Celeste Muñoz
This woman can do anything.
At the age of 14, Celeste became pregnant with her first child. The pregnancy was hard on her and her family but would forever change her life. "My parents tried to get me to have an abortion for months and they didn’t accept it until I was in the hospital having my baby," said Muñoz.
Even after childbirth, Celeste's life was very difficult. She had little hope that she was ever going to amount to anything, day to day life was a struggle in her household. Mainly because Celeste's mom had a baby at the same time as Celeste. Her little brother is only 4 months older than her son.
Although times were difficult, she continued her involvement with Young Life throughout high school, but she still did not have a YoungLives.
YoungLives is a ministry to teen moms. As society brings them down, YoungLives lifts them up, they encourage them, and are walking through life with them. YoungLives gives teen moms a chance to have fun and take care of themselves, but at the same time it gives them an opportunity to grow in their faith.
“God revealed himself to me when I went to YoungLife camp in 2013. Everything drew me in about YL camping- the scenery, music. games, friendships, food, but most importantly the talks- I got to hear about God in a way I’d never heard before. That summer I accepted Christ into my life for the first time ever, and my life would be forever changed by that.”
As soon as she graduated high school, she began her freshman year at TXST, and became involved with Young Life College. Shortly after, she went through leader training and became a Young Life leader at her old high school, San Marcos High School, and informally started doing YoungLives just by bringing teen moms and their babies to Young Life club and campaigners. Celeste would do that for about 3 years.
Despite not having YoungLives in her YL area, she still managed to get involved in the ministry by volunteering as a childcare worker for 2 years at YoungLives camps in Texas over the summers.
Finally, after many discussions with her Area Director, the area committee discussed how important it was to get YoungLives implemented right here in Hays County. They decided to move ahead in the process by hiring Celeste as the part time YoungLives Coordinator. She is only on her second year in this position.
“My favorite thing about doing ministry with YoungLives is the relationships I’ve built and the generations that are impacted by this ministry. My girls tell me that I’m their role model, that my story gives them hope, that they will find a good man, that they will graduate high school and can pursue college or another furthering education program! We currently know 157 teen moms by name right here in San Marcos and I will never stop sharing the gospel with teen moms, no matter where life takes me!”
Currently, Celeste now has two children, Zachariah, age 6 and Jeremiah, age 1. Her husband is the father of both of my children, and she is so proud to say that my whole family knows and loves Jesus.
Celeste recently became the newest partner family for Habitat for Humanity and is the first family to come along for the merging of Austin and San Marcos Habitat. Before, the two areas functioned separately, but just recently, they merged to have Austin take over the San Marcos clients as well. She is beyond excited and grateful for this opportunity and will make every effort to give back to our community. She will be closing on the home sometime this month!
Celeste’s next step in life is to begin her Master’s degree. She is not sure exactly what she wants to study, but she knows it will be revealed to her soon. No matter how much she’s tried to plan her life out, God’s always had another. Celeste is fully trusting in God for her next step in life.
