A little about me

Hi! I thought I would start out by explaining a little bit about myself. I am a pastor's daughter, but I haven't always been. I actually grew up Catholic until I was 9 and my parent's friends invited them to a Baptist church near where I grew up in Missouri. Throughout my childhood, I struggled with a fear of death (an unusual thing for a 9 year old to think about, I know). I would constantly have nightmares about dying and not being good enough to make it to heaven. I was scared to death of the thought of hell and the devil. I sat in children's church at a little independent Baptist church and listened as the lady explained the gospel for 4 sundays in a row but I was too scared to raise my hand at the end of class. Finally, on the 4th sunday, I raised my hand and she took me to a back room and led me to the Lord. And I have never had another nightmare about hell since that day! (August 4th, 1997) (Thank God for faithful lay people in the church who taught children's church week after week) I later found that my dad had been saved in "big church" that same day! That's something special that my dad and I share.
We immediately became involved in church. My dad wanted to learn all he could about the Bible and soaked everything up like a sponge. He was amazed that someone could go 31 years through his life and never hear the Gospel. After only about a year he became the youth director and the teen class grew from 3 to 30 in a few months. God blessed tremendously!
There was a church split after about 4 years there and our family ended up leaving and attending another Baptist church in a nearby town. It was while we were attending there that my dad surrendered to the call to preach. We moved to Cleveland, Oklahoma (a small town about 45 minutes from Tulsa) and my dad took a small church there. That was where I officially became a "Preacher's kid". I was 14. My dad pastored there for 3 years and God grew the church in a major way. Then my dad felt the need to move to Heber Springs, Arkansas to get some more training under another pastor. We moved there when i was 17 and the plan was to eventually be sent out of this church to start one. Well, I went off to Heartland Baptist Bible college in the fall of 2006, and in May of 2007, my family was moving again... this time, back to our hometown area. Dad felt called to start a church in a little town right near where I grew up. My first summer home from college was also my first summer being not only a pastor's daughter but a church planter's kid. I have learned a lot from my experience as a youth director's daughter, a pastor's daughter, a church planter's daughter, and leaving home to go to Bible college. I continue to learn to trust God each day and I have learned so much about his control of my life. I hope to share some of it with anyone willing to read and I pray it will be a help. :) That's all for today. Come back again later! Thanks for reading!