Ever since she was a little girl growing up in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico, Heidi Cartagena wanted to bless others with her voice by singing or preaching. However, she was too shy. It wasn’t until she was in college that she found her voice through lettering—the art of drawing letters.

“I had been studying architecture for one year and decided to change to graphic design,” recounted Cartagena, a third-generation Seventh-day Adventist. “While I was in graphic design, I came upon calligraphy and later lettering.”

She enrolled in a lettering course, and that launched her ministry to share hope and love to a troubled world. After graduating in 2019 with a degree in graphic design, she got a job while learning all about lettering.

“Sometimes, I would spend seven hours straight practicing lettering, many times practicing from 5:00 p.m. to 11 p.m. on a Friday night preparing a Sabbath lettering message,” says Cartagena, adding she was never really good at drawing and remembers her first-grade teacher saying how pretty her penmanship was. She also remembers watching her dad write out her and her sisters’ names. “I would take my crayons and draw names over and over.”

Cartagena continued, “It’s like God had a purpose in me because I always wanted to talk about Jesus, and this allows me to preach in a creative way. I absolutely love this art.” She has always been active in church, creating lettering for youth activity signs and doing projects for church conferences, Montemorelos University, the five Mexico unions, and the Inter-American Division.

Lettering became something special because it’s something that drew her closer to Jesus, Cartagena says. “This has allowed me to get to know Jesus personally and see Him move in my life in an amazing way.” Today, she focuses on lettering full-time. Coined as “Lettering with a Purpose” (Lettering con proprósito), she says her ministry is inspired by verses she studies in the Bible and her personal, day-to-day experiences. She listens to music and says a prayer before each lettering design so it can come out beautiful and touch the hearts of people.

Cartagena shares how-to videos, lettering tips, practices, and inspirational experiences. She sells agendas, prayer journals, bullets, stickers, mugs, tote bags, and more on social media platforms. Her ministry has grown to 6,000 followers on Instagram, 4,000 on Facebook, and hundreds on her YouTube channel. However, she says it’s not about the social media exposure. She is motivated by touching people with a message or verse that her followers need to hear at that moment.

“I don’t know who is going through a difficult time, but I’m so committed to continuing sharing through this lettering ministry because it’s definitely a ministry that touches people deeply,” says Cartagena. “People let their guard down when they see something beautiful—a message, a verse—that reaches them.”

This article was originally published on the Inter-American Division’s website