My journey has been quite an adventure, especially these last few years.
I grew up in church. Both my parents worked in the church. I worked in the church from ages 10 to 21 in the sports department. I was at church everyday it seemed like.
I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought that if I just went through the motions everything would be alright. Just everything you would expect someone to do in church. Go to church. Get baptized. Say the right thing. Do the right thing. I thought everyone was on the same page. I didn’t understand there was more to it than just works.
When I was about 16 I quit going to church. I was considered the hard to deal with kid because I didn’t just agree with what people were saying or doing and spoke my mind about it. People would act a certain way in church and not even 5 minutes after church they would be a completely different person and I didn’t want to be apart of this fakeness. This is when things started to go down hill.
I only went to church after that to work. I stayed as far away from services and retreats as I could. I only went when my parents made me.
At this point the only thing I cared about was basketball. I was in the gym every chance I got. I played in high school and 2 years in college before I failed a class and made me ineligible. After that I went into depression. My identity was gone. I didn’t know who I was without basketball.
I was 20 when I started drinking and partying all this time. I would drink until I couldn’t remember anything. My parents noticed this and told me that some rules were gonna change and if I didn’t like it I could leave. So I left.
I moved in with some friends and soon after got involved in drugs. I was just spiraling out of control. I had so much hate and anger inside me I didn’t want to listen to anyone. I had it all figured out. I was in control. This went on for a few years.
It was February 20, 2015 when my whole life changed.
I was getting ready to go to a basketball game in Atlanta with a friend when all the sudden I could taste blood in my throat. I spit and didn’t see anything so I just thought I would drink so water and be ok.
We get in the car and he’s driving when I start to feel this pain in my chest. As soon as we get on the highway it turns into the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life. I’ thinking that I’ll just close my eyes and relax and everything will be ok. My friend, who is a paramedic, asks me if I’m ok because it looks like I need to go to the hospital. I tell him I’m alright.
At that moment I just hear in the back of my mind, “Just ask me for help”. I’m thinking “No I got this”. The pain just keeps getting worse and worse. It fells like something is crawling out of my chest. My buddy calls 911 because he said he’s seen people look like I did and not make it.
Then all the sudden the pain is so unbearable I start screaming Jesus. I screamed Jesus 7 times and the last time I screamed it I was touched where the pain in my chest was. I felt the pain shake out of my arm and leg and I spit. All the pain was gone!
I couldn’t open my eyes. They were sealed shut. All I could see was the brightest white light I had ever seen. And Jesus just stood there with His arms open! Didn’t say anything. It was like He was saying I’ve been here the whole time.
This was the day that I started to believe that Jesus was real!
I didn’t want to do anything else but sit at home and read the bible after that. I read the whole thing. I would fall asleep on my desk reading it. It was awesome!
So I finish school and graduate in December 2016 and have a job out in Washington state but I don’t start working there until March 2017. I am looking for places to live and nothing is working out because I have 2 pitbulls and people don’t want to have those types of dogs in their house. So I just pray ok God if this is what you want me to do then you need to show me a place to live. Not even a day later I get a call from James.
He’s ok with the dogs and tells me I can move in. I pack up everything in my truck and head out. I’m in the south west corner of Wyoming when I just hear the whisper, “You’re about to meet a brother”. I’m just thinking well thats cool. I get out to Washington and me and him just hit it off right away. We would go to church together every Saturday to his church and I chose a church to go to on Sundays.
I had been having back pains constantly for years and one day it was so bad I just lay down on the floor and James comes over and prays for me. As he is praying I felt something move. He walks away and I say “Nope come back I need some more”. He touches my back and starts praying in tongues and I bounce off the ground. I lost control of my body and start to fight him. He just holds me down and keeps praying for me when all the sudden I felt this release off my body. All my pain was gone. I had a demon attached to me for I don’t know how long.
I just laid there on the floor. Just wondering what just happened. I had this weight lifted off me. It was at that moment when I realized how real the spiritual world is.
Soon after that it was Memorial weekend 2017. My family back home in Georgia had been going through a bunch bad stuff and it was weighing heavy on me. Then me and James were listening to a book on the Holy Spirt when God spoke to me.
Holy Spirit: “Give all your stuff away”
Me: “What?!?”
Holy Spirit: “Yes give it all away”
Me: “Ok”
Holy Spirit: “Do it now. Give it to James.”
Me: “Umm James. Im suppose to give you all my stuff.”
James: “What?!?”
Me: “Yea. I was just told to do it.”
James: “Man I’ve been praying for everything your giving me for the last 2 years.”
Me: “Well, here you go.”
James: “You know I really feel like the Lord is telling me you need to go home and help your family.”
Me: “Man I’ve been feeling the same thing”
So two weeks later, after only being there for 3 months, I take the clothes on my back and my dogs and head back home where I’m met with open arms.
We had to drive down to Oakland, CA to rent a car and met up with some friends for lunch in Sacramento before I started my journey back home. Now I have never spoke in tongues before but from Sacramento to Denver I was speaking in tongues the whole way! It was so amazing in powerful. Just me and my dogs and I was crying most of the way. I’m sure people driving by thought I was crazy!
I make it back home and immediately start helping out where I can. I know I need to start doing something for work but I need something thats flexible so I can help out when I need to. That’s when Holy Yoga finds me. I sign up and it as helped me in so many ways that are so much more than yoga.
I had so much hate and anger still built up inside me. It wasn’t until I went to the immersion retreat that those walls started to come down. I met so many great people to help me through a lot of it.
I went to the Getaway retreat for Holy Yoga in March 2018 when I had so much more happen to me. My vision that I was given that led me to the World Race. I was asked to go to India and Spain on mission trips that weekend as well. It was a busy weekend for me!
Since then I’ve been to India, Sri Lanka, Qatar, and Spain in just 3 months on mission trips. I feel called to do mission work and I’m so excited for what God has planned for me on this World Race!
