My name is Victoria. I am a gentle spirit with a fierce passion for Jesus, love, and hope! I love learning and I am an imperfect vessel.  I have 8 tattoos. These tattoos are NOT anything that define me, but whispers from Jesus into my heart, at moments of great need and these words have been prophetic reminders of my identity in Jesus. This post is not to promote getting tattoos or anything to effect the expression of others, but simply an expression of my story.

My story of God stepping in and giving me words that would forever change my life and remind me of who HE is. These words point me back to Jesus, nothing else. They are His reminders directed toward my heart and for the sake of lovingly pursuing my soul to saturate it more in His presence. The message behind the ink is what makes up my story because behind the ink, you will find a broken vessel won over by the whimsical love of Christ, who day by day reveals more of Himself to make me a filled vessel of light and hope. He gets the credit, He gets the glory, He set the story and my story is simply a small piece of His story and sharing it is what will let more pieces of light invade what the world has tried to cover. So here goes….

Sorry, it is a little longer than most blog posts but I wanted to open my heart to how He is further opening a human vessel with His heavenly grasp. 

 

Tattoo #1: 

The WORLD on my feet. I got this tattoo when I was 19. It was my first summer home from college at the University of Toledo and it was a radical step of faith. After a spring break trip to Mumbai India with an organization from my school, my heart was wrecked, my eyes were opened, and my attention was on Jesus. This summer I was baptized with my brother and sister at our home church and this was the summer when God truly said, “Victoria, I am using you in my story. You have a piece of my heart to share and I want you to go out into the world. ” After seeing a place so different, so loved, so broken, so majestic, I started praying. Before this trip I was thinking about how I would graduate in a few years, teach, settle down, the typical pattern for many college grads; but God shifted something in my heart in India. Not that any of those steps are wrong steps, but He had something different for me. I got dreams of the world, more places, a sense of bravery and boldness filled my heart. Fear wasn’t on God’s agenda. Africa has always been a place that my heart was drawn to. So many places started to flood my heart. So I marked India on the map, I placed a red dot on the place that had allowed me to see a little more of Jesus and opened my eyes to what God was up to in the world….the Spirit entered. The words that He would be sending me into the world never left me, so I added the reminder to my feet-a place where I look often. I look at my feet daily, and many days a place is laid on my heart. I pray. I ask. I wonder. I seek. He reveals. All in His time. His world. His true love. Little did I know that within the next few years I would visit many more places in His world, He would open doors to see amazing people. Haiti. Honduras. Costa Rica. Nicaragua. And now the Race. In a moment He grabbed my heart and spoke those words. Thank God He continues to remind me, a stubborn person at times, and says this word holds true-will you go and go again to see more of Me and enter into the fields that have always been in my heart. He is faithful. 

Matthew 28:16-20 

Tattoo #2: LIVE: LOVE

After traveling some and being moved by pieces of His heart, there began a stirring in my life about what I was placed here to do. What did He want of me? What did I need to surrender? The answer would be EVERYTHING; my past with an eating disorder, the lies I had been fed growing up, my fears, my worries, my brokenness, my heart. True surrendering is a lifelong practice. Daily. But the meaning behind this tattoo rests in the beauty of who Jesus is. His love. His life. His heart to see the world moved by how amazing Daddy’s love is for us! How true life doesn’t always come from getting more of the world but by loving more of the broken vessels and wanting every single person to find His love. We are here to love Jesus and worship His name, we are here to love a broken world and to remember that we ourselves are pieces of a broken world in need of His love, which we can only give because we have learned that we are in begging need of love. Living to love and loving to live abundant life. I love how the two words parallel one another by only having one letter different. My motto…Love to live: Live to love. 

Matthew 22:36-40

 

Tattoo #3: Infinity Freedom

Purity. Freedom. The purity of freedom. This is the only white ink tattoo that I have. I chose for it to be white because the beauty of the freedom is honorably pure. Freedom that says we are no longer slaves but conquerors is noteworthy freedom. At a time in life where freedom was the last thing I felt, Jesus spoke that His freedom was eternal, nothing stopped it and because He said I was free, I was exactly that-FREE. I love this word. Its a word, alongside whimsy, victory, and love that are my favorite. My favorite because I believe this word does its best, as best as a word can, to help show us the true character of Jesus. Freedom. Freedom is a word that the definition gains momentum with acquired freedom and the limits to experiencing freedom are limitless.  Jesus came not into the world to condemn it, but to free it. To set captives free. To change the story. To remind us that we are victorious in Him and He calls us chosen, His, free. This verse in Revelation brings tears to my eyes every time I read it, and I think of fields of utter glory shinning as I recall this verse, 

“⁵ The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels.”

