December 23, 2024 • 11 mins
Karina is a passionate follower of Jesus Christ with a unique approach to sharing her faith. In the last year, she has mailed more than 700 letters to addresses selected at random throughout the United States. Each one is beautifully written and decorated, inviting the reader to consider their need for Jesus. When one of the letters landed in the mailbox of Snapshot Testimony host Ally Domercant, she was determined to learn more about the mystery sender.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Snapshot Testimony podcast. I'm your host, Ali Dommersen.
In this podcast, I ask my guests to share one
pivotal moment that shaped their faith in Christ. In this
special episode, you'll meet Corrina, a young woman who loves
Jesus and is passionate about sharing her faith. One of
the tools she uses is letter writing. Yep, good old
(00:20):
fashioned snail mail. In the past year, she's mailed close
to 800 letters to addresses she selects at random from
all over the United States. Each one is beautifully written
and decorated, inviting the reader to consider their need for Jesus.
When one of the letters landed in my mailbox, I
was intrigued and wanted to know more about this mystery sender.
(00:41):
I found her, and I was thrilled to connect so
I could share her story. Here's a snapshot testimony from Corrina.
S2 (00:54):
This was probably back in February and I thought, huh?
Who sent me a letter? There was no return address.
It was just marked with my address but without a name.
And so I opened it up and there was this
beautiful card and handwritten was this incredible encouragement. I'm just
(01:15):
I'm just holding it up. For those who are watching
on YouTube, we'll be able to see it. And it
was essentially just an appeal. Um, I'm going to read
part of it. It says I handwrite personalized letters and
send them out to randomly selected addresses. Here you go.
Please read the text up. And then you had Ecclesiastes.
You said, notice how it is possible to have it all,
yet still feel the void within you. And then it
(01:37):
went on to just explain a little bit of the gospel.
And then at the last line says, so accept Jesus
and be born again, and then had an email address
if you have any questions. So I was immediately curious
who sent me this letter, how did I end up
with it, and who is on this campaign to spread
(01:59):
the gospel through the mail? So tell me the story behind.
I reached out to you. Not. You didn't know me.
I didn't know you. But you found my address randomly.
S3 (02:08):
Yes, I did actually, just.
S2 (02:10):
You just pulled some random on Zillow.
S3 (02:12):
Yes, I pulled them randomly, and I. I sent all
throughout the US.
S2 (02:16):
Okay. And what's the heart behind it? Tell me what
you're hoping to accomplish with the letters.
S3 (02:21):
The heart behind it is just to reach people that
aren't really reached. You know, I noticed usually in churches, which.
There's nothing wrong with it. Jesus tells us to do this,
but we reach out to the the people that are
in need or the poor, and we often forget about
the people that have, you know, like a regular job
or a really good job. We just tend to overlook
(02:43):
them because the church always helps people that need which
there's nothing wrong. But at the same time we're ignoring, like,
I guess you could say regular people, because at the
end of the day, they are harder to get Ahold of.
Because my thing is this when you have everything you need,
why do you need God? If you are self-sufficient? And
I understand why you would think that. You know, a
(03:03):
lot of people think that the idea of having a
goddess for people that need him or for the week,
but that's not true. And that's that. That's the heart
behind it, is that you may have everything, but at
the end of the day, without God, you like, like
kind of like King Solomon. You don't have it all.
S2 (03:19):
Because you're missing the most. Even if your material needs
are met, we are wretched, poor, pitiful, and naked spiritually.
So give me a little bit of how you came
to faith. I know you grew up in the church, right?
S3 (03:34):
Yes. Ever since I was little, my mom and dad
would take me to church. They even presented me in
church and everything, and a Christian church in Mexico and everything.
And then I was always in church my whole life.
My whole life. And then when I was 24, I
realized that I was afraid of dying something, just an anxiety,
I think now I know was demonic because I would
(03:55):
bite my nails until, like, I couldn't bite them anymore.
I was thinking, thinking, thinking and I was afraid. And
then I would talk to my mom and my grandma
and none of it would help. So I started thinking,
oh my goodness, I'm so afraid. And then I started
thinking deeper and deeper and I couldn't sleep. So then
I started getting kind of scared. So then what ended
up happening is I thought to myself, well, now I
(04:16):
know it's the Holy Spirit, not me. Something told me, Karina,
you say you're Christian, but you're afraid of dying. Like
you're really scared of dying, you know? And there's a
part in the Bible that says that God, um, took
away the fear of death and freed those from the
fear of death. Yes. And then in that moment, I
told God, well, I'm sorry, God, if I've been fake
this whole time. And if you are real, take all
(04:39):
this away, because I haven't slept good. And you know
if you are real and make me understand your word.
