My Story

My family and I moved from a small town in Tennessee in 2000 to Nashville. I essentially started a new life. New school, new home, new city, new church, etc. We had some friends who attended a church in Brentwood called Harpeth Hills, so we tried it out... and we never left. Twelve years later, and I could not be more blessed to have a church family like this one. The majority of my best friends growing up attended this church, and we are still best friends today. I believe with all my heart God put me in this church so I could be in that youth group and learn to develop my own relationship with Jesus. I cannot begin to say how much I appreciate my youth ministers, teachers, and friends for encouraging me to get to know Jesus in my own way, and not just the way some say we "should".

Three years after moving I found myself starting high school, and one of my girlfriends really encouraged me to go on a mission trip to Honduras. She said her sister had gone the past 2 years, and we should really try and raise the money to go. I had never been out of the country, only flown on a plane twice, and didn’t even know where to locate Honduras on a map. I was in my first year of spanish in high school, and I felt really out of my element.

Either way I felt God moving me towards this decision, so I committed to go. I set out working, babysitting, and doing anything I could to make/save money to go. The trip was about $1000 at the time, and I didn’t send one letter asking for money. This was something I wanted, therefore I was willing to work for it. Looking back this made me appreciate the trip so much more, because it wasn’t something I was given, but something I worked hard to be able to do and enjoyed that much more. The time came, I packed my bag wearily - not having a clue what to bring- and set off at 5 in the morning to Central America.

This was June of 2005, and I still remember the smell the first time I got off that plane. This was of course after the moment when I thought I was going to die on the runway (one of the shortest landing strips in the world). Inside had one rotating luggage claim and a dirt floor. But what most set in and will never leave my memory were the hundreds of people waiting outside the only exit begging. Being a freshman in a private high school, I had never seen ANYTHING like this. The people looked... dirty. I didn’t understand how even the babies looked dirty, with unbrushed hair, and clothes with visible holes in them. I stood there, mouth ajar, with my initialed LL Bean backpack just looking at these women and children. Here I was, with my portable CD player, first digital camera, etc all shoved in my backpack - and these items were probably worth more than these people had in their entire home.

Fast forward to the end of the trip, and I was a wreck. Life as I knew it had been turned upside down. On that one trip, I met my best friend for the first time, I saw things with my eyes I had only seen on National Geographic, and I made a decision that would impact my entire life. At the time I didn’t know it would, but I decided to study spanish. I went home, and from that moment forward, all I thought about for my next 3 years of school was to be better at spanish and save my money for the annual summer trips to Honduras.

I think the simplicity in their lives and their happiness with what little they had were two things that really drew me in. I wanted to be like that. I wanted to live day-by-day and be happy there was even food in the refrigerator.

Fast forward again to December my senior year of college, and I had been on a total of 10 trips to Honduras. I had long fallen in love with the boys at Jovenes en Camino (the orphanage I currently work at) and the country in general. I started going at Christmas time, spring break, and any other chance I could afford it. I went on that trip in December 2010 thinking it would be my last. At the time I was getting ready to graduate college, preparing my resume, and even having phone interviews for job positions/internships in Argentina and Chile. While I had done nothing less than fall in love with Honduras and its people, as a business major, I didn’t see much of a future working in Honduras. I had prayed about it, but decided I should really take advantage of this last trip and enjoy it for what it was worth.

After many tears and feelings of “unsettled business”, I went back home to Nashville “depressed” as me and my friends always joked (how we felt after coming back to our lives so richly blessed). Well as many always say, God truly finds a way to show you His plans in His own time, and that’s exactly what He did for me that Christmas. By January I had somehow managed to make around enough money through Christmas gifts, overnight babysitting, housesitting, etc - and so I decided to talk to my mentor about getting a trip together. A few days later I purchased a round trip ticket to Honduras for spring break.

Without writing a novel about that spring break, it really changed my life. God opened a lot of doors, and He helped me line up my future. Here I am today, three years in Honduras, and my life has been thoroughly, utterly, and perfectly changed. I can never, ever give proper thanks to those who have helped me along the way, but I do want you all to know you have played a huge part in my life. From my parents and youth ministers to my friends and those who hired me, I have you to owe for leading, encouraging, and allowing me to this dream of mine - to live my life serving others. For that, I am forever in your debt.