WOW!!!! Freedom is pure and to have our names written in the book of life because of the freedom Jesus granted. Stunning. Noteworthy. Life-changing. When we think we are not free we are only kidding ourselves, Jesus continues to reveal more freedom. Freedom from the past, freedom in the present, and freedom in the future. 

Tattoo #4: The Anchor

“We have this HOPE as an anchor for our souls, FIRM and SECURE.” (Hebrews 6:19) 

As a daughter of Dad’s, during a time of utter hopelessness, this verse became my hope. I never thought that I would be free from the lies that haunted me, of an eating disorder, of anxiety, of fear-but Jesus spoke otherwise. He changed that path. Years ago that was my mindset. Sometimes now, when I have a hard day, lies creep in. The enemy attacks. He has been attacking much as a team of world changers gets ready to ask for more of Jesus. But hope stands firm. My rock stands firm. My Jesus stands firm. Just as this verse was true in that dark time in my life, years ago, it also stands firm right now. He is the hope of the world, firm and secure. He is the hope we all need today, tomorrow, and in the times to come. His hope doesn’t fade, its constant. His steadfastness remains eternal. His heart continues to intercede for us in front of the Father, praying for us. Interceding. Being THE HELPER of the world. He is where my trust rests, He is where when trust runs weak I pray to always turn to, He is where the life that keeps trueness of life living, lives. The anchor is over my heart, placed right where it needs to be. 

Tattoo #5: The Tree 

“Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.”-Oscar Wilde

Where there is pain, there is also beauty, growth, change, remolding, redemption, and newness. Every sinner has a story, we all do. I have a story, you have a story, and its all because He chose for us to play a crucial part in His story. We have a past. Its a prerequisite for being wrecked by Jesus. I had anxiety, an eating disorder, lies, false hope, and the works. Some have divorce, pain, addictions, loses. The world hurts, the world sins, but Jesus remains. He took the place for us when He openly chose to die in place of us and to set the stage for love to conquer. He made a way for sinners to have a future and to be named saints. Just as the tree on my back goes from death to life, so do we. We have to die to ourselves to become alive to Jesus. He has to become our focus. He has to become our hope. He. He. He. 

He is life. 2 Corinthians 5:17. The old has passed and the new has come, in Jesus. Being rooted in Him, begging for our hearts to never lose focus and shift our gazes off of LIFE…Jesus. Ephesians 3:16-19. He rooted us in love and through continual submission on our knees to ask the Spirit to keep us rooted and grounded and revealing love. He makes all things new and we are the target. He wants to make us all new. 

Tattoo #6: The Cross on my finger

This tattoo has a simple meaning but a deep meaning. We have worth. I have worth. Our worth rests in the love of our Beloved. The heart of heart-creation. He betrothed us in righteousness, love, justice, faithfulness and mercy, forever (Hosea 2:19-20). As much as my heart longs for a godly husband, which in time, I pray He provides. Jesus is the one who has captivated my heart. He has showed me that He loves every single piece of me, the flaws that I know of and the flaws He is going to reveal. He believes in me, He believes we are worthy to be called sons and daughters, so He sacrificed. Just as marriage is a symbol of love and sacrifice, Jesus set the stage for what a true loving and honest relationship looks like. He died, He rose, He loved the unlovable. He chose me. He chose you. He said I want you as mine and because of that, you are all of the things you never believed you could be: you are free, saved, a holy people, salt and light, mine, victors, world changers, My child. I want Jesus to always be my first love, because He has been the one to show me and open my heart up to what love really looks like. He comes first. He is first. He sets the stage. He is love and I want my love to reflect His love. 