Because so many times I try to reach out to
you or read your word, and I just think it's boring.
I was being honest. I was like, I don't understand.
I don't have any desire to. And I forced myself
and I don't like it, but now I know it's
because I was not in the Holy Spirit. I was
(04:59):
being fleshly, so I couldn't discern the word. So then
in that moment, I picked up my Bible and I
took off the dust. So embarrassing. I was like, I'm sorry.
I took off the dust. I opened it and I said,
this better not be boring. God help me understand. And
I opened it and I understood everything. And I said,
oh my goodness, this whole time all the answers are
(05:20):
right here. I'm like, God is real. Jesus was real. Like,
this isn't just this is his story. And it just
like blew my mind. And even now, when I try
to put myself back in that I can't like, I
feel I know that was the Holy Spirit just opening,
just a little bit like who I am, like who
God is. And I can't go back to that, like,
I can't. I don't know that that moment just changed
my whole life. And ever since then, I've been doing
(05:41):
Bible studies and I've been preaching.
S2 (05:44):
Yeah, that's awesome. And you know, the I don't believe
in coincidences. And so the fact that the Lord had
your letter landed in my mailbox, um, I know encouraged
me as a believer to see what other believers are doing. Um,
my ministry is through storytelling and podcasts and radio. Um,
(06:06):
but it's always cool to see what God has called
other people, how he's called them to minister. Um, what
did you think when I emailed you out of the
blue and said, hey, I got this letter.
S3 (06:18):
I was like, one person responded. No one had responded.
And I would get discouraged sometimes like, oh my goodness,
people probably not even reading them. People are like, oh,
this has no return address, this is weird. And throw
it away. You know, I was like, all this work
for what? But then I was thinking something would tell me, Karina,
you're not doing it for people. You're doing it for God.
And if God wants that person to open it, curiosity
(06:40):
will get the best of them. And they will open it. Yeah.
So when you send me a message, I was like, oh, wow,
someone's actually opening these, like, wow. I was actually shocked.
I'm not gonna lie. I was like, what is happening?
I was happy because, um, you're the first person. I replied,
believe it or not, out of almost 800 letters. Wow.
So that lets you know when Jesus said, remember when
(07:00):
Jesus said it would be hard for those that are
like financially stable to enter the kingdom? He was not
kidding because I ran over 800 letters and you're the
only person that responded, wow.
S2 (07:11):
And you know, the cool thing is something like this.
It could be a seed, you know, the principle of, like,
one sows and another waters and you never know, like,
what kind of seed is being sown in a deposit
that's being made that somebody else may water and, you know,
an eternity will maybe find out some of those cool details. Um,
so you've sent out 800 letters so far.
S3 (07:33):
Over 800, over.
S2 (07:34):
800.
S3 (07:35):
Over 800. And sometimes I hand them out in person. Okay.
With my friends. Okay. But that's when I have time.
S2 (07:41):
And so you want to communicate? What's the the main
thing you want to communicate to people like to to
that to come to Jesus. Right.
S3 (07:49):
Yes. The main thing I like to do to people
is like what God did to me is like, think
further than what you see. That's all. It's just like
a poke. And the Holy Spirit will do the rest.
Like he'll he'll start making that thing. Because a lot
of people just think about right now, which was me.
But then we started thinking about, oh my gosh, I'm
going to die. Oh no, this is serious. Like, then
you like these are questions that people avoid. Nobody likes
(08:12):
thinking about death, but that doesn't mean it's not going
to happen. And I'd rather them they think about this
now than when they die. Because. Yeah. One verse that
I like it a lot because it shows the power
of God, but it kind of scares me. Is the
one that says, and every knee shall bow, and every
tongue shall declare that Christ is Lord to the glory
of the father. That kind of scares me, because if
you don't do it here, you're going to do it
up there. But it's too late. Wow. So I like
(08:34):
to just tell people like, hey, do it here before.
Everyone's a believer in hell. You know what I mean?
And I don't like to talk about hell because it's
kind of like, oh, but it's real. Like, if we
believe the Bible is real, then we got to believe
that part is real and everybody in hell wishes they
could just get one more chance. So I just want
to just just do like a little poke and the
Holy Spirit will hopefully, you know, start moving thoughts in
(08:56):
their head like, oh, maybe, maybe there's something to this. Like,
why did I get this in the mail? I don't
even know who I'm sending them to. I just tell God,
like I trust you and I just mix a bunch
of verses together and I just throw them. Whatever happens, happens.
