Hey y’all. My name is Heather Tolbert. I am 25 and I was born and raised in Greenville, SC (actually Taylors). I love South Carolina, and I am convinced it is one of the best places to live in the country. Of course that opinion is fairly biased. I am the oldest of three. My baby sister is eight years younger than me, but we look so much alike, we get mistaken for twins. I became a Christian when I was 8, but I really started growing in my relationship with Christ when I was in high school.
I graduated from Clemson University (Go tigers!) with a B.A. in early childhood education. I taught first grade for a year before I felt God’s call on my life to missions. Sure of His call, but unclear as to the specific direction, I resigned from teaching to go to graduate school. God lead me to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in August of 2005 to work on my M. Div. in Missions. Little did I know I was not going to be there very long. A little storm called Katrina came along and sent me packing back to S.C. God taught me so much through that process. He showed me what was truly valuable in this life. I lost most of my clothes, shoes, furnishings, appliances etc., but my loss was minimal compared to others. He came to show me those things were trivial. I had my salvation and a family and a loving church to come home to. I also got an incredible first hand experience of God’s love through the people who supported me when I came back. The way God’s people rallied around me and others whose lives were damaged by Katrina filled my heart with so much joy and love for God that I felt like my heart would explode. God showed me His faithfulness. He picked me up and carried me through, and He hasn’t put me down yet.
So you may be wondering how I got from that point to the World Race. After I returned home and dealt with the trials that came, I was faced with the question “What do I do now?” I couldn’t afford to go back to school. So I started substitute teaching and working at a daycare. I had a strong desire to be involved in ministry, and God gave me an outlet in the student ministry of Cherrydale Church, my home church. God has blessed me so much through these students. These are the coolest, most excited, and life filled teenagers I have ever had the pleasure to be around. Eventually though I realized God was still calling me to missions. I decided I would search for a short-term mission to get involved in over the summer so I could get in the field and do something until I could afford to go back to school. Well God had other plans. While looking on the Internet for missions agencies, God lead me to the AIM website where I read about the World Race. My gut reaction was, ” Wow that sounds incredible,” but once I realized the magnitude of the trip, my human self kicked in and said, “There is no way you could ever do that.” Well I thought I would send in the application and see what happened. The rest is history, and here I sit with a plethora of fears and excitements raging through my head.
Does this type of experience fit my personality? In some ways, yes. My family and I always knew I would be the one to not stay in one place and lead the typical “American dream” lifestyle. I am adventurous in my own way. On the other hand, this type of experience is so far out of my comfort zone that I could never dream of embarking on an adventure like this on my own. That is the beauty of this opportunity. Only God will get me through it. He is the only one who can drag me kicking and screaming out of my little box into this world. Only He can teach me to open up and be vulnerable by letting others know and love me as I come to know and love them. Above all though I look forward to being in the midst of His will for my life, which is to go and make disciples of all nations. Jesus is the greatest thing that ever happened to me. I want to share Him with the world. I want to hurt for the lost the way Paul did. He loved his fellow Jews so much that he would have traded his salvation for theirs if he could have (Romans 9:3). I want to see people come to know Christ. I want to come to know Him more and more along the way too. I can’t wait to see His faithfulness, and how He is going to transform my heart and mind.
Here are a few other interesting tidbits about me. I love sports especially baseball and football. I love the Atlanta Braves and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (who are not so good right now). I am a diehard Clemson fan (yes my blood runneth orange)! I love to read and I love to work with children and youth. Not only do I substitute teach, I work at a daycare too ( I know I’m crazy). I love Italian food and I am very competitive when I play games. I love to play softball and I like to throw the football around a little bit too.
Well that’s a brief glimpse into my life. I hope you all will follow me along on this journey God takes me through. Please pray for God’s will for me. He has a lot of molding and shaping and refining to do in my life. Please also pray for those who have yet to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. I pray the burden for their souls is laid on you as it has been on me.
