In 2006, God broke me—but I asked for it. I lost my job. I was poor—in spirit and my pockets. My grandfather died. I began to slip again spiritually. And God told me to leave my family and friends in Dallas—my comfort zone—and go to serve him at a suburban church just southwest of Houston. All within the first six months!

I remember my second interview with the south Texas church very well. I was resentful toward God for even asking me to show up. And afterward, in my hotel room, most of the rest of my evening was filled with wailing, weeping, rending of clothes, gnashing of teeth, and my frantic pleas, begging God not to make me go.

In my spiritual growth journey, one thing I have learned is: trust and obey. Yes, that’s the title to an old hymn you might recognize and words that I continue to live by today. So I did just that. In July 2006, I left my homeland and ventured, by faith, to a land unknown.

If you’re waiting for me to share a land-flowing-with-milk-and-honey kind of ending here, you won’t get it. That’s not exactly what happened over the next year. Without my dependencies, I was alone like never before, so the only person I had to turn to was God.

I thought: A-ha! I knew this was going to happen. He fooled me. He did all of this just so He could get me alone with Him?! Wait. He wants me all to Himself? He doesn’t want me to focus on anything or anyone other than Him?

This realization didn’t immediately cure my loneliness. I spent much of that year in the same position I was in at the hotel during my second interview. Countless nights, I lay facedown on the living room floor of my apartment and cried myself to sleep. But I soon realized that my sessions of sorrow had turned into intense times of praise and prayer. I still wept in a fierce way—but I never felt God’s closeness in a more real way than I did then.

I spent that year searching for Him, and I found Him. He didn’t shout out the answers. There were no clouds that parted or lighting bolts that struck me. There was no burning bush. But He was definitely present. I talked. He listened. He talked. I listened. The distractions in my life had masked His presence in my life.

After that year, God said, “OK. You’re time is over here. Let’s move you on to the next place.” That’s where I am today. I can’t say that I still don’t get frustrated in my walk or confused by what He’s trying to tell me. I do all the time. And I’m still seeking His kingdom and righteousness, but, over time, our relationship has grown into something spectacular.

My dad once said to me, “God is weaving the experiences of your life together into a tapestry. But you’re looking at the canvas on the backside. You can’t understand how it could make any sense when it looks like a mess. Just turn it around, and you’ll see that He’s working behind the scenes to create a beautiful work of art. Keep seeking Him, following Him, trusting and obeying Him—and, as time goes on, you’ll begin to see the big picture come together as He intended.”

In my mother’s womb, my parents dedicated me to God. At six-years-old, I realized I was a sinner, begged for His forgiveness, received His grace, and committed my life to Him. At 15, even when I didn’t understand His call, I surrendered to serve Him in ministry with my life. With our history together, He wasn’t going to let me forget these things and His purpose for me.

When my world came crashing down around me at age 20 and I was left at the merciful hands of the Father, I made a decision to change. Not the kind of change you make and then turn your back on three days later—like when you change your eating habits, start a strict, new diet, and out of nowhere, just a few days later, a piece of chocolate cake walks right into your mouth before you can say anything. It was a change that involved total surrender.

My decision to finally wave the white flag and surrender changed my world. I knew that to truly seek Him, I had to literally move away from the environment that had entrapped me. I had to emotionally pull out my scissors and cut the ties that bound me to that destructive lifestyle. And as I entered the unknown—feeling bruised, beaten, even bludgeoned—I trusted Him again for the first time in a long time.

In 2001, I left my home in Texas and transferred to Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas as a sophomore looking for a new start. Almost immediately upon entering school there, I met and bonded with a small group of girls who embraced me in genuine biblical community. Aware of my tattered state, they prayed for me, picked me up when I fell, and sometimes carried me over four semesters until I graduated in 2002. They became my sisters and remain so today.

It all sounds so dramatic, I know, but it’s not far from how intense things really were. At OBU, I re-discovered a deep love relationship with God and He began a long healing process that lasted the next few years. He was preparing me. So, after my college graduation, when I entered Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and began working at a church in Dallas, I was ready to actually do what God had called me to.

