My Story

As for my story, I grew up in a Christian home. I went to Sunday school and church every Sunday and we said prayers together as a family. When I was quite young, I got baptized, but at the time, I really didn’t understand what it meant to have a true relationship with Christ. It wasn’t until several years later that I could say I really began a relationship with God.

One summer when I was in Middle school, I decided to go with my church’s youth group to a Christian summer camp for a week in Asheville, North Carolina. It was my first time going to any kind of Christian camp like this besides Vacation bible school. I remember it was early on in the week at camp when I felt God really moving on my heart. I remember sitting in the main room that we were using throughout the week. The pastor had just finished speaking, and some music was playing while people were taking time to pray and think. It hit me. All the lessons, stories, and teachings that I had heard and knew finally lined up. I had known for some time at that point, that Jesus had died for my sins and that God wanted a daily relationship with me, but I wanted a fresh start. I wanted to rededicate my life to Christ. So that’s what I did. I left the main room in tears, overwhelmed by my experience to go talk with my pastor where we talked and prayed together for a while. I was finally ready to take ownership of my relationship with God.

The rest of middle school and high school, I was fairly diligent about going to church and reading my Bible regularly. But God wanted more. God wanted all of me.

When I went off to college, I had to start making my own decisions. I had to choose to pursue Christ on my own. Thankfully, when I got to Virginia Tech, I knew where I wanted to go to church. Having visited my siblings in college in years past, I knew that New Life Christian Fellowship (NLCF) was where I wanted to go. It was a place where I could truly relate to the teachings and be in community with fellow college students that were my age and were going through the same “new” things as I was. College had enough challenges of its own, so having other people going pursuing Christ that were going through those same things was invaluable. As I began to get involved, I met two friends that I still have today, Alex and Candice.

I remember it was my freshman year in the fall semester, right when school was getting started. And NLCF, the church I was beginning to get involved in, had a night explaining about the Bible study groups they were having, introducing each group, the leaders in each one, and what each group was going to be studying that semester. I listened in, and chose one that I thought might be interesting because of the subject they were studying that semester. After a time of learning about all the groups, we all went over to Squires student center where we could spend some time getting to know everyone. Now let me set the scene here: Here I am, a freshman, going to play pool and bowl with a ton of people that I didn’t really know at all. I didn’t even meet that many other freshmen there that night. When I was walking near one of the pool tables, I met Alex and Candice. For some crazy reason, they both seemed really excited and genuinely glad I was there. They also happened to be a part of the group that I had been interested in earlier. They talked with me for the rest of the night, and even though I walked into the night not knowing anyone, afterwards, I felt I had at least two people I could call friends.

Not too long after that night, I got involved in their homegroup, attending the Bible study every Wednesday night. The rest is kind of history. Down the road, I got involved in leadership, and found a true home with NLCF. As I got more involved in leadership, God gave me a heart for college students and helping them walk through the difficulties that college life can bring. I decided that going into full time ministry with college students was where God wanted me to be. And that brings me to where I am today with you.

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