Honestly, this stage in my life seems to be the most...important, that I can remember. That's not really the word I'm looking for, but how else do I describe it? I've changed so much in the past year, the past 6 months, even-it's probably a lot like being a baby, only I don't remember that much at all. But I want to remember this part of my life-the positive and the negative-so that's another reason for having this blog.
To start, I'll give a bit of a background on my life up until I started college. If you're able to hang in there with me until the end, I should give you a cookie!
I've lived in a 6,000 population town all my life, and our biggest claim to fame is probably that we have more cows than people. My first time outside of New York was a few days before I turned 13, when we drove down to Pennsylvania to buy a puppy. Maybe it's because I didn't travel much as a kid, but I have this great love of seeing the world, experiencing new things with people I care about, and taking tons of pictures to record it all. In high school, I went to Cleveland, Ohio, Washington, D.C., New York City, and Orlando, Florida, all on school trips, and I loved (almost) every second of them! I graduated in a class of 64, where everybody knew everybody and it felt more like a giant extended family than a school. So these trips were like I imagine extended family vacations might be.
The most defining day of my life wasn't the first time I saw the ocean, or meeting our representative on Capitol Hill. It was the day after I turned 15-July 8, 2008, and it started out as any other day that summer. My alarm went off at 5:45 (yeah, I don't understand why I set it that early either), and I got ready for the day. I called a friend, Jess, to ask if she wanted to go swimming, but she was going up to a Christian camp with her family that afternoon to visit her brother David and sister Megan, who were working there. (I might add that David was my boyfriend at the time!) She invited me to come along-her family was doing worship that night. My parents said it was okay.
If you had asked me that morning, "What's your religion?", I would have told you that I was a Christian. I was baptized as a baby, I had gone to church for a few months when I was 11, I tried to read the Teen Devotional Bible my grandmother got me for Christmas that same year, and it ticked me off when my teacher talked about evolution as a proven fact. Now, I would describe that Jenna as a "head" believer, rather than a "heart" believer. I knew that God existed, and I had said the "sinner's prayer" at the back of my Bible, but my goal in life wasn't to know Him or to carry out His will.
But everything changed that night. The camp does two "chapels," one for younger kids and one for older campers. The second chapel had a skit in which people were worshipping God in a different country, one where it was illegal to be a Christian. Men came in with guns and told the believers that they had to spit on the Bible or they would be shot. Some of them complied and were let go, but one girl refused. Instead, she wiped off the Bible, and she was "shot" as the lights went out. When they came back on, we were informed that this was a true story.
I don't really know how to describe what came over me, except to say that I "got" it. It was as clear to me as the chapel when the lights came back on. I said I was a Christian, but would I be ready to die for my faith that way? Was it really a faith at all? The answer to both of these questions was a resounding "no." I didn't talk to anyone about what was going on inside of me-not Jess, not David, not their parents-but I was saved that night.
Not having grown up in the church, I didn't know that that was the word for what happened. I didn't know that it was the Holy Spirit revealing the truth to me. I honestly didn't even get that I wasn't saved before I went, and now I was. All I knew was, I wanted to read the Bible, I wanted to know God. I read it cover to cover in 2-3 weeks. I wouldn't recommend speed-reading it now-quality over quantity-but I was just so thirsty to KNOW. And I started listening to Christian music and finding that I actually enjoyed it!
About six months later, I started going to church with Jess and her family, and the rest, as they say, is history! I mean, who but God would have worked it out that I was dating him and that I went that particular night, when they did that particular skit? ""For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD" in Isaiah 55:8.
Fast-forward a few years. Actually, to about a year ago right now, when my friend Sandi asked me if I would like to start going to a Bible study with her. Not just any study-this one was in Spanish, for some of the guys from Mexico who worked on area farms. I said sure-but only my 2nd week, the interpreter couldn't attend; would I be able to translate?
To say that I was nervous would be an understatement. Sure, I'd taken Spanish since I was 11 (with the exception of my junior year of high school), but Kristy was miles ahead of me-and it's not like "the Bible" is a unit covered in school. I had no idea how to say the word for "Jews," let alone "Holy Spirit," "resurrection," or anything else! But I agreed to try it. So, that Friday night, I showed up armed with a packet reviewing the different verb tenses, a Spanish-English dictionary, whatever chapter of John we were in printed off in Spanish, and my regular Bible.
"Luckily" for me, only two of the "amigos," as we called them, were there, along with the Bakers, who led the study, their daughter Bethany (one of the "jefes," or "bosses," at the farm), Sandi, and me. Leo and Nelson were great about it-I have no idea if they understood a single word of what I said, but they didn't make me feel at all stupid, and Nelson knows quite a bit of English and was quick to offer a helping hand.
Something funny happened, though. As more studies came, with more opportunities to interpret, the more I enjoyed it. I knew I still had a lot to learn, but I was willing-talking with the guys to practice, learning the different words that they used versus the traditional "Spain" Spanish I'd been taught. For example, in Mexico and Guatemala "what's up?" is "¿qué onda?" but the first time someone chatted me asking me this, I literally interpreted "onda" as "wave" and we were both very confused...but by the time July rolled around, just two months later, I added Spanish on to my Creative Writing major. Without the study, I doubt that I would have so much as taken a single Spanish class in college!
"Spoiler" alert-I went on a missions trip to the Dominican Republic in January of this year (more on that next post). Would I have been interested in going had I not added the Spanish major? Would I have been able to help interpret for the team? This is the best example I have in my (relatively) short walk with God of stepping out in faith. God rewards us for going beyond our comfort zones to carry out His will, and there are countless examples of this in the Bible-Joshua was commanded to be "strong and courageous" in Joshua 1:9; in Exodus 4:10, Moses refers to himself as "slow of speech and tongue" when God commands him to lead the people out of Egypt...I could go on, but you can go check it out for yourself!
After a summer of working as a camp counselor and Bible studies, I was off to my first semester of college, ready...or not!
P.S.-Tried adding a picture, but it said I don't "have permission" ...still really new at this whole blog thing, so please have patience!
-Jenna
Edit: A picture of me with David and Jess
Really enjoyed what you had to say Jenna & I am looking forward to your next blog post!!
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