Tattoo #7: Bondye Fidel 

 Creole for God is faithful. Remember how I said that Jesus had much more of His world in store for my eyes to see, my heart to be moved by. He was faithful in that promise. He is faithful always. So while on the small island of La Gonave Haiti, singing atop a mountain with the local people, God made His presence known. As disease ran wild, children were starving, and hopelessness was gaining strength, God moved. Through a language I knew all of about 10 words of, God started speaking. He began moving. Tears filled the church room where nothing but voices were singing. The Caribbean Sea to the north and the villages to the south, Jesus grabbed us. The presence of God was strong. In my short life, this moment was one of the strongest in regards to feeling the presence of Jesus. He, in a moment, atop a mountain, with all of His Haitian angels reminded us all that He was faithful. He would be faithful, He remained faithful, He would reveal more promises and fulfill more promises. The Psalms are filled with reminders of Gods never-ending faithfulness. I pray that while on the Race, we all get so many more opportunities to see and experience His faithfulness. He grabs us in such moments of whimsy and speaks into our souls His character, His life. He promised and not once has He ever broke a promise. He is faithful, faithful to the world, faithful to our hearts. 

Tattoo #8: Africa (South Africa) 

This is the most recent tattoo. I got it about a year ago. I was praying one night for God to reveal a people that He had specifically laid on my heart. My junior year of college was a year where friends and Jesus really began to confirm the call on my heart that He had to the nations. Many of my close friends are such prayer warriors and I began to receive many words from them about me being called to the world. Funny how God had spoke that so many years before but wanted to show me again, how His speaking stands true. I began praying. Praying for the world. Praying for the nations. Praying for God to reveal where specifically He had called my heart. 

Now I believe Jesus calls us to the ends of the earth. He calls us to love each person we encounter. Missions is a field we are all a part of, far and near. No one is not called to love, no one is not called to spread grace, no one is not called to be a light. But I do believe that God places specific nations on our hearts. For many reasons. And like I said, from an early age Africa was a place He had placed on my heart. I didn’t know why or for what specific reason but He began to show me! 

 

At a conference I would attend in the upcoming years there were confirmations. I prayed for specifics  and I began to see the face of South Africa. I began to look up songs ung in Zulu. Pandora stations would pop up with the Soweto Gospel choir. Speakers would come to conferences I was attending with stories of this nation and tears would fall from my eyes at each of these. Know as the rainbow nation, I knew Jesus was calling me there. As a daughter caught in whimsy and the love of color, diversity, and life. I would make new friends in Toledo Ohio and learn they were fromAfrica. It was crazy. So I began researching the story of South Africa and it lined up with mine. How a nation who has gained freedom after years of struggle. I struggled for years with eating disorders, loving myself, believing I was free. How they are a vibrant light to the people around them and they are a nation pressed with responsibility to reach out to those around them. As children and a child of Jesus, I am called to be a light. As a nation who is learning to embrace the identity given, I too struggled to once embrace my identity. 

So little to say, Jesus revealed to me how my heart has been placed there. South Africa has a special place in my heart, even though I have yet to step foot on the soil. But I am beyond excited to arrive there in the time and place God has for World Race Fusion. I believe revival awaits there, revival awaits the world. 

 

So that’s my story so far. One that God continues to reveal to me. I am beyond words excited for this year on the Race….for God to reveal so much more to each of us. For His love to touch people. For hearts to find homes. For nations to see and know hope. For love to be a present as the air around us. For the glory of Christ to shine so bright that action is all that can be done. To learn. 

God is up to something HUGE! And I want to be apart of everything He touches. 

We have stories and those stories are to be used for His glory, His praise. All to point back to Him. This is the meaning behind the ink, the meaning under the ink. The purpose for the choice. 

Jesus, may we always choose to surrender more. Beg for more of you. May we lay aside pride, ourselves, the past and anything that is keeping us from who you are. We want anything and everything out of the way, to pave the road to a better understanding of You! May you grab ahold of our hearts this year in a life changing way that will impact eternity! We want more! We want more! Lord, help trust to grow in new areas and for ourselves to be completely set aside for the purpose of digging deeper into Your heart Daddy! May pure spirits be formed and a childlike faith in all You are grow daily!

We leave for the Race in 25 days! Prayers, prayers and more prayers. 

Jesus. 

Much love and whimsy, 

-V