Hello everyone! My name is Cassidy Hammerberg and I am 19. Currently, I am a college sophomore at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, studying biology with an emphasis in premed. I grew up with an older brother in a really small town just outside of Des Moines, Iowa.
I spend my free time drawing/painting, baking, outside enjoying nature, and volunteering. I tend to be a little bit more introverted and first and don’t mind spending time alone. However, I experience the most growth with other people and love interacting and learning from others. My spiritual gift is serving and I find the most fulfillment when I’m working and helping others. Because I am strong willed and determined, it is easy for me to get caught up in the work and challenge in front of me so, I have to remind myself to take a back and refocus on the big picture. I feel called to serve in the mission field, using my strengths (and weaknesses) to help others that are struggling.
While I grew up in a divorced family, both of my parents and extended family on both sides encouraged developing a relationship with Christ. My dad has been one of the biggest influences in my spiritual journey. He has shown me how to put my trust in God and to depend on Him as my one constant in life when everything around me was unsteady and changing. Through divorces and deaths, I have had to rely on God and His unending love. It is by His grace alone that I was able to overcome and work through the adversity in my childhood.
When I was in high school, I felt God place missions on my heart. However, rather than a direct call, it was more of a passion that he warmed my heart to. Even at the end of high school, it still was not His timing. As I’ve been working on my studies through my first year and a half of college, I have begun to feel an unexplained dissatisfaction with where I am at and what I’m doing even though I love my classes and love college. I have idolized my GPA and who I am as a student to the point where I lost sight of relationships in my life and ultimately, my relationship with Christ. God has used that restlessness/unease to lead me to World Race and reignite that passion for serving others in missions. Shortly after the seed was planted to go on a mission trip to focus on God rather than myself, I came across World Race almost as if by chance. I never anticipated or expected to take a year off of school but, through Bible studies and sermons that pointed to this all in a matter of days after coming across World Race, I decided to take a huge leap of faith and trust God in applying. World Race will allow me give me the chance to not only serve others and spread the gospel but will give me a chance to give everything to God without having the option to become consumed by the idols that I have set up in my life.
I do struggle with trusting God in the big and little areas of my life. I tend to want to control everything that happens rather than surrender that control to Him. In this year to come, I hope to overcome that fear of completely giving my life in its entirety to God. I hope to serve others in a big way that will show them the unexplained form of love that I have experienced so far in my walk with Christ. I am worried about taking a year off of school and raising the fund to participate in World Race, due in part because it requires giving up complete control and trusting God in something so much greater than myself. I hope to that by stepping outside of my comfort zone, I can positively impact someone else’s life.
