Brendan Sagastume

by Brendan Sagastume

A little over three years ago, I started my first summer as an Ambassador with Mosaic without fully knowing what I was getting myself into. I didn’t expect it to reshape how I think about discipleship, community, or my own place in the church. I want to share what these past three years at Mosaic have taught me and how they’ve shaped me.

One of the most formative parts of my experience has been the chance to meet, interact, and work alongside people from all different backgrounds and walks of life. What’s struck me most in those moments isn’t the difference itself, but the shared desire to seek God, love others, and build a world with peace at the center. At the same time, I’ve learned to recognize our troubled pasts and difficult histories, and to learn from them, rather than around them, in order to create an intercultural community.

Mosaic has invested in me summer after summer, giving me many opportunities to learn and grow. One of the lessons I learned early on was that I’m not always going to feel ready for everything, and that’s okay. I can take chances and take on the responsibilities in front of me without feeling fully qualified, knowing I have the support of people around me and can trust in God.

I don’t think that kind of trust and support is unique to me. I see it in the many young leaders across the conference who are doing amazing work in their own communities. That, I think, is part of what it means to be discipled in community, not figuring everything out on your own, but growing into who God is calling you to be because others are willing to walk alongside you, trust you, and catch you when you stumble.

Over these past summers, I have really gotten to see what a true mosaic this conference is. Getting to build personal relationships I carry with me—people I still talk to, learn from, and think about—has been one of the most valuable parts of this experience. Those relationships have changed how I see myself and what I hope to become, not just for my own sake, but for the sake of the community around me.

I want to be someone who reflects Christ well, and I have learned that I cannot do that alone. I need the people Mosaic has connected me to, and I hope in some small way I have been that kind of person for others too.

If I were to name a challenge that I have faced during my time, it would be realizing that there is a real gap between what I hope the church can be and the slow work of actually becoming it. I have felt and seen that gap in myself, in moments when my first instinct was not the most Christlike one, and I have seen it in the wider community too. Though I do not think that is necessarily a failure, but I think it is what it looks like to be in process, together, and still willing to keep going.

I am sure my time with Mosaic looks different than other staff who will write reflections on what they are learning in their work, and that is the point. Each of us has been shaped differently by this community, and I am looking forward to hearing those stories too.

As I begin my last year of college, I am not sure what comes next for me. There is a part of that uncertainty that is uncomfortable, but these past three years have given me something to carry into whatever comes next. This is who I am becoming. I am grateful for the mosaic I have gotten to be part of, and I look forward to seeing who we all become together.

Brendan Sagastume

Brendan Sagastume has spent three summers serving as a Mosaic Ambassadors, splitting time between Conference-Related Ministry Healthy Niños Honduras and Mosaic Conference. This fall he is serving as Mosaic’s Assembly registrar. He attends Messiah University and is a member of Perkiomenville (PA) Mennonite.