I can honestly say that my time during seminary was challenging. I knew God had called me there to continue my education, but I also spiritually felt a little like someone who had lost the use of his or her legs and was learning how to walk again. However, I had a fresh new perspective on my relationship with God—I was raw, humble, and surrendered to whatever He had planned for me.

During seminary and shortly after I graduated in 2005, I grew spiritually in leaps and bounds. I couldn’t believe I’d never known His love and grace like this before. So I decided I was ready to go deeper with Him and I made the bold decision to ask for brokenness on January 1, 2006. Big mistake? Or even bigger blessing? I asked myself this over and over for the next 10 months. God broke me every way but loose that year.

Just one more to go. Keep looking out for the final part of “Seeking God” to see what happened.

When I left my adolescence and graduated to middle school and the first two years of high school, I was more than made fun of for my faith.

Consistently, I was called “God’s daughter” and “Prude” and “Jesus freak” to my embarrassment. (Actually, I proudly wore the last label since that particular DC Talk song was popular at the time.) I was left out of most secular social activities. I was mocked behind my back and to my face—in the youth group and at school. And even got plenty of criticism from church members.

I was one hurt little girl—not understanding how my Protector could not protect me. So I waned in spending any time with God—feeling as though He had nearly abandoned me and was even allowing the torture to take place.

In my heart, I loved Him like I loved my family. But, in my flesh, my resentment grew and bubbled up inside of me until it erupted my sophomore year of high school. My parents didn’t know it at the time and neither did I, but I began slowly spiraling downward and out of control.

I was sick of being a Christian. I was sick of the mockery. I was sick of the judgment. I was tired of being the rug others wiped their feet on. The church and God both became my enemies. I thought he could give me popularity, peace, and happiness in my situation, but He hadn’t. I was angry.

Sometime during the summer between my junior and senior years in high school, I snapped. My parents didn’t know what happened to me—and I couldn’t explain it either. I think it was a combination of things—a broken heart (brought on by a bad breakup with my first boyfriend), critical Christians, my weakened faith, and my desire to finally fit in for once in my life.

I began running with the wrong crowd, attending all the hottest parties, doing things I said I never would, breaking curfew, lying to my parents, acting out in public—you name it and I did it. Needless to say, my desire to have a deeper relationship and understanding of God wilted altogether and my popularity flourished, as did the sin in my life.

For the next two years, involved in a dangerous relationship with a guy, living the life I chose, and feeling miserable and empty inside, I ran as fast and as hard as I could from God and anything holy. It was the darkest time in my life.

The popularity I’d desired for so long was extremely short-lived and came at a devastatingly high price. I had turned my back on God and embraced the way of the world, and it was time to pay up. My actions came with severe consequences—ones that caused me crash and burn, and finally left me on my face before him begging for mercy.

To find out what happened next, stay tuned for Part 3 …

I’ve decided to break up the story of my journey in search of God into a few parts. Being a writer, it seems like the right thing to do since my life has worked itself into some semblance of a novel—broken up chapter-by-chapter.

Hopefully, my story will inspire you to seek God and know that not all stories are perfect—but are pieced together like a patchwork quilt with various God experiences, wrong moves, right moves, hits and misses, and incredible blessings spotted all along the way.

I grew up in a solid Christian home, the daughter of a Southern Baptist preacher, but I often think my religious perception was a little one-sided as I began my spiritual journey. I was sheltered from much of the world’s evils yet fully aware that I lived under a magnifying glass—under the watchful eagle eye of church congregants 24/7 just waiting for me to make a wrong move so they could snatch me up and swallow me whole.

Because I developed this perception growing up, I viewed the church that way as a whole. And because I viewed the church that way, I viewed God that way for a long time.

Back then, in my heart and head, God had two personalities: 1) He was a caring, loving Father some of the time who wanted to forgive, protect, and love me unconditionally, and 2) the rest of the time he was an old grandfather-looking man sitting in his heavenly rocking chair with a wooden paddle in his right hand (with my name stamped on one side) who constantly gave me “the look” and was ready to punish me when I even neared the appearance of sin.

