectives have changed, but God’s word still remains the same. The heartbeat of Ten2, and ministry in general, is to be the hands and feet of Christ, and Hayley is a great example of just that!
– Juliette Peterson, Ten2 2020 Participant & Storyteller