The Faith of Cain

President Spring 2004 - Spring 2005
Berea College – Baptist Student Union Berea, Kentucky

Representative Spring 2004 - Spring 2005
Campus Christian Council Berea, Kentucky

Missionary Summer 2004
International Mission Board - China Berea, Kentucky

Missionary January 2004
Baptist Student Union - Bolivia Berea, Kentucky

Missionary Summer 2003
Kentucky Baptist Convention – Creative Ministry Team: SonBurst Berea, Kentucky

Representative Spring 2004 - Spring 2005
Berea Baptist Church Council Berea, Kentucky

Singer Fall 2003 – Spring 2005
Berea Baptist Church Choir and Ensemble Berea, Kentucky

Sunday School Teacher Fall 2004 – Spring 2005
Berea Baptist Church Berea, Kentucky


Resident Assistant Fall 2003 - Spring 2005
Berea College Student Life Department Berea, Kentucky

I served in the student life department as a resident assistant for an upperclassmen male dormitory. I planned programs for residents. I was a resource for many students looking for help in various forms. I supported other staff members in different capacities and was a part of the general maintenance and upkeep of the dorm.

Payroll Clerk Fall 2001 – Summer 2003
Berea College Student Payroll Berea, Kentucky

I entered the payroll information for every student on campus on a regular basis according to the payroll schedule. I kept records in order from each payroll and assisted the payroll manager in new projects. I delivered payroll checks to and from the safe and to the college post office. I contracted students for labor and was in charge of replacing lost/stolen/damaged checks.

Tutor Fall 2000 – Spring 2001
Pulaski County Board of Education Somerset, Kentucky

I tutored students in math, mainly, but also with anything else they had trouble with. In the spring I tutored a Chinese student who spoke hardly any English at all. I tutored this student during the day during the period I was a Teaching Assistant. We made a lot of progress and those experiences are something that I will never forget.

Assistant Counselor Summer 2000, Summer 2001
Berea College Trio Programs: Upward Bound Berea, Kentucky

I had a lot of responsibility with this task. I was in charge of a group of high school students in the Upward Bound Program for the entire summer. I reported to the Tutor Counselor and the Program Coordinator.

I expect that God will use me simply as a worker in His kingdom. I come to His service only with the gifts and talents that he has given me and expect only the same love for me that he had if I were not serving. I expect that I will be faced with many new opportunities to grow in my flexibility but as I understand it - flexibility is not even a strong enough word for ministry. I know that God will grow me spiritually as well and will gift me with new perspective and new love for people I never knew. I expect a clearer direction for my life's call to ministry. After I leave this position what will I do and how can I express what God has done while in this position? God knows and will not let me fail. God will provide the field and the seeds of the word and will even provide the water of love and faith, all I need to do is go and seek Him in everything I do. I have served in different positions before and I understand that those who are under the influence of my ministry are going through each of their own spiritual journeys and I expect that God will want me to help them in any way I can. God will move and will always manifest his love in the people in ways I will never understand. I expect his grace to be abundant.

I have such a heart for ministry. I want to further my training with seminary someday and I want/need more experiences of ministry. I need more time with my Father. I want to be doing his work at all times that I can. Interning with an established ministry is a perfect opportunity to grow with Christ while I grow familiar with His work. I seek the guidance and mentorship of a minister and I desire a growing passion for ministry. I want to be a living sacrifice. I want my attitudes to be shaped by the Holy Spirit and I want Christ to direct me to the purposes designed for me. My objective is to have a dynamic encounter with the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. This personal endeavor is balanced with the attitude that ministry is not about me. It is about those that I am able to minister to and with. I seek to be used and utilized in practical ministry. I desire to be consumed with a passion for ministry.

When I came to college I wanted to separate myself from God. For all my life I had been surrounded by religious “acts.” I do remember the time that I accepted Jesus as my savior and I know that from that moment until everlasting he claims me as his child. College was going to my escape or rather desertion. I had always felt like I never had any control over my life and now was my chance to do the things I wanted to do. I didn’t have my parents to tell me what I could and couldn’t do and I was going to enjoy this liberty.

When I came to Berea I heard that there was a Baptist Student Union but there was no way that I was going to join that bunch of hypocrites. I thought that I had always been surrounded by them in high school and never realized that I was one myself. In high school I lived to argue the right-wing, extremist, conservative point with anyone, it didn’t matter who and I ruined my testimony for a lot of the people I went to school with. I was a self-righteous bigot. I believe that anyone who didn’t read the KJV was going to go to hell. And was taught that miracles were not possible and that those who were not Baptist were not in the church and therefore were not a part of the bride of Christ. I was taught a lot of severely incorrect doctrine and my life bore witness to that dogma.

Berea gave me a chance to escape from all of that. I chose not to go to church or read my bible or pray. My first year at Berea College was the worst time of my life. It was hell for me. I was so alone and I was miserable. I was so anxious about everything and everyone. Tests and homework set me on edge. Social interactions were uncomfortable. I stayed in my room a lot and wallowed in my misery. If I had been diagnosed I would say that I was definitely in a state of depression. I had hit rock bottom. I hated my life. I didn’t want to be who I was and I didn’t want anyone’s help.

