I grew up in a spiritually mixed family. My Mom’s family had Christian leanings, but my Dad’s side did not in any way. As a small child I remember saying a prayer with my Mom, but it wasn’t until High School that I feel like I really understood and accepted Christ at a Bible Camp in Northeast Nebraska called Camp Assurance. It was at this same camp where I first learned about Frontier School of the Bible (FSB) in the summer of 2009 or 2010, but I wouldn’t think about it until a few years later.
The summer after I graduated High School in 2012 was the first time I had a real, I guess you could say, faith crisis of sorts. All throughout my childhood my Step Mom had been battling cancer and that summer we were told that she had two weeks to live. She was still alive three weeks later. I was spending the summer working at Camp Assurance and at the end of the week we were having our last night campfire, as they do with many camps. I had prayed that God would either heal my Step Mother’s cancer or call her home because it was hard to see her hurting all of the time.
The next morning my parents showed up at breakfast to tell me that my Step Mom had passed away earlier that morning and at first I thought it was a sick joke, but as it sank in I started growing really bitter and angry at God. Looking back on it, that was really childish of me. He answered my prayer, just not in the way I wanted.
After that summer I spent the next year trying to run from God, during my first year of college, while letting myself get sucked into a vortex of anger, depression, and resentment towards God. Fortunately though God didn’t give up on me. Through a series of events as a Freshman I ended up rooming with three seniors, all of which were strong believers who were active in Campus Crusade for Christ. One roommate in particular, Nelson, would haul me to every Bible Study he could get me to on campus. Long story short; because I wasn’t doing my work at the school or attending classes I was asked not to return that following year.
That summer I returned to Camp Assurance and was trying to figure out what to do with my life since I felt like I had completely gone off the deep end and that there wasn’t much I could do. That’s when the director told me to consider applying to Frontier. So I applied and found myself sitting in classes later that August.
My first year at Frontier was kind of rough. I wasn’t in a good place spiritually at the time when I started and honestly still had a bad attitude towards a lot of things. Ironically, one of the things I struggled with the most was the idea of missions. I remember as a Freshman writing in a missions class paper that I thought the idea of missions was dumb and irrelevant… Another comment I had made was that I would never do ministry in Utah.
Well, low and behold during the 2017-2018 school year I found myself interning at a Christian radio station in Provo, Utah. During my internship it was interesting for me to find myself as a part of the minority for once as a Christian in the middle of Mormon land.
At the end of my internship I received a phone call from Ron Thompson basically saying “I want you to pray about serving in the home office of TBM. I’m giving you two weeks, we will talk then!” Well, I should point out another thing; I should mention that as I left graduation I said I was NEVER coming back to Lagrange (where FSB and TBM are located). Do you notice a trend?
That following August I found myself back in Lagrange, Wyoming doing a split internship of sorts between TBM and FSB. At TBM, which is my main focus, I help with bookkeeping in the mornings and then in the afternoon I help at Frontier in the library. This upcoming year I was also asked to work two nights a week in the snack shop as well as help organize Sunday night chapels. In return I am able to stay for free in one of the apartments on campus and all I have to pay for are my meals.
Currently I am in a TBM program called S.T.E.P. (Short Term Entry Participant) as I am looking to see if this is where God has me long term. This year (2019-2020) is my last year in the program before I need to make a decision as to however God is leading me in the future.
