Fellowship Memphis

“In Christ alone my hope is found.”

Growing up in the church, I heard statements and songs such as this one all the time, but never truly understood them until this past year.  After years of battling with addictions, lust, and anger, in 2003 at the age of 19, I heard God speak for the first time! He told me my life would be unbelievable, and He wanted to use me to reach the nations and those who have had struggles similar to my own.

I started my journey by working as a summer intern at Service Over Self (SOS) here in Memphis. A year later, I left the country for what turned out to be almost three years of overseas mission work with Youth With A Mission International (YWAM) in Australia. In that three years, my battles with addictions, lust, and anger were finally starting to be broken through many hours of intercession and deliverance. I learned heaps in those three years about God and the passions that He had given me.

My passions to be a hairdresser and to reach people became so evident that I could not ignore them any longer. I moved back to Memphis ready to conquer the world. But, much to my surprise, the opposite happened. I got lost in my transition back and not living in a close, Christ-based community really threw me off. As I entered cosmetology school, Satan was ready for attack! Some of my addictions, lusts, and anger were back. For almost a year, I was lost, lying to my friends and family and hating myself.

In January 2011, I was in a car accident, where I should have died. However, God saved me once again; I walked away with a broken wrist, and a fuller understanding of grace. I returned to the church, where I grew up because it was the quickest way for me to get spiritually fed. I knew I needed something more, so in August, I started praying about where to go. On my first day at Fellowship Memphis, God said, “Welcome to your new family!”

Over the past 10 months, I’ve learned more about God and myself than ever before. I’ve been refined probably a 1,000 times and I know I have a million more times to go, but I’ve finally gotten to that place, where I do not care how much refining it takes as long as I am getting closer to my Heavenly Daddy.