Hey Ya'll! What's crackalackin?
Before I dive into all the deep spiritual knowledge I have, I feel like I should share my testimony with all my wonderful readers! To give you a brief summary: 2018 is when I went through the most life changing experience of my life. So without further ado.....In the beginning......was the word...nah I'm just kidding even though it is true I'm just rambling now.
Okay lets get this started.
So when I was at the grand old age of four, I gave my life to Christ. It was in our kitchen in our house in Washington. (Yes, I lived in WA till I was five then moved to PA) Then life went on. At this point I was just going through the motions. I lived in a Christian home so the Bible was just always around so I never really thought much of it. I knew Jesus died for me, but I didn't truly understand what a "Relationship with God," actually was or how one lives their life.
When I was in seventh grade, I reached the time of.....you guessed it (or maybe you didn't, but that's besides the point) YOUTH GROUP. The church my family was attending at the time held a youth camp every summer. I was extremely excited to go. Anyway, I left camp that first year with what I like to call, "A spiritual high." I would be super on fire for Jesus, but like a month after camp, I was right back to good ol' Jayme. Are you ready for what happens next? I repeat that the next year and the following three years I continued to go to said camp. I'd be all, "OMAGOSH JESUS." Then a month or so would roll by and i'd be back to doing whatever Jayme wanted to do, which was not have a relationship with God.
So now we roll around to 2018! Summer of 2018 to be specific. Usually, every summer I am a camp counselor at Kids Kamp. Summer 2k18 was no different. One of the tasks to get accepted as a counselor is that you have to write your testimony of the past year. I'm pretty sure the testimony I submitted was complete bogus. But apparently I'm really good writing (like this post if you agree) and what not so they accepted me! YaY!
Okay now our story is really starting.
The Sunday before camp started, after the sermon, the pastor of the church said, "I feel God is calling us to have a baptism." (it was something like that, I don't entirely remember) So all the counselors and whoever of the congregation wished to join, walked down to the creek near the church. As I watched some of my friends walkout into the water, I felt God tugging at me. Like He was saying, "Jaym, talk to me." I wanted to get baptized all of the sudden. BUT....... I didn't. I felt I had to make things right between me and God before I could make such a declaration. So are you ready....? I didn't do anything about it during the full two weeks of camp. I continued with God tugging at my heart and not entirely sure what it meant. Now in case you were wondering I still had an awesome time at camp. But spiritually, I was confused. God revealed to me while ministering to the kids that, I was telling the kiddos one thing, but wasn't doing anything close to it myself. I wasn't practicing what I preach.
So the end of the second week came and went and I said my goodbyes to everyone. I left a day early because I was going on a mission trip to Arizona to work on the Navajo Reservation. I got home from camp at around 10:00 at night and unpacked all my bags. My mother washed all my clothes and I packed them all again. Left my house at 6:15 the next morning. I got on a bus (YES WE DROVE, IT WAS 37 FREAKIN HOURS ON A BUS) and I sat there and I was exhausted. When I think about it now, the bus ride was really just a blur of me being completely dead, someone screaming, our youth pastor playing a country song that goes with the state we just entered, everyone complaining how they couldn't sleep, and terrible bathroom situations. We were in Arizona for about a week. (I think) We did a lot of construction work on their dorm. Had a competition on who could collect the most trash. (my team found a tractor and parts of a school bus) Met some really awesome people. Then the jolly team got back on the bus and drove to Colorado. On our way, we drove the Million Dollar Highway. We stopped at a look at point and just took in God's creation. Our bus driver read Psalm 104 (I think). When he finished, he told us to go out into creation and pray.
I poured my heart out to God. Everything that was building up for the past three weeks and what I didn't realize, was that I've been building up a lot of stuff the whole year but I never did anything about it. I ask God to forgive me for living the way I was and said I was ready to follow Him for real this time. As soon as I did that, I felt this burden lifted off my shoulders. I was excited, but also in shock of how quickly God moved in me. He had been with me the whole time, I was just choosing to ignore Him. That same day, my best friend Kait gave her life to Christ. So clearly God was working in many ways on that mountain. I told Kait and we both cried tears of joy for each other. The following day, Kait got baptized in the Hot Springs we happened to be at. I was eavesdropping on the conversation Kait was having with our youth pastor Wilson and I heard them say baptism and I was ooo I want to do that. As I watched Kait get baptized, I could clearly feel God telling me to get baptized, but it freaked me out. Kait could tell I wanted to get baptized and she told me to go call my mom and make sure she's okay with it. I called my mom crying and I was making no sense on the phone. She was really confused and I still wasn't sure what the heck was going on. Then the thunder started. Kait likes to say she pissed Satan off, but I think God said, "No Jaym, I've got something bigger planned." We went back to the campsite we were staying at and I talked to Kait for a really long time about baptism, anxiety and just life. This conversation led us to talk to Wilson, where I told him everything I pretty much just told all of you lovely people. He was so siked for me and just told me to make sure it was okay with my parents. He also said he wanted me to share my testimony before I got baptized. That freaked the crap out of me, but I was down.
The rest of that night, I texted my parents the longest text in the world. (it was two in the morning for them so I wasn't just gonna call them.) I woke up early and worked on my testimony and got the "okay" from my parents. Then we get on the bus to leave the campground. Now Wilson didn't tell me where the body of water was, so I was on the bus low-key freaking out. About an hour goes by and we approach a body of water that is called, "The Lake of Forks." And I'm like wow that's a great name. Where we actually stopped, the body of water was called the,"Bay of Chickens." (This is what God had planned, I GOT BAPTIZED IN THE BAY OF CHICKENS, THATS CRAZY DUDE) We got off the bus and I (still freaking out) shared my testimony with the group. As terrifying as it was, I'm really glad I did it. We then walked down to the water and I was baptized. Now I didn't come out of the water feeling like an angelic being. I felt the same, but I was able to declare in front my friends that I am going to follow Jesus with my heart and give it my all.
I think this is where I'll end it. I have still have a lot to tell, but this how I started my walk with God and I hope I was able to convey how He changed my life.
-Jayme