This is my faith story. God is very important in my life. He's my best friend, and so awesome. I never titled this witness. It was actually a talk I gave at a retreat. The main characters in the story are the people who I have encountered. . .who God has sent into my life to encourage, lift me up, and give me support. This is a story of people, God's people, people I love, people who love me. The talk didn't have a title, but if I would give it a title, I would call it, "God is REAL, Prayer is POWERFUL, and it's all so AMAZING." This is just my story. We all have our stories that are amazing, and wonderous. What has God done in your life? Who has God sent into your life who has effected you? Think about that as you read my story. As always, if you have any comments, questions, or if you'd like to tell me your story, I'd LOVE to hear them. Just e-mail me at Rin_from_saturn@yahoo.com.
Hi, I'm RiN. I'm nobody. I'm just an average person. I had an average childhood, I grew up in an average town, I have average smarts, average abilities, and pretty much am just all around average. I was born and raised Catholic, but not really very religiously. My parents were great people. My dad a stock broker, Mom is a full time Mommy (wich believe me, taking care of my sister and I was a full time job). My sister and I went to Catholic School since preschool, and strangely enough, we both go to catholic colleges now. Mommy used to drag us to church, sometimes kicking and screaming, every Sunday. I really didn't want to go.
When I was a short person (grade school)I was bored with church. To me God seemed distant, far away, definately not with me. God was there, but, I didn't feel like He would see me as anything special, so He had better things to do than be with me. So, to be a "good Catholic" I prayed the set prayers (i.e. The "Our Father" "Hail Mary" "Glory Be" etc.) and didn't really think about what they meant. I believed that God was real, but I didn't have a relationship with Him.
Then at the begining of my 7th grade year, my family moved and I switched schools. At this new school, I made more friends than I ever had in the school I had gone to since I was in preschool. One of the friends I made was Alison. One day, she said to me, "Hey we have this youth group thing at my church on sunday, you want to go?" I figured, hey, I would be able to go out, meet new people, and have some ice cream. :) So, I went. I did meet many new people, and had a lot of fun. At the end of the evening, the lady in charge of the whole thing handed out paper, pencils, and suggested that we write a letter to God. I thought to myself, "Letter to God? How am I going to send it?" But I decided to humor these people anyway. I started the letter, "Dear God . .. " I began to write and tell God EVERYTHING that was on my heart. I wrote and wrote and could NOT stop! I don't even remember how long we had to write, but it seemed way too short. So, I started to think that maybe this whole church thing was not as bad as I thought. That was during 8th grade.
The following year, my sister, Kimberly, became involved with the peer ministry at our church. The Peer Ministry Team (PMT) was a group of teens who held retreats and youth group meetings for other teens. I simply wanted to get out of the house, so I tagged along to all the things that she went to with the group. I became known as the "Mascot" of the PMT. I was not technically on the team, but I was always there when the rest of the team was setting up, and always stayed until the end when everything was cleaned up. My sister was my ride, so I didn't have much of a choice, but that year, I started to see even more that God was actually very awesome. I saw him through the members of the PMT and thier love for the Lord.
Then, during the summer after my sophomore year, I went on a 5 day retreat called "D-Week." Here is where I began my actual relationship with God. Here is where I heard God speak to my heart. He told me that He is calling me to be a Youth Minister. God gave me direction in my life. It was something I had been searching for.
I joined the PMT at my church the following fall. My sister left for College around the same time, so I had to keep at least one of us there on the team. :) I helped lead reatreats and outreaches for our parish and others. That was a great year.
During the Summer of '98, I went to Texas to help lead a Catholic Leadership Camp called Outbreak of Faith. On the van drive down to Texas, some amazing things happened.
It was the end of July. It was HOT. It was early. We were all tired, but we met in the parking lot of the Cultivation Ministries building, and prayed for a safe, uneventful trip. ..we soon found out however that "uneventful" was not what we were in for.
The first day of travel went according to plan. We reached our half-way point in Oklahoma pretty much on time and stayed the night at a very hospitable church. We set out the next day in hopes that things would continue to run smoothly.
During this our second day, one of our vans decided to break down under the heat of the Oklahoma summer sun. We didn't know what to do. There was no one who could help us at the gas station that we stopped at, so the guys who were with us tried to figure it out themselves. Those of us left in the working van, in the comfort of the air conditioning, decided to pray. We began to pray the Rosary, and a few minutes after that, Eric(one of the guys in charge) told us that they think they fixed the problem. We resumed travel, but about 2 hours later, the van broke down again. We got the van working enough to pull off the highway into a small town in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma. We stopped at a run down old gas station and Jeff went inside to ask if they knew of anyone who could help. "Um, Hi, our van broke down, do you know of anyone in the area who can help?" Standing next to him as he spoke just happened to be the son of the only mechanic within 3 counties. The mechanic's son brought us to his house(not more than a mile away), and we met the friendly mechanic. He looked at the van and figured out what was wrong witin a few minutes. He could fix it, but he needed a new part. He could get the part when he went to pick his wife up from work. He suggested that while we waited we could go to a nearby water park. We took this offer, for if we hadn't we would have all melted by the time it was fixed. By the time we got back to the house, the van was fixed. The part the mechanic needed was out of stock, so he MADE one out of scraps he had handy. We asked how much we owed him, but he wouldn't accept any money for his services.
We thanked him very much. One of the girls, Lisa, wanted to remember the day, so she took some photographs of his potbellied pig, and all of us with our saving mechanic. Then we got back on the road once again. We reached our destination with no further problems, and had a GREAT camp. When Lisa got her photographs developed, the mechanic was not there. No one has a picture of his face. I jokingly call him our "Patron Saint of Cargo Vans" :)
The following school year, I continued my involvement with the PMT, and helped lead another Outbreak Camp with the same group (a few new members and some of the old members had moved on to college, but same spirit) in Chicago in the summer of '99. Again, it was an incredible experience. Everyone remembers the summer of '98 and our memorable van ride.
Now, I have moved off to college. I'm studying Religious Studies with an emphasis on Secondary Education. I've had such great experiences with the PMT and various other retreat teams I've been on that I want to do that for the rest of my life. I want to work with high school youth and hopefully lead them to Christ.
My story does not end here however. . .it will continue to grow and develop throughout my life. For now, all I can say is:
God is truly an awesome God. His angels are all around us.
God is real, prayer is powerful, and it is all so amazing. :)
So, that's my story. What's yours?
The Camps that I helped put on were led by 10-15 high school students and 5-8 adults. They are put on througout the country. For more information about Cultivation Ministries or the Outbreak of Faith camps go to thier website
To see another story of a van experience go to A letter from a friend on my bolt page
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