About six years ago, my parents divorced, and we did not attend church regularly. We had some family friends who went to Legacy and invited us, and they kept asking us until we went. My mom loved it, but I wanted nothing to do with God or church, but as a good parent should, she made me go again. The next time we went, we started taking the Next Step class to start serving; though we did not know what serving was, we just knew we had to do it. 

As we continued to go to church, my mom started tithing and supporting our family, and paying for our home without help. She was all on her own, and we saw God provide for us every time and never went without. My mom would always say that when she got paid, she would sit down to give her tithes, look at her bills, and think, "I don't know how I am going to make it this time, but here you go, God." My mom was either terrible at math, or there truly is a faithful God who provides miraculously. By my mom displaying her trust in God when she was going through one of the most challenging situations in life, I got to see firsthand the miracles that can happen.

I remember I could not wait to get a job to give my tithes and offerings because I wanted to obey God and see what He could do with it. Now that I work and provide for myself, I cannot brag enough about what God has done in my life since I was able to start obeying Him and acting on His Word. God has been so faithful. I went on to graduate high school, and I am going to college, two things in my family that not many people have done. Also, God softened my heart to forgive my parents for the past and helped me let go of bitterness, and through serving, God helped me grow into my calling of becoming a teacher. Now that I am living my life for God, generational curses of drug addiction, alcoholism, and poverty will stop with me. My future children will have a completely different life and won't have to fight the curses but will have generations of people praying for them.

I am living proof that there is a God who heard a little girl crying out for help. I want to thank Pastor Steve for being sensitive to his calling, appointing great leaders, and building a church where everyone feels welcome, anyone can come and serve, and anyone can receive the gift of Salvation.

-Alyssa G.