Fellowship Memphis

Pictured above: Anna (left) with friends from InterVarsity. You may email Anna at .

My story is full of joys and pain, but most of all grace. The secular legal definition for grace is that it is a privilege and not a right. As a woman who was ‘raised in the church’ right in the Bible belt, I saw a lot of church activity and was accustomed to being a cultural Christian. However, through a college ministry Christ changed me from death to life in 2005. The first appearance of grace in my life was when Christ stooped down in my heart and changed it through his Holy Word.

I saw my life no longer as a privilege but as a gift from God himself. From that point of conversion the Holy Spirit in me brought meaning to Scripture that I hadn’t had before. And the Scripture was the changing agent as a new believer. College was the most significant season of my life, for the fact that God brought me Unmerited Grace during that time. Christ has blessed me with the grace-motivated relationship with my Maker, and I will never be the same.

After 2005 my mom started to fall in love with her Maker as well and our relationship grew to heights I had never experienced with her before. We had a deep connection and that was Christ. We would study Beth Moore together, sing together, pray more together. God really used her to disciple me in my love for Jesus.

Like every story there is also heartache. In late October 2009 the Lord called his daughter back to be with him and my mom passed away, but was never forgotten. To see her life filled with sacrificial love, how she was merciful to the widows, the orphans, and the neglected, I was encouraged to love others with that same love she received from Christ.

Since my life was transformed in college through a campus ministry, I find it amazing that I now have the opportunity to minister to international college students full-time. Since beginning work with InterVarsity International Ministry in October 2010, I have seen God do amazing things in and through my life. From raising financial support for my first year as an intern, to providing a car, then on to a student being called to be a Christ follower rather than a follower of Islam. My God has shown me His grace is unending, relentless, abounding, unstoppable, and unmerited.