I didn’t grow up knowing God, and at a young age I experienced true pain. I faced depression, fear, and waves of heavy emotion that seemed unbearable.

On April 19, 2019, my world collapsed when my dad passed away. I didn’t know how to cope. I felt hopeless. I tried every worldly thing to make that feeling go away – substances, influences, and self-harm. But nothing took the pain away.

I felt completely lost.

Then, in the summer of 2023, I signed up for Camp Creek. I think I was just desperate for something, anything to help. What I found was hard to explain – it was like stepping into a different world where my struggles and temptations were quieted, and I could just hear God. It honestly felt like hope. Like something I was longing for and never realized.

During worship and with my group and my leader, I felt like God was speaking directly to me. Calling me to a life with him filled with hope. I gave my life to Jesus that week. I learned that he died on the cross for my sin, and he was raised to life three days later, defeating death and sin and making a way for me to be made right with him. All the sin I had dealt with was forgiven because of Jesus. He found me at my lowest and offered me a new life with him.

I went from lost to found. Hopeless to filled with hope.

And now I live to serve him. He has worked in me to bring healing from loss, forgiveness for my past, and now calls me to live fully for him daily. I serve on Sundays and went on a mission trip this past summer.

I still struggle, but I’m no longer struggling alone because he’s walking with me through it all.