A little fun fact about me is that I’ve lived in four different states and five different cities. Moving helped me grow in my faith but has also deterred my faith sometimes. To start at the beginning, I grew up going to church with my parents, but never fully understood what it meant to be a Christian and to follow God. I had never really seen him at work in my life. I went to Sunday school, then when I got old enough, I joined the youth group at my Illinois church and got confirmed in eighth grade. Part of beIng confirmed meant I needed to go on a mission trip. We ended up going to Puerto Rico. There was the start of my true relationship with God. I saw him work wonders in me while I was there. To see how appreciative and open the people there were with us, some strangers from a small town in Illinois, was life changing. For me, that was the first time I truly understood the power of God. After that trip, I came back with a new found strength in my faith. However, I wasn’t prepared for that new strength to be tested so soon. A year after I went on this mission trip, my parents dropped the bomb on me that we were packing up and moving to “the only Waunakee in the world”.

A town just north of Madison filled with tons of farms. Nine months ago we moved to Waunakee, the pandemic hit. I found myself constantly isolated in my house with just my parents and no friends. I hadn’t had enough time to truly make good friends at school before we were all sent home during my sophomore year. My family hadn’t been able to establish ourselves at a church before the pandemic hit, then once the pandemic hit, that became much harder because services were all online. So, long story short, the strength I had found in my faith a year earlier had now taken a hit. I slowly fell out of my faith during high school. I hadn’t been giving God as much of my time as I should have.

Then, I went to UW-Madison and was placed in Cole Residence Hall. The school year started, and I suddenly began having issues with my roommate, and wasn’t connecting with any of the girls in my dorm. The girls around me all liked to go out and drink, which wasn’t really my scene. I was still struggling with my faith, and that became even harder as I was surrounded by individuals who I didn’t connect with.

Then, second semester I decided to fill out a quick survey from a Christian organization on campus. My mom had finally encouraged me to join. A staff member with the organization met with me for coffee and my journey with them began. After that coffee date, I ended up meeting a few of the freshmen, who I am still friends with to this day. Fast forward to the present, I have now been attending the organization’s large group meeting and their Bible study for almost a year. I also have a mentor/discipler now.

That’s sort of my story up until now, but I also wanted to mention how I hadn’t truly accepted God until this year. I never understood what it meant to truly accept Him into my life. My Bible study this year has helped me finally do this. I think about when I met with the staff member on that coffee date, she had asked me this question, “If you were to die today, how sure are you that you would go to heaven?”. At the time, I think I said about 87%. But the truth is, it’s a trick question. If you truly believe in God and place your faith in Him, you can be 100% sure you are saved and will be going to heaven. That’s not a selfish answer to say 100%, it is just the truth. Then, in Bible study the other day, we were asked the question, “How righteous does God think you are?”. During the conversation we had, I realized that my answer to the question was simple, 100%. It is the same thought process as the one she had asked me about a year ago. When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven for our sins and seen as righteous in the eyes of God. There is no question about it. That was my turning stone. The moment I realized I had finally accepted Christ was when I answered that question in the blink of an eye. I no longer question answering that question so quickly, and with what seemed like a selfish answer, but a truthful one. I wanted to just end with a few Bible verses that fit with this. 1 John 1: 7 & 9 “All your unrighteousness has been cleansed by the blood of Jesus. All your sins are forgiven.” Romans 4: 5 “You are now righteous in my sight with the very righteousness of my perfect Son”.