You know “the look”—the one your mother gave you when you started to act up in church. My mother would look me square in the eyes like she was giving me the spanking of my life in her mind. And when “the look” didn’t work, she would either grab the tender flesh on the back of my arm and pinch it until I cried out or growl at me through gritted teeth, “Stop. It. Right. Now.”

From the time I came into a personal relationship with God when I was six years old to the time I entered high school, seeking God was a difficult task for me. I wrongly misjudged him for many years because of my skewed perception. Still, I knew that I could find the Father that I loved in the Word and through prayer—even if it was full of too many “thees” and “thous.”

There were the moments when I saw him in my parents love for me and each other and through the biblical lessons they taught me, in the small ways He comforted me amidst friends who were ruthless in their mockery against my faith, and the few church members who surrounded my family and supported them faithfully.

My spiritual journey during childhood and adolescence was rocky and full of discovery. But, let’s not stop here. My journey in search of God continued after this point down a different path. Stay tuned for “Part 2.”

In 2002, Dan Haseltin, Jars of Clay’s lead singer, visited Africa and was changed forever. He saw poverty, physical and social suffering, and disease that “shook him, challenged him, and changed him.”

When he returned home, he knew he had to do something. According to his Web site, “He came back with a vision for clean blood and clean water in Africa—blood free of the HIV virus and water free of parasites and bacteria that cause AIDS patients and others undue suffering.”

He and his bandmates began Blood:Water Mission—an organization committed to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic and build clean wells, support medical facilities caring for the sick, and fight poverty, justice, and oppression—all in Africa. The band’s target audience is the church and young people, so they saw an opportunity to spread the word and call the church to action.

Recently, Blood:Water began an initiative called the “1000 Wells Project.” This project seeks to build 1000 wells and clean water projects in 1000 African communities. And they are asking people to give up $1 to the organization that can provide one year of clean water for an African.

Jessie Miller, an intern with Blood:Water Mission and a senior at Middle Tennessee State University from Lebanon, Tennessee, said, “So far, we’ve drilled around 350 wells which has affected more than 250,000 people.”

Jessie was in Jars of Clay’s target audience before she came on board. At Passion 2007, she visited the “Do Something Now” booth, and felt a tug toward Africa.

“They challenged us to drink water for two weeks and save our money that we spent on Cokes and coffee, and then donate what we didn’t spend,” she said.

Through God’s timing, she was contacted by a girl who works at Blood:Water Mission and began volunteering in June 2007. She volunteered until December 2007 and began officially as an intern in January of this year.

God has definitely given Jessie a passion for this organization. She said, “I felt the need to help others—especially in Africa. I did other stuff with a few other campaigns, but I knew Blood:Water was a good fit for me.”

Jessie will continue interning with Blood:Water throughout the summer until her graduation in December with a degree in global studies, at which point she’s open to go where God calls her. But she does know that God has given her a heart of compassion for the people of Africa.

Right now, she writes “thank you” notes to people who give, answers the questions of those who are interested in getting involved, and mans the Blood:Water booths at certain events, among other things. Even in the small things, she’s dedicated to this organization.

She said, “We’re called as Christians to be servants despite the circumstances. It’s not about my needs and wants; it’s about serving others. It’s really important for my generation to get involved because there are a lot of organizations like Blood:Water that can grow and serve because of our efforts. Our generation wants to see a change in things and we have hope to give them, but we’re going to have to be the ones to make that happen.”

To read more about Blood:Water Mission and how you can help, click here.

If you were to randomly meet Jody Johnston on the street, you would immediately notice a few things about him: he’s a bold, unashamed 17-year-old and he’s not the least bit afraid of sharing Jesus with complete strangers. This Josiah Road blogger was gifted at a very young age with a passion and insatiable drive for telling others about Jesus.

At age three, Jody spoke with his parents about his desire to know Jesus and be forgiven of his sins. But because of his age, they thought it best that he wait awhile.

