The Matthew 28:19 Project

Recently, in my Sunday school class, my teacher asked the class to write down their story. This is my story. My journey begins at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Altus, Oklahoma. It was almost as if I was born in the church, because my mom was a very active member and would drag my sister and me to every service, event, and Bible study that existed. For me, being involved in the church was just a way of life.  

I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior at a very young age. I have no idea how old I was; I guess I was 6 or 7, but it was one night at preteen camp. I went down the aisle that Sunday and publicly announced that I had accepted Jesus and was baptized by Brother Bill.

Years later, when I grew older and began to understand the difference between eternity in Heaven with Jesus or an eternity in Hell with the Devil, I started to question my salvation. Was I saved? I was so young, and did I understand what I was doing? Did I accept Jesus?

I would lie in bed at night, and all these thoughts would go through my mind. Was I going to Heaven, or was I going to Hell? This mental torment went on for months. I could hear God urging me to go down the aisle and talk to the pastor. Brother Bill had retired by this time, and Brother Boyd was our pastor. Coincidentally, I have only had three pastors in my life.

Finally, on a Saturday in May, our youth group was attending the Youth Evangelism Conference, and Brother Boyd just happened to be preaching that night. I finally had enough of the mental torment, so I went down the aisle and just laid it out all for Brother Boyd. I repented of my sins and accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. The relief I felt that night was huge. It was like a weight had lifted off my shoulders.

So down the aisle I went for the second time to publicly announce that I had accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior and was baptized once again, this time by Brother Boyd.

I just realized, as I was typing out this story, that it was just the devil working on me because I did accept Jesus as my Lord when I was a kid. I did it entirely on FAITH. So anyway, I have the double assurance of where I’ll be spending eternity, so take that, you stinky Devil. Ha!

Throughout my childhood, teenage years, and young adult years, I struggled to find my place within the youth group.  I was too shy. I was too country. I attended country schools. I lived out in the country, while almost everyone else lived in the city.  While I didn’t make friends easily, I was friendly with most of the youth group members, and I had one close friend in the group.  I was active, but I wasn’t comfortable because I didn’t feel like I fit in. It was challenging to form close relationships with anyone when I only saw them at church or events.

I attended Martha Elementary School because we lived out in the country, and our house was in the Martha School system.  I played basketball and was highly active in the 4-H program. I made friends with most of my classmates, but some older classmates also bullied me because I was different from them. I was born with hearing loss, and I wore hearing aids, but kids made fun of me and would talk about me behind my back. I taught myself how to read lips because I wanted to know what they were saying about me.

The bullying eventually stopped when those kids all graduated. Martha only went up to the 8th grade, and then we had to decide where I would attend middle and high school. Most of my classmates choose to attend school at Altus. I was very active in 4-H, winning numerous awards, and I had the goal of becoming a member of the 4-H Hall of Fame upon graduating from high school.

So, it was a natural decision for me to choose Navajo because they had the best 4-H club in the area. They had an excellent leader, and I was thrilled to become a member.  I already knew many of the members, having competed against them throughout the years. Unfortunately, the director retired before I transferred to Navajo. The other club members were not very inviting, and I lost the excitement of being a 4-H member, so I ended up not participating. I decided to join the choir! I had so much fun in the choir, and one of the other girls in the choir also wore hearing aids, so I finally found someone just like me. Our choir won numerous awards, and we even took first place in several All-State choir competitions. 

I eventually moved away from home, and in the process, moved away from God. Years passed, and even though I moved away from God, he was still there for me, and in 1996, he saved my life when I was involved in a terrible car crash. I walked away from that crash when I should have been killed. The officers told me that I should have been killed.  A couple of weeks after my wreck, one of the reporters for our local news station was involved in a collision similar to mine, and unfortunately, she was killed. I knew that God saved my life and had something in store for me. I didn’t know what it was.

