Feature

The One Who Provides

By Janelle Sundin

After her freshman year of college, Yisel Lopez decided to become a professional singer. She’d spent years singing in church and was blessed with a beautiful voice. So, she applied to Berklee College of Music, a prestigious performing arts conservatory in Massachusetts.

Getting into a school like that seemed impossible, but then the impossible became a reality. Even receiving serious consideration was more than Yisel had expected, but she was officially accepted into the school. “I was sure God was opening the doors for me,” she said. “I prayed before my audition that I would get in, and I thought God was showing me His mercy.”

Yisel and her mother immediately began work on arrangements for her move, such as a loan, an apartment, and a roommate. Meanwhile, Yisel knew she needed to get a summer job. She decided to work at an Adventist summer camp. “I wanted to reconnect with God before I moved to Boston,” Yisel explained. “My faith was compromised. I thought if I did something wrong once, I was lost. I felt that it was too hard for me to stay on the right path.”

Covarrubias worried her daughter was slipping away. “I was on my knees praying for her every morning,” she recalled. “My husband and I were reminding her of her faith, but she kept saying, ‘It’s your faith, not mine.’ But all that time, God was working on her heart.”

God’s plan for Yisel took an unexpected turn: the job at summer camp fell apart. Just one week before she was supposed to move to camp, Yisel discovered that she had been hired to work during weekends, not weekdays. “I lived three hours away, and I couldn’t make enough to support myself on just the weekends. I had to find something else.”

Yisel’s desperation led her to work as a literature evangelist. “I really didn’t want to do canvassing,” Yisel explained. “But my mom said, ‘Just call!’ And so, I did.” Yisel had a Skype interview with the director, and two days later she was driving to San Diego. Taking the job was the best thing Yisel could have done.

“Within two weeks, I experienced a more radical connection with God than I ever had before,” Yisel said. “I met young people who were real Christians – not people acting one way at church and another way elsewhere. I learned what devotions were. I was convicted in every worship meeting I attended, and I started making decisions to recommit my life to God.”

Until that point, Yisel had been praying that God would help her with her arrangements for Berklee, but she soon found herself praying a different prayer: “God, wherever You lead me, I will go.” Yisel was convicted to change her plans and go to a religious school in Arizona known as Souls West Bible College.

When Yisel told her parents, they were worried. “We’re very college-oriented parents,” Covarrubias explained. “My husband and I thought it was a mistake. If she attended Souls West, she’d want to leave after a year, and then how would she pay for college?”

Covarrubias told her daughter not to make any hasty decisions and promised to drive to San Diego so that they could talk. But on the Saturday she planned to visit, Covarrubias was delayed by her responsibilities at church, then she hit a traffic jam. “We’d lived in the area for years and driven to San Diego many times,” Covarrubias recalled. “But I’ve never seen traffic on the highway through the mountains stopped so completely. Not a single lane was moving, so I pulled off the highway and went home.” Later, Yisel told her mother that if she had visited during that weekend, she probably would have changed her mind.

Still convinced that Yisel would eventually need money for college, her father decided not to assist her with the Souls West tuition. Yisel became determined to cover the costs herself. She knew the college expected students to do literature evangelism, and she could use the money earned there to cover costs. But Yisel’s plans left a few gaps. If she got sick or struggled with sales, she had to rely on a credit card.

In her second year at Souls West, Yisel found herself at her limit. “The practicum that year was an evangelistic series, so I couldn’t do evangelism,” she recalled. “My credit card suddenly got maxed out, and I had only $30 left in cash.”

Yisel had experienced money struggles before. She had sold her clothes to pay for tuition, and the shoes she wore were full of holes. The trunk of her car had to be tied closed, and her doors had to be jammed open. She spent breaks from school living in her car or on friends’ couches. But now Yisel was desperate; her money had to go toward a minimum payment on her credit card, and she had nothing left for food. She begged God for an answer.

“I was walking back to my car after depositing the last of my money into an ATM for my payment, and this lady came running

up to me,” Yisel recalled. “I thought she might ask me for money and I felt bad that I couldn’t help her, but then she said, ‘This is going to sound really weird, but God told me to give you this.’”

It was a wad of cash. Yisel collapsed into her car in tears, thanking God for being her provider. “Before, when I was at college, I remember thinking that there was so much about the Bible I didn’t know and wishing that I could take a full year when all I had to do was study,” Yisel said. “God gave me two of the happiest years of my life. I had the opportunity to discover who Christ was every day, and I learned to rely on God as my Father. I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.” Covarrubias praises God for what He has done for her daughter. “Seeing Yisel struggle was hard for me as a mom, but because of the struggles, she got to see miracles happen,” she explained. “This was God’s opportunity to show her that He was there and real. God did what we couldn’t – He conquered her heart.”