Despite his age, Jody knew exactly what he needed at that age—salvation in Jesus. More than a year passed by and Jody was still asking questions.

“My dad was asked to preach at a church in Houston, Mississippi—a little town just outside of Tupelo,” Jody said. “I went with him, and on our drive there I began to ask my dad questions—what heaven was like, what hell was like, who went to heaven, and who went to hell.”

After 20 minutes of exchanging questions and answers, Jody’s dad pulled over on the side of the highway and turned to face his son.

“I thought I was about to get into trouble for asking too many questions, but instead the opposite happened,” Jody said. “I was offered the greatest gift of all time—salvation from my sins and everlasting life! My father led me in a prayer.”

That moment was the beginning of several spiritual milestones that led to where he is today. “Since that time I have shared the Gospel with almost everyone I meet—and spread the love that Christ showed to me,” Jody said.

Two years later, riding in the backseat of his grandparent’s car on the way to a funeral, Jody led his cousin to salvation in Jesus. When he was eight, he learned the FAITH evangelism outline—a step-by-step way to share his faith. At age 12, God called Jody into ministry. And when he was 14-years- old, Jody traveled to Daytona Beach, Florida, for the “Student FAITH Challenge.”

At the “Student FAITH Challenge,” leading a team of five 15- to 16-year-olds, Jody and his group walked the beach, passed out water, and shared the Gospel with people for four hours. In that time, 26 people came to know Jesus.

Today, Jody is a high school junior, active in music, sports, and Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). He leads worship in his youth group, loves to play ultimate Frisbee and boulder, and he’s an advocate for several culture-changing movements: The Call, Bound 4 Life, and Pure Life Revolution.

As a young person, Jody knows his purpose, wants to impact this generation and culture, and seeks to serve the Lord with all his heart just as King Josiah did (2 Chronicles 34).

He said, “I am to do whatever He asks of me—whether [it’s] preach, teach, worship, or whatever for Him. … No journey is smooth, [but] my journey is one toward righteousness.”

His ministry with Josiah Road is one of the ways Jody feels he can help cause change. He said, “If we as a nation could learn what seeking God really is, we would see results greater than Josiah did. I see Josiah Road as the greatest thing to happen yet. It is going to be used to transform not only a generation, but the world.”

William Borden

William Borden was born on November 1, 1887. He lived a privileged life as a child and teenager as the heir to Borden Dairy, Inc. When he was seven years old, he surrendered his life to Christ and dedicated himself to do whatever God wanted with his life.

A 1904 graduate of a private boarding prep school in Chicago, William’s parents gave their 16-year-old son a trip around the world as a graduation present. He traveled through Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. During his journey, he felt a growing burden for the hurting people of the world.

William wrote home about his desire to be a missionary. One friend expressed his disappointment that William was throwing his life away to be a missionary. But William wrote in the back of his Bible: “No reserves.”

In 1905, William arrived on the campus of Yale University. The other students knew he was different. One classmate said: “He came to college far ahead, spiritually, of any of us. He had already given his heart in full surrender to Christ and had really done it.”

During his first semester, William began meeting with a classmate to pray before breakfast. Over time, the prayer duo grew and birthed a movement that spread across campus. By the end of his first year, 150 freshmen were meeting for weekly Bible study and prayer. And by the time William was a senior, 1,000 of Yale’s 1,300 students were meeting in these groups.

In college, William made it his habit to seek out “lost” students and bring them to salvation. He founded the Yale Hope Mission, and created an outreach ministry to care for the orphaned and widowed and rescue the homeless and hungry.

One of his friends wrote about him: “He might often be found in the lower parts of the city at night, on the street, in a cheap lodging house or some restaurant to which he had take a poor hungry fellow to feed him, seeking to lead men to Christ.”

He made one entry in his journal that described what others saw in him: “Say ‘no’ to self and ‘yes’ to Jesus every time.”

William graduated from Yale in 1909 and went on to attend Princeton Theological Seminary. During seminary, he taught a Sunday School class in a black church and gave thousands of dollars to Christian causes.

