Testimony

A friend once asked me how I got involved in missions since my parents are not missionaries. I thought about it for a minute and couldn't recall when I became interested. I was raised in a Baptist Church and attended GA's (Girls in Action) which is a missions based program. In addition to the church I was also raised in a Christian private school. We learned about George Mueller, Cory Tin Boon, Amy Carmichael etc.... I had plenty of opportunities to go on mission trips while in high school, but at the time I wasn't ready. After my sophomore year in high school I decided I wanted to leave the private school and attend a public school. This was a culture shock to me. Having no close friends at the school, I fell in with the wrong crowd. My life began to spin out of control. I dated guys I knew I didn't need to be with, in fact my mom warned me not to go out with them, but I didn't listen. The result was me suffering consequences of being in the relationship instead of following my mom's direction. I suffered a lot of heartache and pain. As I look back on it now, God was always watching over me even though I was not faithfully seeking Him.

One day my cousin invited me to go to church with her and her fiance. At this point I had stopped going to church, but for some reason decided I had nothing better to do that day so why not go? I was greeted by one of the singles (Aimee) and she filled me in on their church. She and another girl (Amanda) came to visit me and I began to build a friendship with them. I liked this church and began going back to church.

Amanda invited me to a college praise and worship group (Connections). Through this group I also became involved in one of their Bible Studies. It was here that God began to work on me. He opened my eyes to how I really wanted my life to be. I began to have a daily walk with him and really worship him while singing. My prayer partner (Teyerra) gave me a card one day. In it she wrote "I believe God is calling you into missions. I will be praying for you." As I read this I rolled my eyes and said to myself "whatever!" Me? A missionary? Yeah right! God had other plans and he kept these words on my mind and heart. I went to a few close friends and told them about it. I asked them to pray for direction for me.

A few months later my Sunday school teacher, Rita, announced an upcoming singles conference and encouraged us to go. Amanda and I decided we wanted to go, but it was 2 weeks away. God had a plan and he provided the money for us to go. On the way to the conference (it was Solocon '03 in Alabama) I was looking over the literature and noticed the theme of the conference was "Missions: The Called Out Ones". I didn't think much about it. I had fun at the conference and made new friends. At the nightly services I really didn't get much out of them. However, on our last night there (Sunday) I was captivated by the speakers speech. I found myself saying "Okay God, wherever you want me to go I will" As I'm saying this I had an internal battle going on in my head. Like a good and bad. Here I was making this commitment to God yet the human part of me was saying "What are you doing? Are you crazy?"


My first mission trip was the following December in 2003. I have never really cared much about Mexico or speaking spanish. I had no desire to ever go to Mexico, yet here I was about to go on a mission trip there. God prepared me and changed my view of Mexico. I absolutely love it! I love the people and the language. I feel called to do hispanic ministry and hope to one day be serving in a Spanish country.

In an email to a friend, I wrote about my recent trip to Ecuador. In the email I spoke of the stories we heard from other missionaries and how I could relate to them. Some of them had been through similar situations I had gone through. I think sometimes we put missionaries, pastors, etc...in the mind set of "they're not like us. They're too good" when in reality they are human just like us and have made mistakes too. In Beth Moore's Bible study Breaking Free she talks about how Isaiah was not a follower of God before he was a prophet. He was living the life like other non-believers of his time. Yet he changed his ways and followed God. Isn't it amazing how God will take someone from the deepest pit in their life and use them for his glory!