Jessy Ramos Jami, 28, has been the Retreat Coordinator at El Refugio for nearly 2 years. The first time she came to El Refugio as an intern in 2012, she saw something completely different than she had ever experienced before.
“I was used to only learning about God through programs within the church,” Jessy says. “To talk about God through creation was something completely different for me.”
God used Jessy’s time at El Refugio to break her and introduce her to people who really knew the Lord.
Two years later, she felt that God was calling her to quit her job, so she did without any other plans. As she was praying and talking with people, a friend mentioned there might be an opportunity at El Refugio, and after interviewing, she decided to take the job even though it was pretty opposite of what she was thinking of doing.
“I felt like Peter stepping out of the boat, where you can only take the step by faith,” Jessy says. El Refugio was 9 hours away from her family, she didn’t have any friends there, and she also had to leave the young girls she was pouring into through her church and Young Life in her hometown of Shell. It was a hard decision, but she came.
The first months were pretty hard too, however, and it was a season of being broken at a deeper level and learning that only God is her source.
With time, however, she began to mentor one of the intern girls and started seeing so many reasons why God brought her to El Refugio.
“God has given me the gift to encourage, lift up, and give advice,” Jessy says. “So often people will say thank you, Jessy, you really encouraged me, that’s exactly what I needed to hear – and I give thanks to God for that.”
Jessy has a passion for pouring into youth, and a lot of her passion comes from her past. When she was a teenager, her parents divorced. “No one was there to help me,” she says.
Although she cried and called out to God, she did not know Him personally. Later, she came to know the Lord, and now she gives thanks to God that nothing major happened to her.
“My life should have been different, not having someone helping me,” she says. “It was just the grace of God.”
Now, pouring into other teenagers going through similar situations is her way of saying thanks to God for protecting her.
“I’ve heard it said that there comes a time when there is a hurt in your heart and you start to think, I have to do something. I’m going to do something,” she says.
That’s how it was with her and young teenage girls. She started to see the need, and felt like Nehemiah wondering who would raise up the walls of the city.
The Holy Spirit put the desire in her that she needed to go and do something for these young girls specifically.
“They need to know that God loves them just as they are,” she says.
Now Jessy has started to see the fruit of her passion, as some of the girls she has poured into have begun discipling others as well.
Recently Jessy found a letter that she had written years ago.
She wrote it to the Lord in the period of her life when she was first starting to fall in love with the Lord and learning His Word.
In it she said –
“Lord,
I am giving You my life completely.
Where You call me I will go,
What You want me to do I will do,
I am ready to do what You want.
I am Your servant, Your friend –
And I want to be Yours rather than anybody else’s.
I trust that You are going to be faithful to me and to my generation.”
She signed her name and burned the edges so that it looked like an old letter.
“I desire that my life keeps being like that,” Jessy says.
Jessy loves to travel, and loves participating in extreme activities as well. She considers herself an adventurer, and would love to try bungee jumping one day.
Not only does she enjoy pouring into youth, but she also loves training others how to effectively minister to others.
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