S2 (09:12):
Are you going to keep doing it? You're not.
S1 (09:14):
Anonymous anymore.
S2 (09:15):
I guess now after doing this podcast. But are you
going to keep it up?
S3 (09:19):
Yes. My my goal I was thinking way ahead was
1000 a year. Yeah. Not gonna happen. Wow. Maybe. Maybe
if I have time. Um, I'm thinking about doing 600
or 700 every year, at least. Wow.
S2 (09:31):
And you write them by hand. I mean, there's a
lot of care that goes into these. It's it's actually
I mean, it's not a form letter. This is not
something that you're just hitting print and getting a thousand copies.
This is pretty labor intensive.
S3 (09:43):
Yes, it's to me, I feel like I never forgot
that verse. Colossians 323. Whatever your hand finds to do,
do it with all your heart, as if you were
working for the Lord and not for humans. For you
will receive inheritance from Christ himself. So like I'm working
for God. So I think, okay, my writing is not perfect,
but I'm gonna try my best to make it pretty.
And maybe this isn't the most expensive letter, but this
is all I can afford right now. And like, I
(10:04):
try my best to make it as pretty as I
can because I like things to look pretty, and I
feel like I think it should look like a wedding invite,
because at the end of the day, I would like
them to go to the wedding supper, you know what
I mean? Like that's how I think of it. Like,
I'm going to deceive them a little bit. Oh. What's this?
It looks like a wedding ring. It looks kind of pretty. Okay.
Open it. But at the end of the day, I
would like to see you there, so.
S2 (10:25):
Yeah. Well, thank you so much. Not just for sharing
your story, but for the heart behind what you're doing.
You know, it's something as simple as a letter. You know,
sometimes people can, you know, look down on, like, the
small things. But, you know, the Bible talks about not
despising the day of small beginnings. Like you don't. You
never know what can happen with just a single letter.
(10:46):
So I really enjoyed getting mine. And thank you for
sharing your story.
S3 (10:50):
You're welcome. And, um, just before I go, I would
just like to say if anybody wants to preach but
doesn't have time, just write one letter a week or
once a month and you never know.
S1 (11:01):
Thank you so much for hanging with me for this
week's snapshot testimony. Please take a moment to leave a review.
Your feedback really helps these stories reach more ears. Plus,
I like hearing from you. I'm your host, Ali Domercant,
and together we're sharing the moments that shape a life
of faith in Christ. Thanks for listening.
Welcome to the Snapshot Testimony podcast. I'm your host, Ali Dommersen.
In this podcast, I ask my guests to share one
pivotal moment that shaped their faith in Christ. In this
special episode, you'll meet Corrina, a young woman who loves
Jesus and is passionate about sharing her faith. One of
the tools she uses is letter writing. Yep, good old
(00:20):
fashioned snail mail. In the past year, she's mailed close
to 800 letters to addresses she selects at random from
all over the United States. Each one is beautifully written
and decorated, inviting the reader to consider their need for Jesus.
When one of the letters landed in my mailbox, I
was intrigued and wanted to know more about this mystery sender.
(00:41):
I found her, and I was thrilled to connect so
I could share her story. Here's a snapshot testimony from Corrina.
S2 (00:54):
This was probably back in February and I thought, huh?
Who sent me a letter? There was no return address.
It was just marked with my address but without a name.
And so I opened it up and there was this
beautiful card and handwritten was this incredible encouragement. I'm just
(01:15):
I'm just holding it up. For those who are watching
on YouTube, we'll be able to see it. And it
was essentially just an appeal. Um, I'm going to read
part of it. It says I handwrite personalized letters and
send them out to randomly selected addresses. Here you go.
Please read the text up. And then you had Ecclesiastes.
You said, notice how it is possible to have it all,
yet still feel the void within you. And then it
(01:37):
went on to just explain a little bit of the gospel.
And then at the last line says, so accept Jesus
and be born again, and then had an email address
if you have any questions. So I was immediately curious
who sent me this letter, how did I end up
with it, and who is on this campaign to spread
(01:59):
the gospel through the mail? So tell me the story behind.
I reached out to you. Not. You didn't know me.
I didn't know you. But you found my address randomly.
S3 (02:08):
Yes, I did actually, just.
S2 (02:10):
You just pulled some random on Zillow.
S3 (02:12):
Yes, I pulled them randomly, and I. I sent all
throughout the US.
S2 (02:16):
Okay. And what's the heart behind it? Tell me what
you're hoping to accomplish with the letters.
