I grew up in San Diego, California, in a little surf town called Encinitas. Though my parents believed in a Higher Power, going to church was unheard of, with the exception of the once-in-a-blue-moon Easter or Christmas service. I thought that God was religion and that He was a reflection of the people supposedly following Him. I searched everywhere, high and low, for purpose, meaning, and love in many different forms in all the wrong places. That was until I encountered the living God through the passing of a dear friend of mine. He had gone away to do YWAM in Australia, where his life was completely transformed, and he dedicated his life shortly after to ministry. Upon staffing a YWAM school in Germany, he found out he had cancer, which he battled for four years, and went home to Jesus in 2017 while I was doing a study abroad program in Spain. Though he tried to share the love of Jesus many times with me, my heart was hardened when it came to receiving. It wasn’t until he passed away that God broke down the walls of my heart and showed me what His love really was. The religious God turned into a relational loving Father, meeting me in the tragedy and comforting me. All the love I was searching for in the wrong places was actually found in Him. Though I would like to say I immediately flipped my life around, it took coming to the end of myself several more times until I eventually surrendered my life in 2023 and decided to follow my friend’s footsteps to do YWAM in Pichilemu, Chile. God grew my gifts in language and worship while I was there, where I translated English and Spanish on a daily basis and led worship in both languages several times a week. Now, I have been completely transformed by Jesus, and the only thing I wish to do is use all the gifts that God has given me, my calling for worship, fluency in Spanish, and passion for authentic community to be a light to those who were lost in the darkness like I once was.