By: Erlinda Mejia-Olson
JEREMIAH 29:11-13 ~ "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart."
Do you find yourself embarking on a journey which you have thought or believed at some point in your life, was part of your past, just wasn't meant to be for you, that God has another plan, and heard yourself saying a million times: "I have moved on"? And there you are, as you quietly seek the will of God in your life, only to find yourself in the midst of that same journey which you have thought was buried in the deepest sea. Then, you asked yourself: "How did I get to this point again?
Friend, I just want to let you know that you are not alone. I can relate to all the frustrations that came with it. But we just can't stop and say, I am not going to deal with it now, not again, not ever. Those were my words before. But guess what? God brought it back to me. I didn't even dare asking Him why. My respond to the Lord was: "If this is what You want of me, Lord, at this moment of my life, yes, I will do it, even though I know it won't be easy, and the chance of me becoming successful at the end of this journey may seem so dim. I want to "...walk by faith, not by sight." (2 Cor. 5:7). For the Lord God Almighty, reminded us in His word, that He is the only One who knows the beginning and the end of every journey He allows in our path. We may not know what God has instore for us in the future, but we know that we can TRUST in His holy Name. I know that, because HE said so!
Let me end this journal by sharing with you a few Bible scriptures which I have been meditating along with the above Scripture reference, and an encouraging lifestory of a young man named, Chris Sierra. May this journal gives you comfort and lift up your heart to our Blessed Hope, Christ Jesus our Lord, our Savior, our Redeemer, to whom ALL the GLORY and HONOR belong!
"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”" (Joshua 1:9)
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9)
"Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in Him, Because we have trusted in His holy name. Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, Just as we hope in You." (Psalm 33:20-22)
"For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5c)
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Stories from the Mission Field: "I Shouldn't Have Gone To AMTC For So Many Reasons...."
The Happenings of My Life…God truly loves US.
So to start off, I thought that I would just go ahead and let everyone in on some things going on in my life….crazy things! God is good, man He truly knows what is best for us…He truly does!! So heres my story (I know that it is super long, but please read it, not to see what happen, but to see God’s amazing glory and power through what happened!):
A couple months ago, my dad was listening to his normal Christian radio station, until it went fuzzy. He switched to another Christian radio station for about 5 mins., and in those five minues, came a commercial for a talent competition called AMTC. My dad called my brother John immediately to tell him, because he has been trying to play out his music and what not. The night of the “talent show,” I was planning on going to my friends house to chill, when my brother comes in the room and asks me if I was coming with him to the “talent show” that night, and I told him that I was going to my friends house…he got upset (I promised him that I would go with him to this thing and support him), so, I decided that I would go because my friend had never called me anyways, so I was just sitting in my house waiting for him to call (so…I wasn’t even supposed to go with my brother that night, talk about God having a plan.) So we go to this “talent show,” which is what we though it was, and come to find out, it was really tryouts for this HUGE competition that goes down every July and January called AMTC. Pretty much, if you get a callback and are accepted into the competition, you have to pay $3700 to go. Why is that, you might be asking yourself, well when you go to this competition, you perform in front of 50-100 of the top agents in the world from 20th Century Fox, Nickelodeon, New York Models, Capitol Records, and the list continues on. So, we found that out and we were going to leave, but my one friend told my brother to just tryout, who knows what could happen (haha, funny thing is…well you will read about it later…)!
During tryouts, my brother gets geared up to perform his song, but while he was doing that, my friend Ricky and I thought it would be funny to go and try out for modeling, just as a joke (like ZOOLANDER!!), but we kept chickening out. With about five minutes left at the tryouts for AMTC, I finally got the guts to go ask someone if we could tryout, come to find out, we were able to. While trying out, I watched my brother perform his song and blow the judges away (one of them being the great Mrs. Carey Arban, the owner of AMTC!), not only with his music, but his message. After tryouts, they told us that we would find out if we were going to be called back the next day. That night John and I talked, and we both Prayed to Jesus that if this was truly going to happen, that God had to provide every cent and that He would have to open the door for us or close it.
The next day, John and I receive a call that they want us to come back and be a part of the AMTC family…I was BLOWNAWAY. So that night, we go to the callback meeting and they are discussing how we are going to pay for the whole competition. Too make a long story short…God provided the money for us, and it was truly a blessing! Later down the road, John and I changed from going to the July competition to the January competition, but one thing almost stopped us, the Photo shoot had already passed for our Direct Raleigh group, so we had to go and go up to Virginia to get the photo shoot done. While waiting to get it done, the photographers plane was delayed and other stuff went down, but we got it done an it was amazing!
About two months after that, I had to drop out of the competition because of not having any money to pay for AMTC…I checked my bank account, which I thought had $400 in it and it only had a measley $50…haha, my bad!!! I figured that this was God shutting the door to this. My mom called AMTC to tell them that I had to drop out of the competition…funny thing happened… DOOR OPENED AGAIN!!! I was truly in awe and just so thankful…words couldn’t even describe how I felt.
Fast forward to the competition (which was two weeks ago), where I had no clue, but my life would change forever. As we are pulling into the Gaylord Palms Hotel in Orlando, my brother and I looked at each other but said nothing…but we both knew what the other was thinking, “Why are we here? This is a waste of time, nothing’s going to happen.” We go throughout the week, performed in our competitions, met amazing people (and are now friends with tons of amazing people!), and had an experience that I can’t even describe (you had to be AMTC in order to understand, it was an experience like any other!).
