When I was seven years old, I spent two and a half months in Tod Children’s Hospital in Youngstown, Ohio after suffering a bleeding attack, all alone. I vividly remember the small, little, old woman walking down the pastel colored hallway with a Bible in her hand. She walked up to me and asked if I wanted to attend church. Honestly, I did not want to attend, but I decided to go. It was during those church services in the game room at Tod Children’s Hospital that I began to experience a sense of belonging and love. I had always felt lonely because I was a foster child, but after many encounters with this sweet woman, I was no longer lonely. I experienced a love like none other, the love of God. During my stay, I would be diagnosed with von Willebrands disease, a rare bleeding disorder affecting blood’s ability to clot. Even in the midst of this uneasiness, I still felt weirdly comforted. This was the first time I encountered God in a tangible way for myself.
After being discharged from the hospital, I went to another foster home. At this home, the first activity I had the luxury of participating in was youth Bible study at Tabernacle Baptist Church. On January 7, 2001, I was baptized after accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I initially did not understand all that this decision meant. All I knew was that Jesus was real and I did not want to go to hell. Little did I know the journey that was about to begin. I always knew the answers to the Sunday school questions, but I wanted to know more. I wanted to know Jesus in a real way. I would pray asking God to “give me more understanding about all that He was.” In the eleventh grade, I began to have intense dreams about preaching and teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I becam...
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...ll be able to offer Westminster as many strengths as it can offer me. I bring solid, nontraditional potential seminary student undergraduate education in both Criminal Justice and Social Work in addition to much experience in ministry to Westminster, which allows me to identify with the realism of ministry. I also offer a resilient spirit and mind ready to engage and harvest in a vigorous religious academic environment. I want to worship and study at Westminster because I truly believe God wants me to grow to serve His people by introducing them to new life in Him by activating radical faith that impacts life. I am certain that Westminster is the best place to provide me with the education and tools necessary to do ministry that is most pleasing unto God. Thank you to the Admissions Committee for your consideration of my application. I look forward to your response.
In[a] the novel, Trouble, Henry respects Chay nearing the end of their adventure, because he learned about his tragic life in Cambodia. Henry had been an ordinary boy with the “Great Franklin Smith”, living his own ordinary life, until a tragic car accident ruins all of the Smiths plans for the future. Now Henry and Sanborn travel to Mt. Katahdin for Franklin, but Henry loathes Chay for killing Franklin. To avenge Franklin’s death, their epic adventure to Katahdin brings, troubles, hardships, origins, and anger between all members, making a unique journey for all.
Here one can see the significance of baptism extending far beyond the momentary act that is the baptismal rite. Baptism is an act of birth; it gives an immediate and direct connection with Christ’s resurrection, and it lays the foundation for fellowship, which
Early one morning, in 2007, I heard God 's voice while I was praying for me at my church. I immediately answered God with a sob, “Yes, I will. I will start!” That was because I obviously understood what this voice meant. God wanted me to start worship service for infants and toddlers. At that time, in my church, a worship service for infants and toddlers was not set up. Moms could not attend worship service because of their little babies and were getting tired out their life without worship. God kept giving me a burden in the Holy Spirit to set up worship service for them. However, I was too selfish to obey God. To tell the truth, I turned my face from that burden. I wanted to go to main sanctuary as soon as possible because my daughter was almost ready to join in pre-k worship service. However, the sudden voice of God changed my life. I started to “Start!” I set up worship service unofficially, and started to worship with 3 toddlers first. Their moms finally could go to worship God. After one year, I became a director of toddlers’ Sunday school for under 3-year-old from 2008 to
Believing and having faith over sickness, suffering, and rejection formed a close relationship with Christ while enduring the suffering and victory over Christ being crucified. Because of this, Christians didn’t live a life of chaos but in a life that constantly reflected a love and understanding for them and...
I spent every spring and summer in middle school doing mission work and community service. I loved the opportunity that it gave me to build relationships and share my beliefs with people I didn’t know. Little did I know that this would pave the way for a life-changing experience that I would encounter one day. Each spring my church would host a missionary event called “The Ignite Project.” I felt an urge to join the group, recognizing that it was a calling to profess my faith in Jesus. These mission trips helped me to go out
Our goal as a church was to go into another community and share the gospel with them but we did it in a unique way, through community service. Together we volunteered in a trailer park to clean up trash, fix gardens, redo roofing, paint and clean trailers. While doing this I meet an old woman who appreciated what we were doing for her and her home and wanted to know why. This gave my small group and I an opportunity to help guide her to Christ and when we left not only did we give her a better and beautiful community and trailer to live in, but we left her with a bible and a thirst to learn more about our God. This experience was important to me because it showed how one can truly make a difference in people’s lives just through serving
I grew up in a home with a family that attend church weekly and was active in the church family. I knew about God and about His son but I never remember the story of salvation and the personal need for a savoir. As a teenager I walked away from the religion that I thought did not offer my anything. In my thirties, my husband was diagnosed with cancer and I immediately started my negotiations with God. Little did I know that He was not a negotiator but it was during this time in my life that I needed God more than He needed me. Since accepting the gift of God’s love, the salvation of a Savoir, and the renovation of my heart, I look to God for the path of my life. I share Gods truth through my career change to a Christian nob-profit that’s vision is to share God’s love to the community through the platform of pregnancy care and family services. Personally I have fulfilled God’s call to help the less fortunate by adopting a sibling group and participating and supporting mission trips to third world countries to support his children and missions there. My final piece of God’s plan I feel lead to complete is to volunteer my professional expertise and finances to work with a mission group that provides laboratory services to third world mission hospitals. I have done one trip for them and am currently planning a trip to Honduras in the new year. My day to
One of the first things we have learned about politics this semester is that there is a constant struggle over the true definition, especially in how broad or narrow the definition is. When Thomas Jefferson wrote that “Politics are such torment that I would advise everyone I love not to mix with them.” it is understood that he is referring to the electoral and governmental aspects of politics. If Dr. Michael Rivage-Seul and Leslie Cagan were to read this quote, they would argue that Jefferson has an extremely narrow view of politics and that if one were to desire a more accurate definition, they would have to look further than the restrictive culturally accepted definition. Martin Luther King, Jr. would also disagree with this definition but he I think he would have a bigger problem with the advice that Jefferson is giving. All three of the authors that we have looked at would, in one way or another, be forced to disagree with Jefferson based on the principles that they try to uphold and emphasize in their writings and speeches.