In 1912, he graduated from seminary and was ordained that year by Dr. James M. Gray at the Moody Memorial Church. He then set sail for China hoping to work with Muslims. But first, he traveled to Egypt to study with Dr. Samuel Zwemer, a missionary to the Muslim people.

Unfortunately, at the end of 1912, William contracted cerebral meningitis and died only a few months later on April 9, 1913 at the age of 25.

That’s not the end of his story, though. William had influenced dozens to become missionaries because of his challenge. He encouraged hundreds to full surrender of their lives and fortunes to God. He led hundreds of people to a personal relationship and salvation in Jesus.

Prior to his death, Borden had written two more words in his Bible. Underneath the words “No reserves” he had written: “No retreats” and “No regrets.”

Source: Kuykendall, David W. “Profiles of Famous Christians.” 1994: California: http://www.kjvuser.com/profilesoffamouschristians.htm.

Amber Barron

Imagine her surprise! Marina became hysterical. As a result, she was beaten, raped, sold off, and finally locked in a windowless basement for a month, drinking water from the toilet and going without food.

She finally managed to escape. But now, she rarely leaves her two-bedroom home in northern Israel because she fears the government will deport her or the criminal gangs will force her back into prostitution.

This story came from the blog of Amber Barron, a 28-year-old freedom fighter for humans being trafficked all over the world.

Exactly one year ago, Amber (who was working in commercial real estate) read a CNN article about Somaly Mam, a Cambodian woman sold into sexual slavery as a child. Now, a free woman, she works to free other girls in the same situation. Almost instantly, Amber said she heard God saying,”This is the work I want you to do.”

In June 2007, Amber resigned her job and joined Dan Trippie, to form and become president of Freedom’s Promise—an organization created to rescue women and children affected by the human trafficking trade, raise awareness in our communities and abroad, aid in the rehabilitation process of victims, and address the root causes of trafficking.

Human trafficking, a modern-day form of slavery, is the second largest organized crime industry in the world. Each year, 600,000 to 800,000 victims are trafficked across international borders. And 14,500 to 17,500 national foreigners are trafficked annually in the United States.

According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: “Many victims of human trafficking are forced to work in prostitution or the sex entertainment industry. … Traffickers use various techniques to instill fear in victims and to keep them enslaved.”

Amber said, “Women and girls are given promises of good jobs in other countries such as cleaning houses, being a nanny, or modeling. Once they arrive in the country, their passports and visas are confiscated and they are taken to a brothel where they are beaten and raped, and begin work as sex slaves.”

Young Cambodian girl

Today in Cambodia, Amber said, “There are whole village areas that are filled with brothels. It’s common for mothers to sell their daughters to feed the rest of the family. [The village girls] start off at five or six years old participating in oral sex. By the time they are nine and ten, they are participating in intercourse.”

Mainly working in the Nashville area, Brazil, and Cambodia, Freedom’s Promise hopes to facilitate relationships with other organizations and build a large community of awareness locally, nationally, and worldwide about human trafficking.

Sadly, this issue is closer to home in our own American cities than most of us realize.

Amber challenges you to do something right where you are by raising awareness among your friends, family, and co-workers. She said, “This is an opportunity to wake America up to modern-day slavery and fight to free these people.”

For ways to help stop human trafficking or support Freedom’s Promise, go online to freedomspromise.org.

Twenty-year-old Daniel Blackaby, regular blogger on Josiah Road, was born “sandwiched between an older brother and younger sister” into a strong Christian home. At the young age of four, Daniel came to know Jesus—fully understanding the decision he was making even then.

At the local ice-skating rink one day, Daniel decided it was time to accept Jesus into his life. “I closed my eyes and prayed, and asked [Jesus] to forgive my sins and be my Lord. I opened my eyes just in time to see the end boards before I ran face-first into them. … My dad always told me I started my Christian journey with a bang.”

