Personal Narrative: Sand Ridge Baptist Church

Since I was a child, I loved making friends. Whenever I saw someone new, I would run up to them and immediately become best friends with them. As I grew up, I recall some occasions when I felt left out. I remember being so sad that they wouldn't include me. From that day on, I made a commitment to make everyone feel involved because that feeling of being left out was one of the worst feelings a young boy/girl could ever have.

I grew up in the St. Louis suburb of Eureka, where I still live today. If you ever look at me and wonder where that scar on my forehead came from, well it happened when I was roughly 12 months old when I fell out of a moving car. My parents raised me as a Methodist at the Eureka United Methodist Church. During my years attending Geggie Elementary School, every Sunday my parents would force me to get out of bed and go to Church with them. During church, all the children would go to Sunday school while the parents were listening to the sermon. In Sunday school, we had a teacher, sometimes my mom, who would give out fun church related activities. However, I did not enjoy doing that mostly because it involved getting out of bed early and since I did not like the subject matter either, but at that age, children do not fully grasp the importance of attending church and

I'm not sure if you remember me right off hand, but last semester I had you for my level twos. My placement was at Valley Lutheran was Mrs. Reinking. I also work at Family Video where I sometimes see you. I am filling out my teaching application for the Fall of 2018. I was wondering if I could put you down as a reference? Hope to hear from you soon.

Josh and I put the flags out for Trinity Baptist today and we couldn't find one of the holes for the flags. We may have just missed it but there was an indention in the ground where it could have been where it seems to be caked in mud. We will pick them up at the end of the meeting tomorrow.

Throughout my time with the Methodist church, I have experienced great opportunities and also many challenges. My family and I have been taught by a man who I think to be one of the most godly men I have ever met. Reverend Felder has always had a positive outlook on St. Luke UMC future even through trials and adversity. In fact, I truly think the Lord used him to save St. Luke because when he became pastor the city of Augusta had the land the church occupied labeled a future parking lot. However Felder had a vision for the church and the vision included having the sanctuary packed with families from the neighborhood of Harrisburg. The church is now an entity in the neighborhood that it was not before Reverend Felder came, and while is has a

Track & Field: I was involved my Freshman and Sophomore year. My positions were long jumps and the 100 m. I learned how to build teamwork with others in such a team-oriented sport and also learned to be involved with school activities.

My most impactful service experience happened this last summer. I have been lucky to have been a part of various youth groups throughout my adolescence. With Memorial Baptist Church, I was happy to attend PASSPORT Camps. Like other camps I have participated in, PASSPORT is a camp where youth spend a week in the summer to enthusiastically worship and serve the community surrounding their site. PASSPORT sent us to Danville, Virginia, and despite being on Averett University’s cozy campus, we were surrounded by a dying, deprived community. Social exposure is exponentially increased when your mission groups are melting pot assignments from various churches. PASSPORT did not hold back in showing us the poorest of the community, and the sheer lack

The Christian Community Service Center is an aspiring non-profit organization whose mission statement is to, “serve the poor, hungry, disabled, and otherwise needy while respecting their religious, ethnic or cultural differences”.

For my religious center experience, I chose an Islamic mosque in Altoona, Wisconsin. I chose to visit an Islamic site because I have never been to a mosque before or spoken with a Muslim about their faith. I was fortunate to speak with Sadie, a member of their community, and much of my information comes from our conversation. This experience was similar to other religious visits in the sense that I have been to numerous Christian churches and spoken with other Christians about their faith. Sadie, like others I have previously met, was a wonderful person and was excited to share what she could. Likewise, Sadie was open to answering all of my questions and was clearly proud of her faith without being aggressive or focused on turning the conversation into a debate.

I had always gone to church and gone through the motions, but i never had felt connected to god or like church was an exciting environment for me. Despite my slight protest, I knew my peers had my best interest at heart so I trailed behind them as we divulged into the church (White’s Chapel).

This past month I got the opportunity to attend church with my friend Norbentina who is originally from Honduras. She attends Southwest Christian Church which is an all speaking Spanish congregation. I accompanied Norbentina to a Sunday morning service and as you can imagine it was quite different than what I’m usually use to.

I accepted Christ at the age of 12 at Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church in Bells, TN. It was rural church and over the years, pastors would not stay long because it was a great place for young pastors to get experience and leave for a larger congregation. At the age of 17, I joined the military and my spiritual formation really began to blossom. After traveling over four continents, I had an experience to learn from different ministers who actually went to seminary as opposed to the ones who did not attend an actual school. Every chaplain in the military had a seminary degree and the ones who captured my attention put emphasis on learning Greek and Hebrew.

Their present is focused on Worship, Outreach and Social Justice, Relationships and Partnerships, Education and Spiritual Growth, and The Arts. In the worship setting, they want to present several opportunities for people to worship every week. They believe integrating music into their worship enlightens the overall worship experience.

Reading was very diffuclt to me. The pronouncing and putting two-three letters together was discouraging. “Th” or “et”, made me feel like I was illiteric.

As a prerequisite to transition from a Higher Ground student one to Higher Ground student two, I conducted a foot-washing ceremony. For my ceremony I used a dear family friend and fellow ministry leader; Sister Leina has been a part of our family ministry for rough a few years, but has been tremendous help and true servant in the advancement of the Rebuilding the Tabernacle Ministry. Shockingly, it was revealed to be hours before my ceremony that I should serve Sister Lenia. In particular, she has been the armor-bearer for our ministry and Apostle Melody Cook, who is one of the main teachers at our ministry. Sister Leina has taken upon herself to do the task and duties my family and other families aren’t able to do daily for the ministry