Seventeen years ago, I came bounding into a world of love and laughter. I was the first child, the first grandchild, the first niece, and the primary focus of my entire extended family. Although they were not married, my parents were young and energetic and had every good intention for their new baby girl. I grew up with opportunities for intellectual and spiritual growth, secure in the knowledge that I was loved, free from fear, and confident that my world was close to perfect. And I was the center of a world that had meaning only in terms of its effect on me-- what I could see from a height of three feet and what I could comprehend with the intellect and emotions of a child. This state of innocence persisted through my early teens, but changed dramatically in the spring of my sophomore year of high school. My beloved father was dying of AIDS.
It took me on a trip down memory lane, and I started reflecting on the incidents that brought me to this point. There he was, Jesus, my little five year-old cousin who unfortunately had an uncommon disease, Adrenoleukodystrophy, where insulation over the axons breaks down causing a progressive degenerative myelin disorder, leaving infants completely disabled in a range of six months and dying some time after. This was my first introduction to medicine, seeing him weakened daily woke something in me exposing my mind to what my future was going to be like, a mix of empathy, compassion, assistance and desire to know more.
Christianity on the other seemed like something I would enjoy and understand. Second Baptist church became my second home the concepts explained became my way of thinking. Knowing that nothing could get better if I did not talk to anyone I decided to speak to the pastor privately. Emotions and tears filled my eyes as I told him what I had been doing and hiding from my parents. It was explained to me that he had seen this all before and that this was nothing to worry too much about. Suddenly I felt the urge to cry even more, in the hour that I had spent talking to the pastor I managed to release the fear of rejection and depression into the hands of the pastor, and
In February of my eighth grade year, a dear friend of mine passed away in a tragic car accident. He was the first friend I made in youth group and his death definitely took a toll on the church. Shortly after, my father stepped down from his position as pastor, claiming to be mentally unstable to lead a church. A few weeks later my mother served him with divorce papers. Within a matter of months, life changed drastically. I had experienced the loss of a friend and the loss of a complete family and was left with brokenness. When I should have been angry at God the most, he showed me how faithful he was. Jesus was my only hope and stability during this time. Instead of running away from him, he drew me unto himself and gave me joy. Jesus ...
...rd was trying to tell me this. It was during this time I heard the word ‘seek first the kingdom’. As I heard this word, I cried out to God for the first time in my life to remember me. It was here I made a vow to the Lord in the faith that I would find remembrance. As I made this vow and fulfilled it, the Lord opened doors that I can truly say would not have been opened if I didn’t respond to the word to ‘seek first the kingdom’. Out of this time, the Lord blessed me financially, led me to buy a home and healed my anxious heart. It was here that I began to find testimony before God through offering. This is something I am still finding to this day.
During my seventh grade year, my church went to a youth rally at a local church on weekend. Because of this rally and the message it sent, I realized and wanted to give my life to Jesus through baptism. It was awesome, I got home as a young teenager and actually talked to my mom about what it really means to be a Christian and to pick up your cross and follow him. So that very next weekend, my dad baptized me in front of the whole church on Sunday morning. It was an awesome feeling knowing that because of Jesus’ grace and mercy, I will be with him one day and spend eternity with him. Although I was on top of the world at this point, I still didn’t know fully what I had gotten into. So the next few years, I live the typical Christian life. I was trying to be the perfect person by doing the right stuff, I would try not to cuss, I would try to wear as many WWJD bracelets as I could so that I wouldn’t have to talk to them about Christ and they could just see it on my wrist, I would not join in on conversations with my friends that I knew were not right, I was just living life on cruise control.
The morning sermons that I attended with my family taught me new Biblical principles. I also started attending the evening service with my dad occasionally. Around the time I turned seven, a new family attend the church, and they had a daughter about my age. She and I became great friends, and she also accepted Christ as her Savior. One Sunday, the pastor’s wife came up to us and asked us if we would take notes on the sermon for a prize afterward. The offer of a prize motivated me to start listening more closely to the sermons. After I wrote notes that were relevant to the sermon, I received twenty tokens. I continued to take notes until I saved up five hundred tokens. Those tokens along with memorizing Psalm 23 earned my first