Hi my name is Colleen Salveggio,
I am 21 years old from the small town of Canterbury, CT, employed as an CNA working in home care. I am number 2 of 7 siblings which means I’m “tough”, fun, smart and well rounded haha. Like I said I grew up and have lived in a small town my whole life, which means there’s usually nothing to do, except play in the mud with your four wheelers, dirt bikes, trucks and whatever else you can think of.
I come from a christian home who is very dedicated to its church. Growing up that’s about all I experienced was the family and church life. My dad was always doing projects with the church, his family or friends and would always have me and my siblings there by his side helping, whether it was when I was 8 mowing my grandparents lawn or 13 building a deck, or 15 roofing and sheet-rocking, or doing a car’s oil change. All this stuff and more has given me the work ethics that I carry with me today.
When I was 17 however I gradually started drifting away from the Christian church life because for me that’s all it was, it was not a part of who I was, it was just what my parents had me do. At 19 I started working in a convenience store that was a 35 minute commute from my home, and met a 24 year old named Tom. I knew Him for about 3 months the last part of those 3 months involved him trying very hard to get me to go out with him, so I finally said yes and dated him for 3 months more before breaking up with him. He’s fun and charming, tall and handsome and I think we’d still probably be together if I hadn’t so strongly known what I wanted, I just new that staying with him would not give me the future I desired, although our personalities were a match our desires and dreams were not. I don’t regret dating Tom because it had a huge part in leading me to where I am today and shaping the person I’ve become. He was both a positive and very negative impact on my life. During this time too something took place that shook my childhood foundations to the core and thats when I truly let go of what I had known and embraced the mind of the world. After breaking up with Tom I discovered just how attached I had become to him and tried to replace that with alcohol and dating several different guys, which none of them lasted very long because once I saw them becoming attached I distanced my self and ended whatever “it” was that we had. A real heart breaker you know ;), but on a serious note this is something I’m not proud of. Then my religion became success, I got my CNA license, took an EMT course, and started college at a community college. I did very well in all my college classes. I was starting to feel pretty invincible. Now I train in the Martial Arts Muay Thai Kickboxing and Krav Maga self defense and one night when sparring I got hurt pretty bad. I took a hard hit to my head which messed with my gag reflex for a day or two and I had pain down my neck and spine for a month or more. This scared me. And caused me to start to think again about death and I realized that my soul was not safe, although outwardly I was doing well inwardly there was mass confusion and lostness. This was taking place in the early months of this year 2013. God did something to grab my attention, on my 21 birthday this year. Now anyone who has a facebook knows that means on your birthday you get loads of “best birthday wishes” and such. But one birthday wish grabbed my eye and attention particularly. It was from a woman at my parents church and it said this “Happy birthday, to you, Happy birthday, to you! Wow, 21! your are in my heart today, praying that you have an amazing year filled with the realization of who you were called to be. You are beautiful”. This struck me because I wanted more, I new deep in my heart that I was put on this earth for a greater calling than myself. Reading this now I’m struck with how much this has changed the course of my life. When I showed up to my parents church for an evening service put on by the teens of the church which my younger siblings were involved in and apart of. This same woman made a point on seeing me of seeking me out, she gave me her phone number and told me to call or text her if I ever needed to talk to somebody (poor woman I have since not left her alone 🙂 ). She challenged my world view, and showed faith and a belief in me that encouraged me to keep pursuing this spiritual change and awakening that was taking place in my heart. I wanted the spirit I saw that was governing her in my life and to be apart of who I am as well. So for the next 3 months or more I went on this soul searching, trying journey.
Which led me to her front porch on August 20th, 2013. After three days of intense spiritual turmoil I surrendered my life to Christ and gave up my will and pride. And in that moment that is where I met Christ, where I can now say I know God. The first thing I said to this woman after that moment was “I feel safe”.
This is REAL, God is real. And I want to serve my Lord and be in His will for my life.
One of my favorite means of transportation 🙂 Receiving my orange belt in Muay Thai.
“The Gospel of Christ is this. We are the broken, hurting, and sick, Christ is the healer. We are the lost, the Lord Jesus is our finder and keeper. We are the abandoned and hopeless, the Lord is our hope and faithful friend. We are the Holy Fathers delight so He sent His Son to be our covering so we can be made whole and have true and complete fellowship with the Holy One and know Him. He, God took on flesh form, became the one and only sacrifice to defeat death to give life to those who will lay don their life, pride and self and be giving the gift of life through Christ Jesus.”
