Hello again!
By this point, I’m sure you’ve caught at least one or two of my posts. If not, no sweat! I wanted to take a minute to share my heart with you guys and really get to know each other a little better. Most of my supporters don’t know me all that well, and they still support me all the same! Even so, I wanted to share.
My introduction to Christianity took place within the first few hours of my life. My nursery was decked out in “Lion and the Lamb” themed décor. My parents played Veggie Tales for me before I knew how to watch television. For Halloween one year, I dressed up as Esther (Yeah… From the Bible…). I was baptized when I was six years old and since my dad was the only person I trusted enough to put me under water (LOL), he baptized me. Throughout elementary school and middle school, I was soaking up every ounce of biblical teaching I could. It was important to me that I stay as dedicated to my regular subjects in school as I did my bible class. By middle school, I was a full blown preacher’s kid or as we are more affectionately known – a “PK”.
When I got into high school, my focuses shifted. I noticed that my clothes didn’t look like other girls, my hair wasn’t on trend, and I got made fun of constantly for using “big words”. So, instead of staying unique, I became like every other girl I knew. I wish I could tell you exactly what was so alluring about becoming like everyone else. Even today, I don’t really understand what went wrong. I dropped everything I had been brought up to know and began to assimilate myself into the culture around me. A culture of swearing, materialism, gossip, and rebellion. Instead of placing my faith in God, I placed it in my status. I placed my value on the people I chose to surround myself with and eventually that blew up in my face. It would be easy to say that these behaviors were just “a part of growing up” but as I eventually came to learn, Christ didn’t call me to a life of ease. So I took responsibility. I dropped the people, the habits, and the culture I had become so comfortable in.
The distance I had placed between myself and God began to hurt. Those walls I had put in place became so easy to tear down as I began actually living the truths I had been professing. God changed my life for the better, and I loved feeling him grow me a little more each day. As the distance shrunk, I began to feel a different kind of calling. One that pulled me to every corner of the globe and required more sacrifice than I had ever known. When the question of whether I’d enroll in college immediately or not came up, my parents and I started searching the web for mission opportunities available to high school graduates and it became clear that World Race Gap Year was the perfect opportunity. Despite the fact that I was right smack dab in the middle of moving to South Korea, I went ahead and started my interview process. I was accepted, and $6,700+ in donations and Lord-only-knows how many prayers later, I’m here! As I prepare for this trip, my heart begins to grow extremely anxious to just get there already!!!This once in a lifetime kind of chance to take a leap for God is more than I could have asked for. He has personally invited me into this very international mission and I just can’t wait to get started.
Hopefully all of this rambling has helped you to know me a little bit better than you did before! On a different note, I’m coming back to the States in mid-June!!! If you’d like to get together then I’d love to try and work something out. I’ll be staying in New Orleans with my very lovely grandparents. Drop a comment or shoot me a message on Facebook! It’d be great to link up before I head out!
P.S. If you didn’t like my punny blog post title, we need to have a serious chat.
Until next time,
-Chessie