S3 (02:21):
The heart behind it is just to reach people that
aren't really reached. You know, I noticed usually in churches, which.
There's nothing wrong with it. Jesus tells us to do this,
but we reach out to the the people that are
in need or the poor, and we often forget about
the people that have, you know, like a regular job
or a really good job. We just tend to overlook
(02:43):
them because the church always helps people that need which
there's nothing wrong. But at the same time we're ignoring, like,
I guess you could say regular people, because at the
end of the day, they are harder to get Ahold of.
Because my thing is this when you have everything you need,
why do you need God? If you are self-sufficient? And
I understand why you would think that. You know, a
(03:03):
lot of people think that the idea of having a
goddess for people that need him or for the week,
but that's not true. And that's that. That's the heart
behind it, is that you may have everything, but at
the end of the day, without God, you like, like
kind of like King Solomon. You don't have it all.
S2 (03:19):
Because you're missing the most. Even if your material needs
are met, we are wretched, poor, pitiful, and naked spiritually.
So give me a little bit of how you came
to faith. I know you grew up in the church, right?
S3 (03:34):
Yes. Ever since I was little, my mom and dad
would take me to church. They even presented me in
church and everything, and a Christian church in Mexico and everything.
And then I was always in church my whole life.
My whole life. And then when I was 24, I
realized that I was afraid of dying something, just an anxiety,
I think now I know was demonic because I would
(03:55):
bite my nails until, like, I couldn't bite them anymore.
I was thinking, thinking, thinking and I was afraid. And
then I would talk to my mom and my grandma
and none of it would help. So I started thinking,
oh my goodness, I'm so afraid. And then I started
thinking deeper and deeper and I couldn't sleep. So then
I started getting kind of scared. So then what ended
up happening is I thought to myself, well, now I
(04:16):
know it's the Holy Spirit, not me. Something told me, Karina,
you say you're Christian, but you're afraid of dying. Like
you're really scared of dying, you know? And there's a
part in the Bible that says that God, um, took
away the fear of death and freed those from the
fear of death. Yes. And then in that moment, I
told God, well, I'm sorry, God, if I've been fake
this whole time. And if you are real, take all
(04:39):
this away, because I haven't slept good. And you know
if you are real and make me understand your word.
Because so many times I try to reach out to
you or read your word, and I just think it's boring.
I was being honest. I was like, I don't understand.
I don't have any desire to. And I forced myself
and I don't like it, but now I know it's
because I was not in the Holy Spirit. I was
(04:59):
being fleshly, so I couldn't discern the word. So then
in that moment, I picked up my Bible and I
took off the dust. So embarrassing. I was like, I'm sorry.
I took off the dust. I opened it and I said,
this better not be boring. God help me understand. And
I opened it and I understood everything. And I said,
oh my goodness, this whole time all the answers are
(05:20):
right here. I'm like, God is real. Jesus was real. Like,
this isn't just this is his story. And it just
like blew my mind. And even now, when I try
to put myself back in that I can't like, I
feel I know that was the Holy Spirit just opening,
just a little bit like who I am, like who
God is. And I can't go back to that, like,
I can't. I don't know that that moment just changed
my whole life. And ever since then, I've been doing
(05:41):
Bible studies and I've been preaching.
S2 (05:44):
Yeah, that's awesome. And you know, the I don't believe
in coincidences. And so the fact that the Lord had
your letter landed in my mailbox, um, I know encouraged
me as a believer to see what other believers are doing. Um,
my ministry is through storytelling and podcasts and radio. Um,
(06:06):
but it's always cool to see what God has called
other people, how he's called them to minister. Um, what
did you think when I emailed you out of the
blue and said, hey, I got this letter.
S3 (06:18):
I was like, one person responded. No one had responded.
And I would get discouraged sometimes like, oh my goodness,
people probably not even reading them. People are like, oh,
this has no return address, this is weird. And throw
it away. You know, I was like, all this work
for what? But then I was thinking something would tell me, Karina,
you're not doing it for people. You're doing it for God.
And if God wants that person to open it, curiosity
(06:40):
will get the best of them. And they will open it. Yeah.
So when you send me a message, I was like, oh, wow,
someone's actually opening these, like, wow. I was actually shocked.
I'm not gonna lie. I was like, what is happening?
I was happy because, um, you're the first person. I replied,
believe it or not, out of almost 800 letters. Wow.
So that lets you know when Jesus said, remember when
(07:00):
Jesus said it would be hard for those that are
like financially stable to enter the kingdom? He was not
kidding because I ran over 800 letters and you're the
only person that responded, wow.