After performing in our competitions, we wait until sunday to see if we receive any callbacks from agents, managers, or casting directors, that are interested in us. On that saturday, 20th Century Fox and Nickelodeon were holding there callbacks, because of not being able to be there on sunday. They posted the callback list and I go to see if I made the list (in my head I thought that there was no way in the world that I made any of them)…come to find out I made both of them (my brother made 20th Century Fox!!!). Come to find out, Nickelodeon wanted me to audition for a new T.V. series that is coming out soon, and 20th Century Fox wanted me to audition for the lead role in a new film coming out soon. I go to the table to get my scripts and get info on what is going on for the filmed audition callback. Later that night, I was up till 3:15 AM preparing for these filmed audition callbacks, plus, waiting for the callbacks from all the other agents for sunday. While working till 3:15 AM, I worked with three of the finest people I have ever met on my script, Miss Grace St. John Berger, Austen Brown, and Drew Matthews….three truly incredible people who have made such a huge impact in my life.
The next day I wake up from only three hours of sleep to find myself preparing for my auditions for Nickelodeon and 20th Century Fox that morning. Time comes to audition for Nickelodeon, and it went awesome, I was confident, but not 100% confident, but I felt good about my performance. After that, came my audition time for 20th Century Fox. I was nervously waiting for my turn to go into the room and perform, when Glynis Arban (Mrs. Carey’s daughter, also, the girl who took my photos on facebook, and also the young lady, who is on the top 40 list of photographers to watch in 2009!!!!!!), comes up to me and says, “Be Confident! You will do amazing” (it was something like that, haha, don’t remember the exact words….but who cares!!!). At that moment, the nervousness disappeared and I walked into the room confidently. I perform and felt amazing afterwards.
A couple hours later, it was time for callbacks with the other agents. I meet with all eight of my callbacks and am amazed at their response and there awesomeness (yes, that is a word, its my word dude…haha). On my callback sheet though, there was one the I was hesitant to go to, and it was for the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, which is one of the BEST film/t.v. acting schools in the world! (ONLY 180 people make it in per year out of the thousands who audition). As you could see why, I was hesitant to go to it because I thought, “Hey, it is going to cost alot of money and only 180 people get into this school a year.” I decide to go, so I perform my monologue and talk with them for a while. I leave and go on my way.
After callbacks, I receive word from my coach Drew who wants my brother and I to come talk to him. We get up with him and he tells us that the auditions for 20th Century Fox went amazing, and that we were two of the best they had….which meant that they were sending our filmed auditions back to L.A. with them to be reviewed to see if they want us for the part. I WAS BLOWN AWAY…talk about shock…
So fast forward to that night’s award ceremony. They are handing out awards for best actor, best model, etc. Then all of the sudden, they announce that the NY Conservatory for Dramatic Arts is going to be handing out scholarships for their summer program and their two-year school program ($1,500 scholarship for the summer program; $10,000 for the school scholarship). They announce the winners of the summer scholarship…no luck. Then all of the sudden, out of about three people, they call my name for the $10,000 scholarship for the two-year program. I ABOUT DROPPEDOUT OF MY SEAT! I was like, holy bananas, only 180 people make it in! Dude, talk about crazy…funny thing is, is that for the past six months, I have been Praying that God would show me what he wanted me to do with my life after school was over, because I had no clue…I was growing impatient and began to worry…then, He threw that scholarship in my face…HAHA TALK ABOUT GOD HAVING THE PERFECT TIMING!!! It was so weird, after I received the scholarship, random people began asking for my autograph and for a picture with me…I was broken inside…I was like dude God deserves the glory, not me, a sinner who fails Him constantly…God, thank you.
So over the past five days, after being home from the competition, I e-mail the agents that gave me their e-mail address. All of the NY agents, I told about me going to move up to NY in order to go to the Conservatory and told them that I would be up in April to meet with them. All of the CA agents, I told that I was coming out in the summer, and wanted to meet with them. Less than 24-hours later, I receive an e-mail back from an agent with Marshak/Zachary Mgmt. out in CA, and he tells me that he wants to meet with me once I get out to CA and figure out a date for the meeting and what not. Then something else huge happened…
Yesterday, I get on my e-mail to check it and what not. I see that I received an e-mail from one of the agents from Shirley Grant Mgmt. up in New Jersey…they tell me that they want to represent me and want to meet with me in April when I come up to New York. I was blown away…this company was the same company that started the Jonas Brothers on their start to fame. So far, this is my story of the past three weeks of my life…crazy and life-changing doesn’t even describe all of it. I tell you all this story not to be prideful or show off what has happened AT ALL (I don’t have anything to boast about, for without God none of this would have happened), but I tell you this to show you that God knows what He is doing…JUST TRUST IN HIM!!! I thought of all the things in my life that brought me to were I was, and it doesn’t add up…I shouldn’t have gone to AMTC for SO MANY reasons, I shouldn’t have been at those auditions, I shouldn’t have had this happen to me. I still don’t understand why God is doing this, but I am excited to spread His love to the world. This industry is such a dark one, and I am ready to embrace it for the King! God’s everlasting love is incredible, He loves us so EASILY, no complaints, no hatred, just a pure love… I Pray that this story touches your hearts as it has mine, for God truly is the King of Kings, everything you go through has a reason for it…trust me….I know now. Jesus Christ died for us and gave His life for us…He suffered through separation with His fath and through taking on the sins of the world…but He did it for US…He did it for love!!! I hope that you all will Pray for all the AMTC contestants (and AMTC as well!!!) and that they will all stay true to God’s will and not compromise their faith for any fame they may achieve. There is so much more to this story that I didn’t even write in here that I want to tell everyone, but I will save that for another time…but for the time being, know that I am Praying for you all and that I love you guys. Be Blessed and live for the King.
Love you guys with all my heart,
Chris Sierra
John 14:18- “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”
(Reference: AMTC World )
