Since I was little my parents always would  take me to church, we had family worship services and my parents encouraged me to seek God. As I got older, my parents were no longer responsible for whether I read the Bible or prayed or not. My parents were no longer responsible for me having a relationship with God. All those things my parents had taught me were my obligation.

I remember that in the pandemic I became very distant from God. I had stopped worshiping, praying and reading the Bible. My relationship with God at that time was not the best. I was not doing my part in my relationship with God. It’s not like I was doing bad things all the time; I just didn’t have a relationship with God.

I remember in 2022 my family went to eat at a restaurant and while we were there my father told me that my aunt had told him about an Adventist boarding school in California and that my cousin was going there. My dad asked me if I was interested in going to study there. I said yes, and from then on I started to get excited. I called my cousin every day, we talked about being roommates and doing everything together. I was really excited. 

In the meantime, my dad called the boarding school for information, but there was no answer. My dad asked my aunt if she could go to the boarding school to ask about my case and if they accepted international students. My aunt went and asked, and they told her that they did accept international students but that the fee was double that of an American student. When my dad told me all this, all my dreams fell apart, and I really thought that I would not go to study in the U.S. anymore. It was very important for me to come to the United States to study because in Guatemala, we do not have the same opportunities. Also in Guatemala there was still a pandemic and no one was going to school. This was already making me go crazy, locked up in my house.

At that time, my dog was very sick. She had pyometra, which is when the uterus fills with pus. She also had a heart murmur and was so old that the chances of her surviving were almost none. I was very worried about my dog, and I also worried because I did not know if I was going to be able to study abroad. At that moment, I felt like God had abandoned me. I really did not feel that He was close to me. My dad suggested that I pray and put everything in God’s hands, and I did. As I prayed, I asked God for signs that everything was going to be fine and one of them was that my dog came out of the surgery well. Throughout this process God gave me small signs that everything was going to be fine. 

Then I found Sunnydale Adventist Academy and I sent out a request for information about that boarding school. At this point my parents did not know I was applying. It was not until I filled out the information that I told them. We were all very excited, but there was one problem: classes started in a week and a half. I did not have a student visa and since it was a pandemic, visa appointments were scheduled for the following year. With God’s help we managed to get an appointment for the next day. I was approved for the visa. Now everything felt more real. I think the day I was approved for my visa was the happiest but most nervous day of my life.

This was what most marked my relationship with God, because during this whole process, He gave me signs that everything was going to be okay. When I felt that He was not with me, in reality He was always by my side. In this process, I learned that God works in different ways. It is not always going to be an immediate yes, and it is not always going to be a no. My original plan was to go to California, but He knew what was best for me, and that is how I came to Sunnydale Adventist Academy.

Amanda Moreno Chacon is a student at Sunnydale Adventist Academy in Missouri.