Life Story

For the first 10 years of my life, I did not know God. I grew up learning about Him, but I did not understand the purpose for my existence. I often found myself feeling empty and lonely. I attempted to find my satisfaction and worth in elements of life that were never designed to fulfill me. My childhood was marked by overwhelming fear and anxiety. Life was always on edge because I doubted everything.

My transition from homeschool into public school escalated this conflict within me because, for the first time, I became fully exposed to the realities of this broken world. The culmination of this brokenness led me to despair. I soon found myself imagining a life of what I considered “peace” for myself. If everything could disappear in this life, then I would be happy. This ideology was a pleasant way of depicting my personal desire to ultimately terminate my life. I wanted to escape reality and have nothing to do with being alive because it seemed that life was nothing but a perpetual state of brokenness and death. If this world was all that I had to live for, then I wanted no part of existing in it anymore.

It was during a moment when I felt I had reached a pinnacle in this pain that God acted and saved me. While I was entirely incapable of ever finding God, He expressed His love for me first in coming to me. I had no way of finding Him. He made known to me the mystery of the gospel. I can have true peace today because Jesus lives to intercede for me. Jesus made peace by absorbing the wrath of the Father so that I could experience true life. Jesus restores all that is lost and broken and makes it all entirely new. The Spirit now empowers me to live in my new identity as a restored child of God.

Hope for The Village Church

My hope is that we would be a family that longs to make much of Jesus. I pray that we would reflect the beautiful character of our God as we seek to embrace radical lifestyles that exhibit His mercy and grace. With humility and boldness, I pray that we would welcome the gospel to shape every aspect of our existence so that we would live in the wonder of our Creator’s good and restorative design.