Hey All! So, here’s the little ditty about me, Rachel Lynn Martin. I was born on December 7th, 1987 at 4:15 AM. I have 1 sister, Missy (26), who lives in Virginia Beach, VA, 1 stepbrother, Josh (20) and 1 stepsister, Ellyn (16), who both live in the Madison, WI area. I am from a small town west of Madison, WI called Mt. Horeb. Quick piece of information…Mt. Horeb is the Troll Capital of the World. Random, I know…we have carved trolls everywhere in town. Typical Norweigan town! 🙂
Ellyn, Josh, Me, Missy
My sister and I grew up in the typical American lifestyle going to church on Sundays and knowing all the kid bible stories. This was normal or so it seemed to me growing up. To me, family was my support system and nothing was going to ruin that, until my parents sat my sister and I down and told us they were getting divorced. I remember that day so well, because it was the day that my “perfect Christian” family was not so perfect anymore. Let me just say, now that I look back on it, we were far from perfect. None of us knew Jesus at this time. I was 14 and was in 8th grade. So, I guess you could say it didn’t look like the divorce had affected me on the outside, but it definitely shaped who I was to become in the next couple years. Freshman year of high school (2002), I started to hang out with some friends who were 3 years older than me and I started to go to youth group with them. I loved it and had never really felt like people cared about me the way they did at this group. So, I ended up going to a gospel message not knowing it with these girls and their youth group and accepted Christ. Looking back on this is really funny, because the group that presented the message was called “The Power Team.” It’s a bunch of men ripping and breaking things for God. At first, I thought it was a joke, but then the question was posed on whether I thought I would be going to heaven or hell and wasn’t sure. You could tell that my attitude had shifted and God was speaking new things into my life. I honestly believe that God told me at this moment I absolutely needed to spread this message around the world as my occupation-so I think I got my calling the day I accepted Christ into my life.
So, few months later, I started to re-live in lies that the enemy spoke over me through my parents’ relationship and started to develop the need to be a people pleaser. At this time, I also started to develop anxiety and thought of suicide, however knew I never would kill myself. I also started to do all these “great” things, which in reality are good things. My heart just wasn’t in the right place. Everyone thought I was a great Bible-believing girl who didn’t do any bad things, yet in turn I was an arrogant jerk to my parents. I started to live a double life, happy and social at school, mean and attacking at home. This was high school for the most part. The summer of 2005, I decided to work at a Bible Camp in Iowa, which I actually attended with my family during my childhood. (I worked here until summer 2009). Yet again, I found myself in a community of believers, even those who were just a few years older than me. These people started to become my role models. Everything they did, I wanted to do. Because of camp and the relationships formed, I decided to go to Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD for college.
I guess you could say, college was college. It wasn’t the best time of my life, it was simply school and had to do it in order to pursue my intended career of Speech Therapy. I made great relationships and found community freshman year, but it wasn’t until sophomore that things started to change in my life. I got plugged into a church, which I still call “my church” in Sioux Falls. I saw the church alive and people jumping and dancing during church services. I had only been there a couple times and people already knew my name. It was great! Sophomore also was when God started to break me for missions, specifically anything that uses Spanish. This year I also went to Bournemouth, England to do ministry. We helped out leading services at a sister church and spent time with the church body as they were spiritually struggling. This was the year I truly experienced what it meant to live in Christ and the Spirit. It was great! I knew there was more than what I had been living and wanted to tap into that.
So, I started to look at summer missions trip for about 2-3 months and found AIM. There was a trip to the Amazon Jungle and immediately I applied. Why not, I guess? I knew I wasn’t going to be going onto graduate school the following year and started to look at some options. I was accepted and started to see God do crazy things. The first day/night as a team we went to the streets in downtown Atlanta and did some ATL. God broke my heart for the homeless. If there is one thing besides Spanish that God has brought my attention to it is the homeless and it happened this night. Throughout the trip, I struggled with hearing lies from the enemy. God freed me from the lies that I had been believing for at least 9 years! That’s absolutely ridiculous! In that place of deception and despair, God placed truth, life and joy! I know joy is something you can choose to live in and that is my decision from then on out. It was also the first time I saw physical healing happen!
I guess this is just a little bit (or lot…) about me. I’m so excited to see what God is going to do throughout the world! I know that healing is going to break out and God is just awesome! So, I can’t wait to meet all of you and spend 11 months with my brothers and sisters from all over the world!
