I have so many things to say about my faith, but I'm going to write this in snippets as it comes together and hope it flows as a result.
I was baptized as an infant when I was one month old. My dad (and his whole family) was Catholic and my mom (and her whole family) was Lutheran. Only one was active in their faith and my family as a whole was not really religious at home during the week, but we always attended Sunday School and church services each Sunday. I went to Midweek classes in grades 4-6 and then attended Confirmation classes in grades 7-8. I was confirmed at the end of my 8th grade year and had my first communion then. I was active in junior high and senior high youth groups and even sang in the adult choir when I was in high school.
Around the time I turned 16, my mom decided to switch churches because she wasn't happy with the one we were attending. I was perfectly happy at the church and had a good group of friends there, so I continued to go to church by myself each week while my mom took my brothers to another church. I'm still amazed at that looking back. I attended church and Sunday School each week by myself. I also went on servant event trips each summer with the youth group where we would serve at various camps and churches throughout the US.
Church was important to me as well as my faith in Jesus, but I'm not sure I really understand what it meant to be a follower of Jesus. I did a lot of activities and was very involved, but I'm not sure my faith was personal to me.
My junior year of high school I went on a mission trip to Mexico with a friend's church. It was an absolutely amazing trip where I really saw Jesus in action watching over me and protecting me. It's hard to explain, but it changed my life and deepened my faith.
I went off to a private Christian college and was strengthened even more in my faith through Christian Bible studies, Christian roommates, and Christian professors. It was so amazing! This was after I attended public schools my whole life. I didn't realize, however, what I was missing until I was a part of a Christian community every day of the week.
It was around that time that I decided to change my major from elementary education to youth ministry and Christian education. My parents were not supportive of that decision because they both said I'd never earn enough money working for the Church. My Christian friends became such a vital support network to me at that time.
As part of my new major, I had a required one-year paid internship working at a church in another state. It was at this same time that my husband was working on his Master's degree in theology. He also had a required one-year paid internship at a church he was sent to. We worked together for nearly a year, sharing an office, and becoming the best of friends. We talked about dating at the beginning of the year, but little 'ol 21-year old me was too focused on my work and ministry.
He won me over though, and we finally started dating near the end of our time working together- right before we each had to return to our separate states and finish our degrees. So we returned to our separate states and tried to maintain a long-distance relationship. It worked for some time, but then I started thinking about what I wanted to do after graduation, and doing missionary work overseas was top on my list. This freaked out my DH (boyfriend at the time), and he called off the relationship! I was stunned. I was also so angry at him (our relationship had gotten serious and we had talked about marriage), I refused to talk with him for months.
That break-up was the exact thing I needed to sign a contract and head overseas as a missionary. I signed on for 10 months in Asia teaching English with a Christian organization. After the initial cultural adjustment, I fell in love and signed on for another year, but in a different location with much more freedom.
It was during this 2nd year overseas that I begin to miss DH and finally got in regular contact with him again (nearly 2 years after the break-up!). Since we only had email and phone calls, we worked through a lot of the baggage and hurt from the past.
...to be continued....