In early high school, Daniel reached a point in his spiritual journey when he went through some hard stuff. “I started to have doubts if God really does love me,” he said. “I realized that I had reached an age where I couldn’t just believe because my parents and siblings did. I had to make my faith my own.”

Also enduring the struggle of being a part of a family that had served in Christian service, Daniel felt the pressure to serve in ministry from those who expected him to be just like his dad and grandpa. He said, “I didn’t want to be the ‘black sheep Blackaby’ that broke the trend.”

Through some specific faith-changing events (read about them in his blogs) that caused him to see the reality of God’s presence in his life, Daniel re-dedicated his heart to God. He committed to go deeper in his faith and answered God’s call to Christian service—something he initially resisted.

Today, a second-year student at Mount Royal College in Calgary, AB, he is focused on pursuing his education and preparing for ministry. “I try and keep a very willing and open-minded attitude right now, and do whatever task it is God calls me to do, and do it to the very best of my ability.”

Also playing a part in his life story, Daniel admits he is an intense music lover (having collected nearly 1,000 CDs on his iTunes), writer (of music and other stuff), reader, and musician in the band, Fading Rebel, which recently played at the Calgary Stampede, one of the biggest events in Canada.

First exposed to the Christian band, MxPx, in seventh grade, Daniel said, “[My band has] been able to do a bit of touring and playing in various bars and secular settings. But everywhere we go, we’ve also been able to bring the gospel message with us and share with people we probably never would have had the opportunity with otherwise.”

Through his music and life, Daniel is set on influencing other young believers today.

He said, “There’s a line between secular and Christian…and a lot of Christian young people today are trying to figure out how to get as close as possible to that line without crossing it. I’d like to encourage young people not to fall into that dangerous game. Let’s sprint away from that line. God is only going to use us to change the world as much as we are willing to be used.”

In an effort to let you learn more about the bloggers you enjoy reading, this is the first of several posts that give you insight into more of their world.

Twenty-two-year-old Mike Blackaby could easily be called a Jack-of-all-trades. He’s a full-time seminary student, the “unofficial” leader of the young adults ministry at his church, regular Josiah Road blogger, and he recently started a worship band. But his passion—preaching.

The oldest of three kids, Mike Blackaby grew up in a Christian home, the son of a minister. Always there when the church doors were open, he thought he accepted Christ when he was eight-years-old.

“My motivation for accepting Christ was because my younger brother just had and I didn’t want him to do it first! I prayed the prayer I had always known about and then got baptized by my dad in his church,” he said.

It wasn’t until Mike was 14-years-old that he finally entered into a personal relationship with God after he attended a Franklin Graham Crusade with his youth group.

“At this Crusade, Franklin challenged us to get right with God once and for all and erase all doubt so we could really start living for Him,” he said. “I gave my life to Christ there and have never doubted my salvation since. It was not about a ‘Sinner’s Prayer’ but about a complete heart and life change.”

Because most of his family served in ministry, everyone assumed Mike would follow in their footsteps, which he says was “a lot of pressure.”

He said, “When I received my own call from God into the ministry, I knew it was unique to me. God surrounded me with my family to help prepare me for my own calling, but He had also made me unique and had a special plan for my life.”

As the oldest sibling, Mike claims he was the responsible and optimistic one growing up. He became the “leader” of his siblings, which started to leak into other areas of his life as well.

“As I grew more confidant in who God made me, I emerged as a leader among my friends and peers,” he said. “I never wanted to be a leader, but it just sort of happened.”

Over the past few years, Mike has faced some hard decisions and trials, as he was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes just four years ago. But he has the full support of his family, friends, and church on this path.

“There have been big decisions—following my call to ministry [and] deciding this year to move 40 hours from my home for seminary—and some trials. The last couple of years have really been eye-opening to me about my character. I have made some big mistakes, but God is taking me through them.”

Of his journey, Mike said, “I have a clear sense of calling into the ministry. However, I’m not totally sure what this looks like right now. I guess God just has me doing a variety of ministry things right now, and will make things clear as He directs. … It’s about walking by faith each day.”