Berea – 2015 Graduate

Growing up my dad was a pastor and my mom homeschooled my siblings and me. A close family member caused a lot of strife in the family and took advantage of me sexually when I was ten years old. I had a peacekeeper mentality, so I kept the bad that happened to myself. I was exposed to pornography for the first time at thirteen, and this led to a seven-year struggle with sexual addiction. I isolated myself from people emotionally and ran to food and self-harm as comfort. In college I began to question my sexuality. Around that time two very close friends intentionally dropped out of my life, and I took this rejection as proof that I was worthless. I began to be consumed with thoughts of suicide. I knew I needed help, but I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to find the God that I’d always been told about.

After I dropped out of my third school, my parents came to me and suggested that I apply to Mercy because my little sister had seen a music video featuring Mercy graduates. I decided to apply because I could see very clearly that if something did not change, everything was going to get a lot worse. When I arrived I was very homesick and didn’t trust anyone. I thought I was going to be fed the same stuff I’d heard all my life and that all I would gain from Mercy was a momentary Jesus high.

One of the biggest turning points in my time at Mercy came when my counselor challenged me to engage with the Lord regarding my identity in Him. There were a lot of tears and confusion, but on the other side of it, I gained an understanding that I have been created on purpose and God is for me. I’m literally unable to be what I am not.

God took over my heart while I was at Mercy. It sounds cheesy and perhaps cliché, but the truth of it is I learned how to befriend Jesus. He isn’t just someone I hear about on Sunday mornings and do my best to live like. Jesus is personal, He has tea with me in the morning, he holds my hand as I step out of my comfort zone and live, and He holds me late at night when all I think I have are my tears and my pillow. God has become real to me at Mercy, and that is what I needed.

After graduating from Mercy I’ll be moving in with a host family. I’ll be getting a job and working toward pursuing a career in music.

I never imagined that I would actually find God when I walked through the doors of Mercy, but He found me. There are not enough thank-yous that I could write or breathe to those that support Mercy that would express my gratitude for their giving hearts. I found freedom and am now alive in Christ!