“After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, the one who called you into his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will himself restore, empower, strengthen, and establish you.” ~1 Peter 5:10.
“I pray that the eyes of your heart will have enough light to see what is the hope of God’s call, what is the richness of God’s glorious inheritance among believers, and what is the overwhelming greatness of God’s power that is working among us believers. This power is conferred by the energy of God’s powerful strength.” ~Ephesians 1:18-19.
The first day my mom and I walked through the doors of New Life, it felt like we were walking into our home. It was like an endless maze of smiling faces, so many handshakes and hugs to make us really feel like we belonged. For the first time in a long time, I could make out a tiny sliver of light at the end of a long tunnel and it gave me hope that it would get better now, I could find the joy I had lost. When the message was over, the youth pastor, Ryan, came up to my mom and I and started chatting with us about the youth group. It sounded like it would be a cool place to go to, but I was scared; going through all the drama of people pretending to be my friends, I didn’t want to experience it again, so I decided not to go. A few weeks later, I then decided that it wouldn’t hurt to at least try it out; when I went up into the loft for the first time, all the leaders and a few students greeted me the second I walked through the door. I found out that a couple of my friends from school went there, and was quickly introduced to everyone my friends knew too.
Over the next couple months, I got to know the other students of Life Impact pretty well, learning how to trust people again, one step at a time. We did a lot of community service projects ranging from cleaning up trash on the side of the road, to serving at banquets/dinners we threw for Mother’s Day and other special events. We also went to Skycroft for an event called Re-Charge, where we played team-building games, swam, hiked, and had a fantastic time bonding closer together. I wasn’t fully satisfied though, I felt like there was still something missing. One week, Pastor Ryan announced a weeklong event in Cedarville, OH. That’s when he also announced that he and his family were planning on living in Bolivia for a little while, and that the event in Ohio would also be a good time for us to get to know our new youth pastor and his wife, Billy and Kat.
I wasn’t sure if I would be able to go at first because of the cost, but I knew that somehow I’d be able to go if I was indeed meant to go. The funds came in rather quickly and off to Ohio I went, ready to have my life changed forever even if I didn’t know it at the time. When we got there, we were greeted the minute we stepped out of the bus by swarms upon swarms of counselors and other youth groups who had already arrived, as all the groups were ushered into the main building to settle in before the event began. It was all based off a of a little friendly competition, team building exercises to get points, scavenger hunts, community service projects, working on the campus; it was just a huge chaotic, yet organized mess that was so much fun. We got to go into the auditorium three times a day to hear a sermon and to sing praise and worship music. I may not have been a Christian (yet), but the band, Unhindered, were very talented and had some great music.
I remember one of the days we returned from our service project painting a nursing home; we got off the bus only to see a huge rainstorm in the distance. We could see the rain falling, and a few of us decided to run towards it. Oddly enough, it was a lot closer than we thought, so as we were running towards it, we felt the misting and then bam, it was like an instant downpour. It was so fun, making a mad dash for the building, in fact, it was so much fun that I couldn’t even get mad over how wonderful the rain felt and how truly happy I felt to be there with people I care about. However, my absolute favorite part was the last night of being at Cedarville on mission. I was having an odd day, almost like I felt I was vibrating with anxiety but it wasn’t in a bad way, more so an exhilarating feeling and it just seemed to progress as the day went by; until, we came into the auditorium for our second to last worship session. The message was about how to handle hurts, why we are given trials and what they are meant to do for us. I listened intently to the entire message; even if a pen dropped nothing could’ve broken my focus. Unhindered went into one of their songs, and it was titled “Song of Moses”.
I felt this warm, almost fuzzy feeling that I couldn’t describe; maybe like a wave of comfort, of calming peace settle over me, and I remember only being able to fall on my knees. For the first time, I really prayed; not because it was a bedtime prayer and my mom was telling me to do so, or it was the blessing over food kind of prayer, but a REAL prayer to God, someone I was beginning to think didn’t really care about me/wasn’t really there. Then, all I felt was a massive weight lift off of me, making me feel as light as a feather, and then a flood of tears poured out of me. All my baggage, my pain, betrayals, insecurities, all of it flowed out and away from me, like they were being extinguished. I remember feeling two hands on my shoulders guiding me up from my knees and down to the bottom of the stage, dropping onto their knees with me and hearing them to start praying with me, for me. There, in the midst of quite a few other students, beside my youth pastor, I accepted Jesus Christ into my life as my Savior. From that moment, everything changed. A couple months after that mission in Ohio, May 22nd 2013 to be exact, I got baptized at the Memorial Day lawn service at New Life, and my life changed for the better. Instead of feeling worthless, I felt priceless; instead of feeling broken, I felt mended; instead of sadness and depression, I felt joyful and emboldened, and I knew that my new life had begun!
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” ~2 Corinthians 5:17.
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now, it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” ~Isaiah 43:18-19.
