Paulo Tenorio shares about student missionary work

Consider God’s calling

On January 17, Union students entered College View Church for family worship. This week, there was a special guest speaking, Paulo Tenorio. After a round of songs, the Sabbath candle was lit and students settled down to listen to the speaker. Paulo Tenorio visited on behalf of the Guam-Micronesia Mission of Seventh-Day Adventists. He began by welcoming visiting students from Southwestern, Kansas Christian College and Andrews who participated in the basketball tournament that weekend. He also explained that the shirt he was dressed in was from Palau, one of the nine Islands in Micronesia with a Seventh-Day Adventist presence. 

Paulo shared his background as a pastor’s kid, and his reluctance to pursue the tradition his family had upheld for generations. He explained that he did not know what to study and the thought of becoming a Pastor did not sound appealing to him. However, when the speaker in his own church called out for not only future pastors to come up, but future missionaries, he heard God telling him to go. Paulo trained to become a student missionary soon after and was assigned to teach English at a small Adventist boarding school in South Korea.  

He continued to highlight his mission experience, and gave several inspirational words for students to keep in mind. He said, “I was so full of insecurities and self esteem issues because I didn’t believe who God was calling me to be. But little by little, God was doing something in me, without a doubt I knew it was all him.” He especially related to Exodus 4:10, which says: “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” Paul recounted that he began to feel more empowered, and mature, despite the fact that many of the students he was teaching were older than him. He said, “God qualifies you for the call, and you start to behave according to the call that God gives you.” 

Paulo greatly encouraged current students to take time now to enter into the mission field to answer the calling that God has for them. At the end of his speech, he called those who were interested in being student missionaries to the front. About 20 students joined him after he extended this invitation and afterwards he prayed over all of them, asking God to give the students encouragement and the strength to take such a step of faith. As he said, “a calling can change everything. It’s not about being a student missionary, it’s about the call that God has for your life.” 

By: Jenna Wilson