How are you connected with P2C-Students, and what’s a fun fact about you?
My name is Gabrielle Smikle and I was a student leader for P2C at Carleton University. I was involved with P2C since my second year and I had the chance to participate in two student mission trips, Honduras and PRAXIS Vancouver!
A fun fact about me is that I technically have triple citizenship (Canada, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago).
What’s an area of your life where you’ve seen God at work recently?
God has been getting me ready to serve others with my career.
This past reading week I had the opportunity to be a part of the PRAXIS Vancouver mission trip. I went into this trip very expectant for how the Lord was going to speak. I especially hoped to find more direction in regard to my career path, as many of the organizations we partnered with work in fields that interest me.
How did you recognize the Holy Spirit in this situation?
Many of the community organizations in Vancouver practically serve the vulnerable, while telling them the good news of Jesus. This reminded me of how the Lord practically provides for me, while actively pursuing a relationship with me.
The whole trip had a large emphasis on relationships: with each other, our communities, and God.
The Holy Spirit used this emphasis on the importance of relationships to remind me of how he’s already graciously directed my career path. He’s given me a heart for service, love for “the least of these,” and many personal experiences I can use to relate to those in need.
What difference does Jesus make to this situation?
The good news of Jesus changes everything! The gospel is the reason that we get to have such close, intimate relationships with the Father.
Since Jesus paid the price for our sins, we are free to live in a right relationship with God, and that’s what this trip worked to unpack. Through the services we helped provide we not only invited people to restore their relationship with God, we also inspired them to restore their relationships with others, and even within themselves.
The love of Jesus and his redeeming work are the ultimate reason and heart behind all that I might do.
How did you respond to the Holy Spirit and to Jesus in this situation?
Since coming home, I have continued to reflect on the lessons of PRAXIS. I have taken what I have learned about the importance of right relationships and used that to inspire my future career path.
As I said previously, I was hoping that I would gain some wisdom from the Lord about where I should be heading in my career. Rather than giving me a job title, the Lord made it very clear to me that my career needs to be relational, and that it needs to focus on showing vulnerable people the love that he has for them through both my actions and my words. I want to spread the gospel with words and deeds.
1 John 3:18 summarizes this well as it reads: “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” I hope to have a career that loves others with actions and in truth.
How can we pray for you?
Please be praying as I transition further into the career that God is calling me into! I graduated from Carleton this year and will begin law school at the University of Windsor in the fall. Please pray that I can find God’s rest throughout the summer, and for financial provisions as I begin school again.
Yay, Gabby! You are awesome. So cool to see God give you a heart for others and help you use it!