The Spiritual Discipline of Sharing my Story
Following middle school, was obviously high school. The theme of this phase of my life still very much revolves around relationships, as well as an added element. I went on three mission trips in those four years that seemed to have lasting implications. This adds the theme of meaningful trips to my story.
My freshman year was still rocky because I was testing the waters with all of the older students I had never met before. I got involved in theatre, and found myself a part of the theatre clique. I still had my two best friends by my side, and together we watched some of other friends experiment with bad choices. We continued to be passionate about church, and stuck with those convictions. That did not mean we stranger to mistakes. We learned a lot about how not to be stupid that first year and it really set the rest of the four years in motion. We got through, and eventually it became time to go on our first mission trip.There was a
particular group of incoming senior girls who took myself and one other friend under their wings. Which is amazing considering how
much younger we were and the fact that it was high school. For
the entire rest of my sophomore year, we hung out with that group
exclusively. They were really good for me. They
were good role models, they helped me mature faster, and they were safe. They introduced me to high school and taught me that it was okay to be against the grain. I also started to develop some crushes on older boys, which was actually good for me. I learned a lot about using relationships to offer glory to God. However, the only problem with this particular friend group is the fact that they were graduating. They were a blessing for this short portion of my life, but I still had a lot more independence to gain.
After that second year in high school, we went on a second trip to Ecuador. Of all the events in my life, this was the highlight. This was a brand new experience for several reasons. First of all, it was a cross-cultural experience which was very enlightening for a Dutch girl like myself. Second, people are totally on fire for the Holy Spirit in Ecuador and that became incredibly contagious. And third, God was completely the center of that trip. We went without a detailed itinerary, but had prepared a sort of short church service. Some people were in a drama, some people were prepared to lead worship, and some were prepared to give a testimony. We ended up doing that service almost five times a day to various audiences. God was leading us to those groups and we saw a huge number of people turning to Christ each day. Our group was quite large, and there are several things that could go wrong in a group of high schoolers that size in a foreign country. However, our group began the trip pushing all that stuff aside on the very first night. During that first night's worship, the Holy Spirit led some people unleash some pretty heavy confession. It ended up being a very raw time of each of us laying what we had on the table. Anything that would have held the group back was exposed during that time. Our group bonded and was united under one vision, following the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The reaction in my heart to these experiences was unbelievable. I was encountering God in ways I had never imagined, and it changed me. I was finally beginning to understand my call as a Christian. I realized it went much deeper than being saved from sins and loving God. It was about sharing the gospel so that other people could enjoy this love that I loved. This was truly the biggest point of growth in my Christian walk.
My friends and I came back to our junior year in high school without our older friends. But we had a new found passion of evangelism and became tighter than we were before. These were my girls and I loved growing close to God while growing close to them. I also got to know my future husband during that trip to Ecuador. He joined our youth group for that trip, and we developed a friendship. Through God's prompting, that friendship developed into a relationship. We fought it, since he was leaving for Michigan Tech that fall. Neither of us wanted that difficult of a relationship. But God told us otherwise. A week before he left for school, we made it official (and no I do not mean on facebook). My girlfriends were incredibly supportive of this decision, and were there for me every time it got hard. However, their support and the difficulty of that relationship only fueled my charisma for God that year. And it was the best year of my high school career. It also led up to a summer of an even more life changing trip.
We went on a trip to Toronto, Canada to learn about life in poverty the big city. This was also a brand new experience for me because where I come from is not a big city. It is also not near the point of being impoverished. So this chance to see life on the streets first hand was pretty eye opening. We practiced spending only a dollar a day on food, slept overnight in a park, and walked miles upon miles to see how gruesome a life minus comfort can be. This trip introduced me to my passion for social justice. I took one more step in my relationship with Jesus. I learned that there is more than believing and sharing the gospel, it is also about service. I saw the need for Christians rise up and help these people who could not help themselves. That is when I decided that I would go into social work. It was during this summer that my entire future up to this point was decided. And that helped me persevere through the last year of high school.
That last year was a challenge for me. As we got older, peer pressure became more and more attractive and I began loosing friends. They became interested in parties, boys and new friends. I choose not to. I became a bit of a workaholic because I no longer had things to do on the weekends. However, I was really able to draw close to God in those times of loneliness. We had good chats where He really helped me understand my future. I got a job at a Christian camp that summer, and was very ready to move on from high school into the life that God had planned ahead.
This time characterized my biggest period of growth. From here on out I was ready to serve God as fully converted Christian. And that leads us right into my adolescent years.
Thank you for reading.
Blessings,
Alyssa
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