I spent the summer working in Berea because I wanted to stay away from home. I lived with a guy that was not a Christian and it was a bad living situation. I went to work in the mornings, came home in the evenings. That was my life. By the end of the summer I was pretty miserable and for some reason I felt compelled to go to church, if just to make an appearance. I had heard of Berea Baptist and I think maybe I’d been once before and I didn’t like it because it was too big and they read the NIV and their music was loud and didn’t mean anything and I thought everyone there must be a bunch of hypocrites too. But I went anyway. Despite all of my negative ideas about this church I found myself on my way there. Now I can honestly say that I have no clue what the sermon was that day because I was sitting in the pew with my heart wrenching. I was under such a strong conviction of the Holy Spirit that I thought I was going to die right then and there in the pew. The invitation came and it was a song and a message that I had never heard in my life. “I Surrender All.” It was what I had lacked all my life, that complete surrender of my life to Him! I went to the alter and I poured out my heart and told him that he was in charge of my life now and that I didn’t want to control myself at all now and that I wanted him to lead and guide me in everything that I do. – And He has! - Such a flood of the Spirit came on me. I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced that rush of holy adrenaline. I felt like a child of the King. I was able to acknowledge him as the ruler of my life. He is who lead me to grace and will seek good for my life. I wouldn’t trade anything in all my life for my relationship with Christ.

The BSU was there to help me grow and introduce me to the true doctrine of grace and love. The next summer I would find myself as a summer missionary on a SonTeam. The whole summer I kept asking God how all this was possible. That only a year ago I totally denied him and was rebelling against his will. I discovered it was only by his grace. His restoring, transforming, conforming grace that had changed my life. Through the BSU I was taught I had a purpose and was designed for glorifying God. I was taught that God has already ordained all of my steps and that everything comes together for good for those who love Him. These are lessons that are not to be taken for granted. Now I find myself as President of an organization that I used to think of as a bunch of hypocrites. God has brought me from far places and I can testify of many other great lessons learned from the BSU. I have been blessed to have the ministry and discipleship of the BSU in my life and I want so much to give back to what have given and empowered me to do so much. God changes lives in college and to have a group of caring, devoted, disciples of Christ there to assist in your walk and fellowship with is so important. I pray God’s anointing on the ministry of the BSU and may His mercy and grace endure with all who are touched by the BSU’s ministry.

God has gifted me with the gift of teaching. I enjoy engaging people in learning and I enjoy interacting with curious minds (even with minds that appear to be shut). Teaching, I believe can strongly be associated with preaching and any effective spirit-lead preaching will teach you something. I want to be a learner and a teacher of Christ for all my life. I find that the more I learn about Christ the less I know and the more fully I understand Him. That probably doesn't make sense but God is not some finite being that I can swallow like a pill or give to someone in a box. He is so much more than that and he authored everything into existence and there are hardly words to describe His magnificence. But that's what I want to try to teach in my life and I will leave the understanding and the conviction to the Holy Spirit. I'm also gifted with administration abilities. I am a very organized person and handle tasks with swiftness. I make priorities and I do my best to conduct my life according to them. I like to plan and organize and make a strategy to complete a task. Thirdly my spiritual gift would be - Faith. Faith is the water of my life but love is the spring that gives me that faith.

God loves everyone. But because man chose to do something opposite of God and chose something else, he denied God and God's love for man. Man now knew what it was like to deny God and follow after something else. It has been this way since the beginning. Everyday people make choices for God and against God. The key is that God knew that man would never be strong enough to achieve a state where he would always choose Himself so he sent himself disguised in robes of flesh into the world as Jesus. After teaching on the earth how to choose God he laid down his life in forgiveness for our sins (choices against God). Everyone sins and falls short of God and makes choices everyday against God but if one accepts the grace of forgiveness from Jesus then they are redeemed in God's sight. God doesn't want anyone to die and not find new life in him. He knows that we will fail him and will make choices on our own against him but that makes his grace and our love for a Savior and Lord so much deeper and stronger. When we choose Christ we deny everything else that we are and commit ourselves to Him. We essentially lay down our lives because we lord it over to Him. God loves everyone.

For the month of January of 2004, I and 9 other students from my school went to Bolivia to work with IMB missionaries there. It was an amazing experience. Preparing to go there was terrific but being there was awesome. And coming back to share those experiences was wonderful. As far as the cross-cultural experiences that I had in Bolivia that would include living with a Bolivia family and only speaking some Spanish, adjusting to the change in diet - eating lots of chicken and when in the jungle - eating lots of bread, getting to one place to another on a bus/taxi, and hanging out with youth after a service would all be experiences that I would count as "cross-cultural." I’ve also been in China before as an English Teacher. I had absolutely no qualms about going either and I went by myself. God was with me the whole time I was preparing to go and most definitely in the trip there. I noted to other people that it was strange that I felt no fear. God gave me his peace the entire trip. I had the opportunity and blessing to help 4 of my students to know Christ. I say “help” instead of “lead” because the Holy Spirit was doing the leading and I was blessed to be there to help them understand their conviction. God did mighty things that summer, praise Him.