Here’s the basics. If you wanna know more about me in detail, scroll down the page.
THE BASIC 4-1-1 ABOUT ME!
Name: Monica
Age: 30
Birthday: October 21, 1984
Gave My Life to Christ: May 25, 1997
Re-dedicated My Life to Christ: May 1, 2011
Hometown: Cincinnati, OH
Current City: Jacksonville, FL
Occupation: Middle School Teacher
Relationship Status: Single, Never Married
Kids: One fur baby named Scout. He’s a 5 year-old Lab Mix
Favorite Bible verse(s): Matthew 10:39, Psalm 107:2, Philippians 4:13, 1 John 3:17, 1 Timothy 1:15 and many, many more! Just ask me if you wanna know the others
Favorite Colors: purple, coral, black and turquoise
HERE’S A MORE IN DEPTH DESCRIPTION OF ME!
Well, well, well…. where to begin?!
I’m going to try and make this concise so you don’t have to read a 3 page long story, but I can’t make any promises. 🙂
I’m just an ordinary girl who believes that ordinary people like myself can do amazing, extraordinary things! I definitely have a gypsy spirit which was awakened on my first trip abroad when I was 17. I spent two weeks in Spain and, for the first time in my life, I felt smart, independent, beautiful, and responsible. It’s amazing how seeing the world can be such a freeing experience.
But the MOST freeing experiences in my life have been ones where I’ve worshiped, experienced, and come face-to-face with The Almighty. I spent every summer from age 12 to 21 at Procter Summer Camp which is an Episcopal camp out in the middle-of-nowhere Ohio. That place is the place where I first talked to God and heard him talk back! The first place I worshiped without restraint and without shame. The first place I was able to see God in everyone and everything around me. The first place where I learned what it means to let my light shine in this dark, dark world. Those summers helped to mold my development as a believer in huge ways. And my life has been significantly marked by the goodness God showed me not just in those summers but in all the years of my life.
But I ain’t no angel, honey.
I’m a PK (preacher’s kid). Yeah, yeah yeah… I know what you’re thinking: “Preacher’s kids are the worst ones! They’re BAD!” And you know what? To a certain extent, at least for me, that was true. But overall I was an average kid/teenager and did the normal stupid things kids/teens do. But I grew up in a “Christian household” and so even though we weren’t (and aren’t) perfect, I grew up in a house that was often full of laughter, love, quality time together and open talk about God. I was baptized as a baby but at the age of 12 I was confirmed (which is basically the Episcopal way of saying I made the autonomous decision to declare my faith in Christ in front my my church and community…. in Protestant terms it’d be called when I “gave my life to the Lord”). And the summer after I gave my life to Christ, I went to Procter Camp for the 1st time which was the start of what turned out to be such a powerful experience in my life.
But all those summers at Procter, all the cultural and educational experiences and world travel… they didn’t prepare me for the trials and temptations of this life. So when I left the shelter of the little world known as “home” and went to college, I lost my mind. I saw and heard and experienced things I’d never seen or heard of before. And when temptation crept up at my door, I gladly let it in. Binge drinking? Yep. Smoking? Uh-huh. Pre-marital sex and other sexual sin? Sure did. Unhealthy friendships with some pretty bad people? Absolutely. The Enemy had me figured out and knew exactly how to trip me up and make me think that I was living a great life. And that went on all throughout college and even into graduate school.
Thankfully, throughout those crazy, debauchery-filled years of my life, I never lost faith… I still believed in and knew God existed. I still knew Jesus had died for the sins I was committing on an daily basis. But I had no desire to give up my fun, sinful life and follow Him. I was totally living a double life. And then one night, when I returned home from working an 8pm to 4am shift at the bar where I worked, God got ahold of me. I mean, He really got me. He sat me down, right there in the middle of my tiny, 1-bedroom apartment and showed me all my sin. Showed me all my selfishness and anger and bitterness and unrighteousness and down-right filthy behavior. My Shepherd left the other 99 sheep who had stayed in the flock and He came into the deep, dark wilderness where I’d gotten lost; He pick me up, put me on His shoulders and carried me back to the flock. And there, on the floor, crying my eyes out and crying out to Him, I repented. I turned back. I promised Him that I’d stop being double-minded and that I’d run to Him and keep my eyes on Him.
I wish I could say that the story ends there, but it doesn’t. I’m a human. I’m stubborn. I’m hard-headed. And while I really DID want to turn away from my sinful life, it didn’t happen overnight and it definitely didn’t happen easily. For the next year, I back-slid over and over again, continually falling back into old habits, old routines, old relationships… I was holding on, white-knuckled, to the life that had become normal to me. And I was afraid of my new normal. But God, in his long-suffering love, never left me. And after putting me in a great church in Northern KY where I had real, authentic community with other brothers and sisters, I was able to truly make that shift and become the new creation He wanted me to be. And on May 1, 2011 as I was serving at my church’s annual spontaneous baptism service, I made the decision to be baptized right then and there. And that’s what I did. And I’ve never looked back since.
And since then, I’ve grown spiritually and emotionally and am truly a new creation. I can proudly say, without any hesitation that I’M NOT WHO I WAS. And the fact that I’m doing World Race is a huge testament to the change that was made in me and how I’m whole-heartedly running after God and the purpose He’s put on my life.
“The saying is true, and worthy of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom, I am the foremost.”
1 Timothy 1:15
“Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, those whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary…”
Psalm 107:2
:: Selah ::
