I was born and raised in the deep south of Lake Charles, Louisiana. I love my family roots and I’m thankful to have learned early how to be a tomboy and a lady. Growing up as the baby of four in a neighborhood full of boys, playing ball, shooting guns, and riding motorcycles… I learned how to be tough.
As I look back on my life, God was preparing me in the beginning for the journey that would lie ahead which would require a determination and inner strength to stand in the face of adversities.
At the age of 12, I had a major encounter with the Lord and was saved in the youth service at our local Catholic church.
In one moment in the presence of God, my life was changed. What took place in that moment was personal between God and me. He knew my desperation, anger and painful secret I had been carrying, as I had been sexually abused for many years. I gave Him all of me and He gave me all of Him.
Later, I was chosen as one of the youth core leaders and the priest personally taught us the Word of God, and mentored us to teach, preach and testify. We traveled around the region leading retreats for other youth groups. This was the beginning and turning point of my walk with God and embracing my destiny.
I served God throughout my youth and married life diligently.
Then came the day that, in one moment, my greatest fear became reality.
Every mother’s greatest fear is that something might harm her children. My faith was tragically shaken with one cry. I heard the blood-curdling scream when my son, Gavin, at the age of two and a half was severely burned by a hot water heater igniting a gasoline fire. He later died. God’s grace is sufficient …even when you don’t feel like it.
Death demands something of you!
I personally encountered Jesus Christ, my risen savior who overcame death, hell and the grave! God healed my broken heart and restored my joy to stand on His Word. I learned to hide in Him when I was weak and fight back against the enemy when I was strong.
One of many things I learned on this long journey has become a motto for my life: “You are stronger than you think you are!”
I am so thankful that I have served God and attended several different denominations of faith throughout my life: Catholic, Baptist and non-denominational, which all believe in Jesus Christ.
So many people have been hurt in church and by religion, but I came through the back door of church and didn’t know anything about religion, since I am a first generation Christian. I had an encounter with the raw presence of God and the Holy Spirit healed and restored my shattered life.
Through all the healing, I felt God calling me into ministry.
I began teaching and seeding back into other young girls and boys and this instilled a passion in me for mentoring. Seeing lives changed propelled me to pursue God with all my heart.
At a Joyce Meyer conference, I received the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues. I began to walk in more boldness and developed a deeper hunger for His Presence and Word.
God led my family and I to a non-denominational church in our city and I began to grow exponentially in the Lord. This was an amazing time in my life of receiving new revelation and building on the foundation of faith God had already revealed to me.
I ministered in the youth and college ministries and was part of developing a discipleship and mentoring program for young adults. We saw lives radically changed as we invested in each of them. They embraced worship as a lifestyle through leadership, servanthood, identity, unshaken faith, fear of the Lord, and pursuing God wholeheartedly to fulfill their destiny. I also experienced firsthand the power of a mentor.
After all the years of serving and ministering in the youth and college, I became a seeker of mentoring myself.
I became a leader in Judy Jacobs’ International Institute of Mentoring, (IIOM) in 2011. Everything I was born for and had been carrying inside was awakened and came alive in me!
God had been shaping and preparing me along the journey through hardships and storms in my life, as well as the years of each shepherd and mentor that covered me in prayer and seeded into my life. But now, it was time for me to receive the power and faith to walk it out.
No matter how young or old we are, we all need mentors in our life. At the IIOM, I have received great revelation and teaching of the Word of God, wisdom, encouragement, and impartation to run… run after all God has created me to do, because Jesus is coming back soon and souls are on the line.