Hummm. I don’t know where to begin I am not very good at this whole “writing about myself” thing. Well, I was born in raised in Orlando, FL, I know jealous right :). I was raised in a Christian home, and I am realizing more and more each day how blessed I am to be able to say that. I have two loving parents who just celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary YAY! And I have an older sister, Jennifer, who is married to Michael, the best brother in-law in the entire world, and we just found out they are having a baby in Nov. I am wicked excited about that and that I will get to see the little “it” (don’t know if it is a boy or a girl). Any who, I was raised in a Christian home like I said and from pre school-12th grade I went to a private Christian school. I grew up knowing all of the bible verses, and knowing all the songs from Jesus loves me to the Wise Man Built His House upon the Rocks. I went to all of the bible classes each year, and somewhere in between I gave my life to the Lord but it was at a very very young age. I can’t remember a time where I didn’t believe that God was my creator. All through high school was the same way. I did not get into trouble mainly due to the fact that my life was consumed with volleyball 24 hours a day between school and club. I had an amazing group of friends that I can literally say that I have known pretty much my entire life. I am going to fast forward a little bit to College because I feel like this is where my testimony really begins.
I went to a college called Tusculum College in Greeneville, TN. Yup I am going to go ahead and assume many of you have not heard of it :). Well, that is where I ended up; I went there to play volleyball, surprise surprise. I went there with my strong beliefs in who I wanted to live my life for but along the way things got messier than I can even begin to describe in this blog. I began to live a life with my back turned completely away from the Lord, I still believed in him but I had the mindset of “when I am older I will actually live a life for Him”, you see in all the years growing up I had never really truly been shown the importance and the difference between believing in Him and Living for him. I began to struggle with things in the party scene, drinking more than anything I lived my life for the next party, and all of the things that come a long with that scene became part of my life. I knew deep down the things I was doing was not who I was or who I wanted to be but eventually I felt like it was to late to turn back and I was having way to much fun doing the things I was doing. This continued on till my Junior year of college and I came to a place one night were I literally was face down on my floor crying out to God, it literally took me hitting rock bottom, to realize that He was all I had. I ended up coming home the next weekend because I knew that Tusculum was not where I needed to be.
The next few months my mom was still concerned for me and my life, as any good mother would be 🙂 even though at the time I hated her for it. She told me one day well Kendall you are going to go to East Asia for 3 weeks with campus crusade, and I looked at her and told her she was beyond crazy, but I figured hey it is a trip why not. I didn’t really think it was going to happen because I had to raise 4000 dollars in 3 weeks, so I laughed it off. God being a HUGE God proved that by me raising 6000 roughly in 3 weeks. So off I was on a trip with nobody I knew. This trip is what changed my life in a short story. I ended up staying for 2 months instead of 3 weeks and I ended up while there transferring to Missouri State University ( a lot of the people on my trip that I got close to all went there). This trip like I said changed my life I realized what it looked like to have a personal relationship with the Lord and how amazing it felt. I realized that he is a God of grace and compassion beyond anything I know or can express or beyond what I ever deserve. I think it is amazing how God truly does have a perfect plan for our lives all we have to do is cry out, be patient, and listen.
I went to Missouri State and loved every single minute of it and God has just rocked my world, as cliché as that sounds that is the only way I can describe it. I graduated in August with a degree in Mass Media and Communication, which I am not really using at the moment. I once told God I will never do long term mission’s and well as we know God has a plan and he laughs when we make our own and now I am on my way to an almost YEAR long mission trip. I can’t wait to meet you. I know this is long; great I always have this problem ha ha. I can’t wait to meet all of you and experience everything with you guys. I can not wait to truly walk and breathe the Great Commission!
