Created for a Mission

Jesus was not always a part of my life. Growing up as a young child in Jamaica, West Indies, I don’t recall every going to church. Once I migrated to the US in 1981, the only time I went to church was when my stepmother wanted us out of the house on Sundays and she would send us to the local Catholic Church. My stepmother’s family was Catholic, but I was not, so I never took communion. I always wondered why I could not take communion. Over the course of the next few years I grew close to my stepmother’s family. In 1985, my stepmother’s mother (my grandmother) passed away. This was the first time in my life that I faced death and I took it pretty hard. As this point I faced my own mortality. In 1985, I was invited with my brother and sister to attend Highland Baptist Church. After attending for awhile, one Sunday I made the decision to accept Christ as my Savior. I was baptized at the church and began to attend on a regular basis. Within a few years I was accepted into college and moved to Maryland. I did not attend church while in college and as a result I backslided and started to live a worldly lifestyle. It was not until I graduated and became relatively successful that God allowed me to feel the emptiness of a life without Him.

In 2001 I began to feel like I needed something more in life. I was on the verge of seeking counseling, but God used one of my coworkers to lead me back into relationship with Him. She began to talk to me about God. I started attending church again that year and rededicated my life to Christ in August 2001 when Jackie McCullough preached a powerful message at First Baptist Church of Glenarden. On September 11, 2001, again faced with my own mortality on a enormous scale, I truly decided to living my life for Christ. Since giving my life over to Christ, God has moved in many awesome ways in my life. His Word has renewed my mind and changed my views on many issues. He has taught me how to trust Him and to rely on Him. I am grateful that He is merciful and gracious.

In 2003, I attended the Institute for Basic Life Principles where I learned the seven principles of Design, Authority, Responsibility, Suffering, Ownership, Freedom, and Success. These Biblical principles changed the way I view myself, others, my relationship with others, my thinking about things and my definition of success. God used that experience to deposit in me truths to live by. That same year God called me to missions and has been preparing me ever since. In 2007 God began opening doors for me to move into a new season. Praise God!