Birthday: September 3o
Hometown: California
Prayer Requests: Pray that I will continue to grow in God and not be to prideful to accept correction. Pray also that my Family will be safe as they live in Papua New Guinea and My older siblings will be protected and taken care of here in the US.
Pray lastly for the financial support will come in for everything: summer teams, for daily needs, and for my eventual internship.
Personal Testimony: I have been a Christian since I was very young. I cannot name a day or year even that I became a Christian. However the process for me started around when I was 4, so I do not remember what I was like before I was a Christian. I guess I must have realized my need for a savior. I must have realized that I had a savior that loved me, that cared about me, and that knew the best for me and my life, because that is what still amazes me today. I asked Jesus into my heart at meal time one day. I do not consider this time to be when I became a Christian, because I only vaguely knew what I was doing and I don’t even if it changed how I acted. I could be wrong but it is not too important because many years later I realized a little more what being a Christian is all about and I asked Jesus into my heart again, I was in 6th grade by this time. I do not remember how this happened, it was probably during one of the group prayers about Jesus and I didn’t tell anyone about it because they all believed me to be a Christian, so since I was in my mind a real Christian now, I didn’t have to tell them.
About a year after my conversion my family (excluding my oldest sister) moved to Papua New Guinea (PNG) for three years. I learned a lot while we were in PNG on a missionary base. I learned little by little what serving God looked like, what loving God looked like, and what a devoted Christian looked like. When we came back to America in 2003, I simply told myself that I was not going to fall away, no matter what, and I didn’t. My family and I stayed a year in America. During the year in America I served at my church, and I tried in my own shy way to share the gospel with others. After a year in the US we went back to PNG for 3 more years. When I returned to PNG I got back into the normal routine. There were many good things that I did: teaching gymnastics to little children, helping out in VBS when possible, and going out to a hospital to help clean up the place. It wasn’t enough for me.
I decided to go on a Teen Missions Team. My best friend and a friend I greatly respect went on a Teen Mission team with the boot camp in Australia, which gave me the idea. I was not sure at first whether I should go or not, but after much prayer I dived in trusting God with everything. When the time came for the last of the money to come in it was dead on, even with the exchange rate from Kina (the currency in PNG) to Australian dollars. There are many other faith building amazing events that happened on the Teen Mission trip to Vanuatu that brought me closer trusting God with everything, especially when I have no control over a situation.
During the second stay in PNG God began laying it on my heart to be baptized. I didn’t understand why. Why did I need to be baptized? Didn’t everyone know I was a Christian. The pestering of a loving God continued regardless of my confusion or pride. I continued to fight for about a year or more though. One day I realized that I needed to submit to my father in heaven, so before we left for the US, again, I was baptized.
I returned to the US grudgingly. Went to college and in December picked up a Teen Missions catalog from a table at the church I was attending and I decided to go on a team to Malawi, Africa. This time I was much more scared of earning the money. But God does provide and I was able to go on the trip. This trip led to another trip this one much longer. A trip to Florida to start school, which is where I am now.
Since my baptism, return to California, and move to Florida I have been involved in church a lot. I have and continue to be a good Christian striving to be a radical Christian, scared to step out of my comfort zone. Like Paul I still sometimes “…do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Romans 7:15).
