I was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness for the first 13 years of my life. It stopped feeling like a safe place when my violent tempered father was sent out of our home with a restraining order and the entire church sided with him just because he was still attending their meetings. My relationship with my dad was awesome on vacations, we shared a lot of adventures and as much love as he knew how to give but when we were at home it was a very dark place for my mom and I. Nothing was ever good enough. Two years passed without every seeing my dad and only communicating by phone calls mandatory by the courts. The first time I saw him again he broken-heartedly told me he was ill with leukemia and would be going in for treatment the next week. A month later I sat in the hospital holding onto his hand and watched my father pass away. Our church family reached out for a little while but it faded away because we weren’t attending their meetings anymore. I found alcohol and cigarettes to comfort the pain. Six months later my very best friend and cousin who I grew up with was killed in a car accident at the age of fifteen. Anti-depressants were now being taken in the midst of too much alcohol and honestly the next couple of years in my life are sadly a blur to me now. Most of my own biological family were not talking to my mom and I anymore because we no longer Jehovah’s Witnesses. It was a very lonely time for us both and separately we were each finding comfort in alcohol, cigarettes, and later for me were drugs.
When I was 17, God used a friend of mine to bring me to a Christian church. With how I was brought up I thought everyone there was nuts! But I kept going and saw something different. Love, peace, real joy, family, the real truth, grace and a real need for a savior. I realized how in need of Jesus I was and I could not live this life on my own. I accepted him into my heart. God did a lot of healing in my heart for a good couple of months. However I did not understand how to have a personal relationship with Him and walked on the fence for a while before falling off onto the wrong side again. This time was a lot worse. I was so empty at one point and was searching for something that I looked into many different religions. I was missing something. How can I obtain this inner peace and enlightenment? During this time my mom accepted Christ as her Lord and savior but I wanted nothing to do with it. The anniversary of my father’s death was a few months later and it was breaking my heart again. My mom prayed that God would bring someone into my life to go through this tough time with. That same night, my friend from years back called me out of the blue and asked if I wanted to go back to church with her. I agreed and that night Jesus became the LORD of my life! I fell so in love with Jesus while singing the words “forever in a moment, in love with you, forever in a moment.” Growing up I didn’t believe I was going to heaven until that night. God was so close and I could feel the tiniest amount of what an amazing thing it will be to live with Him for eternity. I have not turned back since.
For the last two years I have been working for a title/escrow company in the corporate world. I have been blessed with some awesome co-workers. Now I am working as a nanny and love being back with kids again! God has also blessed me with an incredible church family! I’ve been serving as a leader on our high school staff and my awesome girls are not going to be easy to leave! In my free time I love doing anything outdoors, hiking, fishing, caving, camping, running, any sports and I also love music and the theater!
In the fall of 2005, a friend of mine told me about the Worl Race as he was preparing to go and it has always stuck with me. God took me to Kenya this summer with AIM and it was incredible! Part of my heart will always be there. (Kenya dig it? We can dig it! What’s up team!) The next month I was in Croatia with the young adult group at my church. I now have an amazing, huge family there that I miss everyday. This summer changed my life because God started to reveal to me the heart He gave me for the nations, missions, His lost and deceived. I was accepted to go on the World Race and was preparing to go until the beginning of March when God clearly directed my heart back to Africa again. Now at 23, I am so excited to go back, I feel like I’m going home!
“However I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me- the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” – Acts 20:24 Let us go!!!
