Ministry Focus
From exploring caves with friends to a capella worship at retreats to weekly life updates and group prayer at morning Bible studies, serving with Damascus Road Tucson’s has shown Alivia how Jesus transforms lives and uses our gifts to bless others. She is excited to deepen her investment in students and our community by being an intern with Missions Door! Her main areas of service include worship, mentorship, and community outreach. Through these areas, her vision is to help build a community of thriving disciples of Jesus who are connected with God, have healthy relationships, and serve those around them. She plans to continue helping her church partners with local non-profits and needs, focusing on serving the homeless and refugees. She also plans to meet with and serve high school and college students, mentoring, listening to, and supporting them as they engage with life and the way of Jesus. She will also continue serving on Sundays by leading her community in worship and communion, helping create weekly environments to re-center on Jesus together. As she participates in this ministry, she looks forward to walking with God as He uses her gifts to share His love!
Faith Story
Alivia grew up in a loving family that follows Jesus. As a young kid, she thought God was someone who told her all the things she needed to do, and that He loved her and was with her. But He seemed more like someone to know about and believe in if she wanted to “do the right thing.” As she got older, her family started visiting Nicaragua, eventually moved there. She experienced
God’s presence and met people who were passionate about living in Jesus’s way. She realized she was meant not just to believe in God, but also to walk with Him in His joy and love. Moving as missionaries was an opportunity to trust God and see that life with Him, as hard as it can be, is a life of health, growth, and beautiful love. Through her time in Nicaragua and the U.S., she has learned to let go of perfectionism and individualism. She now chooses to engage in relationship with Jesus and trust Him. Though she still struggles with the desire to do everything right, Jesus has reminded her that she is enough because of His death and resurrection. He is shaping her to lean into Him and her community, and let His love shine for those around her to see.
Education
Alivia is currently a Senior at the University of Arizon in Tucson studying Spanish and Leadership & Learning Innovation, with minors in Music and Theatre Arts. These reflect her personal interests well, which include songwriting, musical theatre, and intercultural community service and relationship-building. Her hobbies include running, the outdoors, traveling, and spending time with her friends. She is originally from Batavia, Ohio, and her parents and two little brothers still live there, so she enjoys going to visit them.
WAYS TO SUPPORT
Alivia by making a financial donation using a Credit Card or by Direct Debit (ACH).
Learn more about where this ministry happens
In colorful communities and along scenic highways, diverse people and landscapes span coast to coast
Iconic American traditions include Thanksgiving dinner, jazz music and the Super Bowl. They meld with eclectic examples of multicultural heritage: numerous local Chinatowns, family-owned taquerias and even cowboy boots, which originated among the nomadic Huns of eastern Europe.
The nation's landscape shows just as many contrasts — sandy beaches and rocky coastlines, open plains and vast deserts, rugged mountains and winding canyons, and abundant rivers and lakes.
The ideals of life and liberty that founded the United States have made the country one of the world's most prosperous, though not without dark chapters and present troubles. Crime, discrimination and ethics violations make regular headlines, and many people live below the national poverty level.
Families view education as essential to the pursuit of happiness, if not also a path to wealth and power for the most ambitious. Yet Americans also demonstrate a charitable spirit of generosity toward neighbors and nations in need.
Freedom of religion grants opportunity for all faiths, but Christianity holds particular influence in country's history and daily life.
Your participation with Missions Door supports ministry in the United States among college students, including many international students, in collaboration local churches. It also enables social outreach, church planting and leadership development in a wide variety of communities — among Native Americans and other cultural groups, and in urban and suburban settings where growing and changing demographics create new opportunities for the Gospel.
Cultural Snapshot
Aside from the Native American, Native Hawaiian and Native Alaskan populations, nearly all Americans and their ancestors immigrated to the United States.
Faith Fact
In a 2013 survey, 56% of Americans said that religion played a "very important role in their lives” — a larger number than any other wealthy nation.
Country Profile
Population: 320 million
Major Religions: 47% Protestant, 23% unaffiliated, 21% Catholic, 6% other
Languages: 82% English, 11% Spanish, various others
Literacy: 99%
Poverty: 16%
Ministry service area:
Campus Ambassadors
Ministry location:
Arizona, United States