S2 (07:11):
And you know, the cool thing is something like this.
It could be a seed, you know, the principle of, like,
one sows and another waters and you never know, like,
what kind of seed is being sown in a deposit
that's being made that somebody else may water and, you know,
an eternity will maybe find out some of those cool details. Um,
so you've sent out 800 letters so far.
S3 (07:33):
Over 800, over.
S2 (07:34):
800.
S3 (07:35):
Over 800. And sometimes I hand them out in person. Okay.
With my friends. Okay. But that's when I have time.
S2 (07:41):
And so you want to communicate? What's the the main
thing you want to communicate to people like to to
that to come to Jesus. Right.
S3 (07:49):
Yes. The main thing I like to do to people
is like what God did to me is like, think
further than what you see. That's all. It's just like
a poke. And the Holy Spirit will do the rest.
Like he'll he'll start making that thing. Because a lot
of people just think about right now, which was me.
But then we started thinking about, oh my gosh, I'm
going to die. Oh no, this is serious. Like, then
you like these are questions that people avoid. Nobody likes
(08:12):
thinking about death, but that doesn't mean it's not going
to happen. And I'd rather them they think about this
now than when they die. Because. Yeah. One verse that
I like it a lot because it shows the power
of God, but it kind of scares me. Is the
one that says, and every knee shall bow, and every
tongue shall declare that Christ is Lord to the glory
of the father. That kind of scares me, because if
you don't do it here, you're going to do it
up there. But it's too late. Wow. So I like
(08:34):
to just tell people like, hey, do it here before.
Everyone's a believer in hell. You know what I mean?
And I don't like to talk about hell because it's
kind of like, oh, but it's real. Like, if we
believe the Bible is real, then we got to believe
that part is real and everybody in hell wishes they
could just get one more chance. So I just want
to just just do like a little poke and the
Holy Spirit will hopefully, you know, start moving thoughts in
(08:56):
their head like, oh, maybe, maybe there's something to this. Like,
why did I get this in the mail? I don't
even know who I'm sending them to. I just tell God,
like I trust you and I just mix a bunch
of verses together and I just throw them. Whatever happens, happens.
S2 (09:12):
Are you going to keep doing it? You're not.
S1 (09:14):
Anonymous anymore.
S2 (09:15):
I guess now after doing this podcast. But are you
going to keep it up?
S3 (09:19):
Yes. My my goal I was thinking way ahead was
1000 a year. Yeah. Not gonna happen. Wow. Maybe. Maybe
if I have time. Um, I'm thinking about doing 600
or 700 every year, at least. Wow.
S2 (09:31):
And you write them by hand. I mean, there's a
lot of care that goes into these. It's it's actually
I mean, it's not a form letter. This is not
something that you're just hitting print and getting a thousand copies.
This is pretty labor intensive.
S3 (09:43):
Yes, it's to me, I feel like I never forgot
that verse. Colossians 323. Whatever your hand finds to do,
do it with all your heart, as if you were
working for the Lord and not for humans. For you
will receive inheritance from Christ himself. So like I'm working
for God. So I think, okay, my writing is not perfect,
but I'm gonna try my best to make it pretty.
And maybe this isn't the most expensive letter, but this
is all I can afford right now. And like, I
(10:04):
try my best to make it as pretty as I
can because I like things to look pretty, and I
feel like I think it should look like a wedding invite,
because at the end of the day, I would like
them to go to the wedding supper, you know what
I mean? Like that's how I think of it. Like,
I'm going to deceive them a little bit. Oh. What's this?
It looks like a wedding ring. It looks kind of pretty. Okay.
Open it. But at the end of the day, I
would like to see you there, so.
S2 (10:25):
Yeah. Well, thank you so much. Not just for sharing
your story, but for the heart behind what you're doing.
You know, it's something as simple as a letter. You know,
sometimes people can, you know, look down on, like, the
small things. But, you know, the Bible talks about not
despising the day of small beginnings. Like you don't. You
never know what can happen with just a single letter.
(10:46):
So I really enjoyed getting mine. And thank you for
sharing your story.
S3 (10:50):
You're welcome. And, um, just before I go, I would
just like to say if anybody wants to preach but
doesn't have time, just write one letter a week or
once a month and you never know.
S1 (11:01):
Thank you so much for hanging with me for this
week's snapshot testimony. Please take a moment to leave a review.
Your feedback really helps these stories reach more ears. Plus,
I like hearing from you. I'm your host, Ali Domercant,
and together we're sharing the moments that shape a life
of faith in Christ. Thanks for listening.
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