Hey guys, my name is Courtney Satterfield and I am 28 years old. I currently reside in Mills River, NC outside of Asheville, NC. I grew up on a lake in New London, NC. My parents still live there and I go to visit a couple times a year. My mom’s name is Teresa and my dad’s name is Jeff. They are loving parents and support me with where I feel led to go. I also have 3 siblings: Jason, Brianna, and Samantha. My brother is married to Ashley and they have a very special boy named Austin, whom I love being an Aunt to and loving on.
I am currently working at an elementary school in Asheville as an Instructional Assistant. I have been doing this for six years and I love it, despite the challenges that come. I work in a first grade classroom that I love. I work with an amazing teacher who has taught me how to show grace and patience towards our kiddos. By her example I have seen how to love our kids with God’s love flowing through us. I do believe wholeheartedly that God brought us together these past few years and I am ever grateful for the lessons learned.
Since I was a little girl, my heart has longed to love on others. I did not care how much money I made as long I was making an impact. As college time came around I was unsure of what I wanted to major in. I knew that I did not want to be stuck in a cubicle, I wanted to be out on the world doing something. So I changed my major, two or three times until I settled with Sociology because I felt that that was a safe route. When I graduated it was hard for me to find a job. The first one I found was at a treatment center for kids. I did not like it; I felt that I was not successfully helping the kids so I quit.
That eventually led me to the YMCA after school and I found that I loved working with the kids that came. They came from different backgrounds and they all needed some love. From there I gained the necessary experience to be considered for a job as an assistant in my school. My school has kids that come from low income households that need love and attention. So that is my main goal in my school, to love on my kids and to help them succeed. I believe that this is the heart that God has given me. A heart to love on others, especially kids. I care deeply for them, and sometimes become Mamma Bear for their sake.
I grew up going to church and learning about God. One of my Sunday school teachers had a major impact in my life, Ms. Tyra. She showed me what a true disciple of Christ looked like by the way she lived her life and the way she loved us. She always told us of God’s Big Love. I loved being around her, you could feel that love pouring out of her. During my Middles School years we left our church and eventually found a new one. That was hard on me, I loved the people there. It was hard transitioning to a new one, the people were kind, but it was not the same.
God started to show me some of His truths here and I loved seeing them. My home was rough during the time of my life and I grew hard towards God and grew cynical towards my church. I saw everything as superficial, the worship and relationships. Looking back, I see this as a state of my own heart at the time. During my Senior year, I finally got the courage to go speak to my youth pastor and share what was going on with my family. He responded as if it was not a big deal and did not pursue further on how I was doing. My heart grew numb and I felt that God did not care, nor others in my life. So I closed up. I was ready to graduate and go to college and leave this life behind.
That is how I entered college, ready to live a life different from the one I knew and one without God. He, however, had different plans. He chased after me through friendships new and old. He allowed me to experience life without Him and how it was not fulfilling. I got to a low point and said, “Okay God I can’t do this anymore”. I shared with my friend and she invited me to a college night at her church. The first song that played that night was How He Loves Us. I broke down and cried when I heard the line, “Heaven meets Earth with a sloppy wet kiss”. I felt for the first time, the depth of His love for me and the passion behind it. I witnessed it, and experienced it from the time I left home trying to forget Him by how He pursued me and still continues to this day to pursue me with that same faithful, unending love.
After college, I got married to a wonderful guy. As we got married we were on a path of discovering God and looking at other ways that could be seen as truth. So our values were changing and our view of God. I had this internal struggle, what is truth? Am I walking away from it or towards it? This struggle entered our marriage through arguments, at the time I did not understand the root of the conflict. I also brought a lot of baggage into our marriage that I did not realize, nor was ready to face it so I denied it being there. In 2015, we fought a lot and I got to this point with God where I said, “God I do not know who you are anymore, if you are a He, She, or whatever you are, I am just done with it all.” After this “prayer” things got worse with me and my husband. He decided that He did not want to be married anymore and left our marriage. The day he told me this, I felt like the scales that covered my eyes fell off and I could see the hurt my actions had done to my husband, to God’s son and my heart just broke. God led me back to Him through this time, to the truth of who He is in my life and who He is overall. I recently received a word from the Lord that said “I allowed you to go through this SO THAT YOU MAY BELIEVE”. I wept at those words. It was such a hard thing to go through, but I would go through it again so that I would know my Abba Father, My Shepherd, My Provider, My Comforter, and My Eternal Husband. I still care for that wonderful guy, I still pray for him and care for him with a heart that was given by God and God alone, but he has moved on in his life. And God has been working on me like crazy these past few years, to bring me to a place of full surrender and to a deep longing to live a life that is honoring and led by the Holy Spirit.
So that brings me to my journey to the World Race. He has given me a heart to love on others, no matter if I am here in North Carolina or across the world. My hearts desire is to know Him more and to live a surrendered life to Christ. To live in a community of believers that share that same desire. This has been a prayer of mine for years, (even though I have ran like crazy through them!). This past summer I went to go see a friend of mine on the mission field in Nepal. I loved seeing her team living a surrendered life to Christ and being led by the Holy Spirit. I came home hungry to see more of the Holy Spirit alive in my life and the people around me. I have also had a heart to go somewhere to serve, but never knew where or how to start. So I believe God just started putting it in front of my face on Facebook. The World Race link just started to appear on my page and did not leave it, even if I refreshed it, so I was like “Okay God, are you trying to tell me something?” so I clicked on it. Since then doors keep opening, affirming this path. So right now, I am walking in faithful obedience on the path set before me. I do not know where it leads, other than to the World Race, but I know He is asking me to lay down my life and to take up His!
