I was in a dark place at one point in my life. I hated everything about myself and about life. I had loved God at one point with all of me. My young innocence had given me a rose-colored view of the world, but then I grew up and life changed.
I lost my trust in God and my love for Him. Within losing my love for God, I also lost my love for life. I lost the ability to see goodness and I lost my joy. So destroyed was I that many times I tried for death rather than life. Still, something within me kept me from following through with that decision.
I now know that the something was Christ and his spirit within me. Although at that time I had renounced Christ, there had been a child who gladly accepted Christ into her heart before this broken version of me tried to fight God’s work in my life. I believe that even though I wanted nothing to do with God, His spirit was still within me fighting off the darkness.
After three years of depression, I finally gave my life back to God and when I did, I had a fresh appreciation for life. Before I could only see the negatives, and now I can see the goodness of life. That I accredit to Christ.
I was born in Kentucky, but my dad was in the military, so we moved a lot before we came back to Kentucky. I have lived in Hawaii, Alabama and California. Along with moving so often, my parents made it a priority to travel and have family road trips. I have three younger brothers, so those times were always big adventures for us all.
Traveling has always been a special thing for me, and I can’t imagine my life without it. My desire for life is to travel abroad and see the rest of what the world has to offer.
So, I decided to study Christian Missions and combine my love for travel with sharing the gospel and joy, which I had experienced a time without. This dream I had seemed unreasonable or insufficient. However, my big dream was made bigger here.
I’ve already been on three mission trips outside the US.
My first mission trip was to Brazil. Before going I hadn’t felt good enough, but it was on this trip that I was able to witness God’s forgiveness, love and how He answers our prayers.
My second mission trip was to Peru. I met so many people there and worked in multiple cities and churches. This was also the first time I’ve ever performed a play in the center of downtown or shared the gospel with complete strangers before. I grew boldness in Peru.
My last mission trip was to the Dominican Republic. My role for this trip was to tell the story of what happened. So, I was able to interview people and watch closely everything that was happening. There, I saw the importance of sharing stories.
I’ve already seen my world broaden, just while being here, and I have hope that the rest of my life will continue like this.
My solo dream of traveling has grown into something so much bigger. I started studying Spanish a year ago and am now studying Journalism as well.
I have always loved writing, but I’d never thought to use it seriously in my life. By some crazy chance I realized that my love for writing could also be used in traveling and especially in Christian Missions. This is what I mean when I say my big dream was made bigger. My only plan was to travel. I didn’t know how that was going to happen or what that would look like. Now, there is a bigger plan and a bigger purpose. My plan was small, but God made it bigger.
A lot of times we cut ourselves short and don’t believe in our dreams or our lives. We can’t see the brilliance of life and what it has to offer. Life is a precious gift from God, and every day can be special. Every day might not be special and it most likely won’t be good, but those are the days when we need to look back and see all our blessings.
Our past successes and our dreams coming to reality. The people in our lives- our friends and family. Seeing other people’s dreams come true – graduation, marriage and starting a family are some of the dreams I’ve seen come to fruition.
It’s a brilliant life and our stories are important and deserve to be told, remembered and celebrated.