I lived in Norman for 11 years, where I worked for the county sheriff and then later for a local family law attorney. My mother constantly urged me to find a church and get involved. She even found a church for me! So, mainly to pacify my mother, I started going. I went there for a while, and although I liked it and the members were friendly, I wasn’t all that into it, so I stopped going. I even tried attending a larger church that reminded me so much of my childhood church. Looking back, I wasn’t ready to make a life change and move back to God.  

My parents and I decided that we wanted to be closer to my sister. At that time, she was living in Virginia, so we decided to move to North Carolina. We didn’t want to live in Virginia, and the Raleigh area was about three hours from her.

My parents moved to North Carolina. My mom’s priority was to find a church home, so they visited all the local Baptist churches and eventually joined Fellowship Baptist Church of Creedmoor. My mom later told me that she let my dad decide where they would become church members because she wanted him to be active in this church. Dad connected with Pastor Buddy immediately, so when my mom asked him where he wanted to go to church, he replied without any hesitation, “Fellowship Baptist Church.”

After my parents moved to North Carolina, I stayed in Oklahoma for three years to gain experience as a paralegal. Once I decided that I had enough experience and sufficient savings to move from Norman to North Carolina, I began applying for jobs in the Raleigh-Durham area. I got several interviews and lined them up one after the other. I got two job offers and eventually chose the law firm I am at today. I moved in with my parents and began attending Fellowship.

My journey back to God didn’t have any grand moments or life-altering events that caused me to change directions; it was just a series of small steps, where one thing led to another, and before I knew it, I had returned to God. I started listening to gospel music. I began attending church regularly, and subsequently became more active within the church. I began reading the Bible, and then I started studying it more closely. When we began the Awana program, I volunteered to take pictures. I posted those photos on my Facebook page, and then I began posting scriptures with the photographs. Unbeknownst to me, I had inadvertently started an online ministry, sharing my faith and the message of Jesus Christ. I now create digital content for my church’s Facebook page. I am also on the audio and video team.

I have been doing the Bible Recap with Tara Leigh Cobble, and it’s a Bible reading plan that follows the Bible in chronological order. Each day, she has verses to read and does a short video about what we’ve read. I started it on January 1 of this year, and to my surprise, I have stuck with it. It’s been a game changer for me because I’m finally understanding what I’m reading, and I’m starting to connect the dots between what I’m reading in the Old Testament and the New Testament. I even had to become a ReCaption because I needed to connect with others who were also reading the Bible Recap. I can ask questions or sit back and read what others have learned as they read the scriptures.  

Tara Leigh concludes each of the daily reading plans with a video, and in the video, she always mentions her “God Shots.” This could be something she read, or something that God did in her life, or even something that God didn’t do. It is usually an Ah-Ha moment for me.

My most recent Ah-Ha moment occurred back in May, when I was in Gatlinburg at Family Fest. On the final night of the event, Gloria Gaither spoke about God and family, saying, “Your God is My God.” I knew immediately she was quoting the passage of scripture when Ruth told Naomi that wherever she went, she would go and that Naomi’s God was now her God. A year ago, I would not have caught that.

I ask Him almost daily what He wants me to do with our Facebook page and what content He wants me to post. He continues to amaze me with the things He has me create. He has also given me an idea for a non-profit that I can use to spread His message.  I’ve called it the Matthew 28:19 Project, and my goal is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ through social media. He has not told me what else to do with it, so for now, all I have is a simple website and ideas for blogs that I don’t even have time to write. So, I wait until He carves out time for me. In the meantime, I continue to create content for our church page, and hopefully reach that one person who has been unreachable with the gospel.

My ‘Ah-ha’ moment for this story is that no matter where you are in your walk with the Lord, or how far away from Him you may be, He is still working in your life and guiding you to where He ultimately wants you. He’s sneaky too. He’s even sneakier than that ole stinky devil because you don’t even know He is doing it! So, don’t fret if you feel like you don’t fit anywhere, because God will carve a place for you to fit. He is there in your life working, and you may not see it now, but someday you will. You may not even notice what has happened until your Sunday School teacher instructs you to write down your story.