The Godly and Their Stories / Featuring Hunter

I recently began a series here on Simple Grounds called, "The Godly and Their Stories." This series came to me, when I realized how important it is to share, not only my own words, but also the words of other believers who are seeking and loving Christ. My own life has a story, and so does yours. On my first post I brought Kailey's story. Today I bring you another story of a wonderful, passionate, godly woman.

"Christianity has been present in my life since a young age. I was brought up knowing that I wasn’t to make plans on Sundays because we had a day of church followed by family time. Growing up in church with a loving, Christian family always taught me to have good morals in and out of school, and be a positive influence to my friends. All the moral acts were done out of fear of disappointing my parents and our family name. Church and Christianity was second nature to me, but dedicating my life to the will of Jesus Christ was taboo.

It wasn’t until the summer before my junior year that I was confronted with the personal presence of Jesus. I was on a mission trip to Mexico, not by choice at the time. I had begun high school as a typical coming-of-age teenager. My reliance became on how I was viewed by the world and how I could improve myself. My selfish attitude began to affect my home-life, causing many family arguments between me and my family members and ultimately between my parents. I wanted nothing to do meeting other people who were labeled as those “crazy Christians” that would force me to believe something I wanted nothing to do with. After being at campus for two days, I saw and felt more love than I ever have before. There was a war going on inside of me, one I couldn’t ignore. The Lord was speaking to me loud and clear. “You must make a choice. Now is the time. You can continue on the path you’re on or you can come with me and all I have to offer you.” At that moment I made a choice to let go of my selfish desires and all the negative influences I relied on. A weight was lifted off my shoulders and I have never felt so much freedom and love than I have in that moment.

Since that summer I have pursued The Lord and whatever He has planned for me. In the summer before my senior year, the Lord led me to Africa. He led me to a young girl at the age of fourteen named Jennifer, who approached me about needing shoes for school. If she didn’t have shoes, she couldn’t go to school and she would have to get married. I couldn’t imagine being married at my age, let alone her's. I couldn’t believe I had a closet full of shoes used to accessorize myself at school, when girls needed just one pair to get to school and live a free life. I confronted my mom with the need to do something when I returned home, to begin to collect shoes from the community and send them to that village. The first month home we collected over 200 pairs of shoes and sent them to our village. We began to do more each month and eventually thought, “we have to take this beyond Africa, Beyond Uganda.” With that, our nonprofit organization was born. We strive to give intentional, relational, discipleship all through the love of Jesus Christ and create freedom in individual and through a country.

The Lord has used willingness to accept His love and follow Him to lead me to a place I never thought I would be. Never could I have imagined myself freeing women and families in Uganda, Africa all in the name of Jesus Christ. This has shown me that the Lord can use anybody, with any past, and any mistake, and take them on a journey of forgiveness, love, and an adventure of a lifetime."

Hunter is the founder of Beyond Uganda, an organization dedicated to changing the lives of those located in Uganda, Africa by providing physical and spiritually. The work of the organization is incredibly beautiful, and the Lord is at the center. Find out how you can get involved here.