🇷🇴Alma Gaina

I realized I don't actually know many people in this room, so let me start by introducing myself. I'm Alma Gaina, and I just turned 23. I'm originally half Portuguese and half Romanian. I was born in Romania, grew up there, then moved to Portugal, and came here for university. That's actually how I'm going to start my talk: my journey of leaving home, and moving here for university.

I wasn't exactly sure what to talk about, but I'll step in at the start and see where we go. I've been asked many times why I came to England, so I'll explain it now — and if I'm asked again, that means you didn't listen. I think I came because I asked, and I received.

I studied photography. I started in high school in Portugal, and in my first year we learned that we'd have internships every year. When I first heard that, my immediate thought was: "can I do an internship in England?" It never happened during high school. But in my last year of university I was offered the chance to come to England to study, and I took it — only realizing later that I had actually asked for it. Ask, and you shall receive. At the same time, I feel I was answering God's call, because when the opportunity came, I was lost and unsure. I wasn't sure whether to take a gap year, to keep studying, to pursue photography or multimedia. But when the answer presented itself, I just took the lead, and went.

I didn't know what it meant to leave home, or to move to another country completely on my own. I just hoped it would go well, and I was excited. Throughout the whole journey, all the ups and downs, I felt God was guiding me along my path. It's still a journey in progress.

One of the opportunities I received by moving here, which I hadn't had as much growing up, was the chance to give and invest in a community. I threw myself in quite hard — through giving, helping out with the service, photography and events, helping with youth and HARP, and many other things. I felt I was being given the chance to give back what I had received when I was younger, or even what I hadn't been able to receive, because I was among the oldest in my community and didn't have many elder siblings. I felt a responsibility to provide that, if I was able to. And it's fun. Despite the first half of the year here not being easy, even in my dark moments I was able to feel God's life, and receive God's love through the people and the community I invested in.

Looking back, there were many moments when I wasn't alone, even though I felt I was. The main lesson I learned through investing in the youth is that if you take care of others, you'll feel taken care of wherever you go. No matter how much you invest in others, none of the investment is ever wasted. You don't receive your results straight away. It takes a certain amount of time, which isn't set — but it's not about you. I learned a lot through growth, lessons, joy, and love.

From being in HARP when I was younger, I took away that the relationships and connections you make in your early life are very important when you grow up. They give you strength, and those bonds can impact your life very strongly. Through working with and leading HARP, I learned about investment and retribution, about the relationship between Creation and Creator, seeing God in everyone, and the uniqueness of every person. I also learned about the responsibility we hold in the influence we have on others.

Through YSP, I saw the power of hope, and how it can move people, particularly when I went to Kosovo. Kosovo is a very new country, having only recently gained independence. The joy we could see in the children's hearts, just because we were there to spend time with them and provide something better, was massive. We didn't do much — just spoke with them, and spent time with them.

In one case, there was a girl with sunglasses that were a bit of a meme. I really liked them and found it funny, and I mentioned that to her. She said: "Sure, take them." I said: "No, I really don't need them." She insisted, and I declined. Then she started talking about how she liked photography, and wanted to learn more. I had a tiny phone lens that I'd had for the past four years and used maybe twice. It had always been in my bag. I thought: "this is the perfect moment." I gave it to her. She was so surprised that she basically forced the glasses into my hands, so we made an exchange. The passion you can see in others when you give them hope, is very strong.

Through investing in my community, I learned that if you take care of others, God will take care of you. My life has many examples — through small or bigger conversations, through giving rides, casual sleepovers, Christmas invitations. The biggest example was during lockdown, three years after moving to London. I was in my last year of university, stressed with my dissertation and degree show, and my computer broke down. I thought: "in the middle of a pandemic, my whole life feels crappy, I'm earning less than national minimum wage, and now I need a computer." I couldn't do any work, because my field is digital.

I was able to use something the university provided, but it wasn't really enough. I kept working through university until my birthday came, and I discovered that my community, my friends, and my family had all gotten together to raise money to buy me a computer. That was the biggest sign I've received in my life: that God can work through others for you. No matter the amount, the fact that so many people came together to buy that computer, was what carried me through university. It's one of my biggest achievements so far, and it was impossible without my friends, my family, and my community.

Reflecting on all this, I realized that as children we all just want to take. As we grow and mature, we learn to give, and through giving we can find God — by living for the sake of others, and by finding God in those around us. Maturity comes when your main focus is the person in front of you, not yourself. I hope I was able to say something meaningful.