When I was a child, my parents prayed with us at the dinner table and before going to bed. They were not believers, but it was something that their parents had done with them, so they decided to carry on the tradition. Without them realizing it, they had opened up my siblings’ and me’s spiritual eyes. We also went to church for Christmas Eve and Easter services. When invited by a classmate, they allowed us to attend youth group at a church.
It was at a Christmas Eve service though, that I heard the Gospel. I heard that it was the story of God, who wanted all of us to be his. On December 24, 1995 I accepted Jesus as my Savior. The pastor encouraged those of us who had prayed with him to tell someone we had done so. As my parents wished us kids goodnight, I called them back in to tell them what I had done.
The final step was finding a system of learning and discovery. I found this at my church in the youth group. It was my time in the youth group that I learned about God’s character and how my life was being transformed by the grace and power of Jesus Christ. After I graduated high school, I joined the college group at the church. The summer after my freshman year of college I endured the most difficult trial which has continued to challenge my faith to this day. My father, at the age of 53, passed away. God left my mom 42, my sister and I 19, and brothers 15, and 13 a widow and fatherless. His death changed my family and my faith forever. I had to decide that God was still good, that he loved me, my dad, and my family, and that his will was perfect, whether I understood it or thought it was fair.
The next year, I spent two months in India living with a missionary family. God drew me immensely closer to himself and I discovered attributes of God that I had not known before. Upon my return back to United States of America, I continued to serve at my church in the college group and drama ministry. I work at an international missions organization that sends teams of church planters to the unreached people groups of the world. I felt like there was so much more that I wanted to know about God, my relationship with him, and his love for the world. It was then that I registered with the Achieve program at Asbury to finish my bachelor’s degree in leadership and ministry. Though I know that God calls and uses each of us differently, this is how God has formed me spiritually.
How about you? How is God forming you?
