"Journal#10"- College Essay Draft,For "Pacific Rim Christian College"

Pacific Rim Christian College-

“… includes a description of your conversion experience, an assessment of your current spiritual growth, and an account of your call to ministry.”

Sunday, May 30, 2009, the date still lingers in my mind, like a pop song that often gets stuck in my wondering mind. But not at all an annoying, wannabe pop song, it's kinda like a Michael Jackson song, something that you can put on repeat, and never get sick of! May 30 was perfect, blue skies, clear of gray clouds, the sun shinny as bright as ever. A perfect day for Him to change lives.

We sprinted across the hectic road, melting Jamba Juice yogurt oozing onto our hands, finally making it to an unfamiliar beach, Kailua Beach Park. I had just come from 7 crazy hours of volunteering at church, and surprisingly still had a huge amount of energy. I suppose it was the pure excitement that had me feeling like I had just drunk countless cans of soda. You see today was the day I had been anxiously waiting for, for awhile now. It was my water baptism, the day I officially become a Christian. When I first visited New Hope Windward, there was dancing, upbeat music, flashy lights, and attractive videos. After being there for about 5 minutes, I automatically thought, "There is no way this is a church!" When I was a newborn child, I was baptized as a Catholic, and I was accustom to being quiet during church, and singing songs off provided sheets of song lyrics. You see, most everyone that knows me, would describe me with one simple, 5-letter word, "CRAZY!" Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely mature, just like most high school students, but I love to have fun, and entertain others, so at the end of the day, everyone has a smile on their face. I've personally found that when I'm having fun, I tend to learn things easier, faster, and better. Growing up in a Catholic church wasn't exciting enough for me, and I personally didn't learn much. When I say this, I don't mean to offend anyone, everyone have different ways of finding Christ, and that just wasn't mine!

I was about 13 years old, when I first attended New Hope. Part of the reason my mom would take me and my siblings to church, was for a small meal after service. Now again, anyone that knows me knows that I absolutely love food! My mom often tells me that I should be a food critic when I finish school. Free food all day, everyday, sounds great, but I don't believe that's my calling in life, and I'm secretly always looking for the true purpose God has put me on Earth. So the true reason I started attending church, was for the food, but to get to the food part, I had to go to the church part. Eventually, I actually started listening, learning, and started understanding things about God. The services were so upbeat, crazy and funny, and of course entertaining. Our pastors, Pastor Dave, often reminds me of myself, crazy, energetic, funny, yet mature, loving and lovable, caring and wants to share his knowledge of God with everyone, kinda like me! Even though I was excited about my new understanding, I never really shared my religion, with my friends. I was too shamed, and scared that my friends would tease, or reject me for how I felt bout God. That was different in July 2008, when I finally got involved in church!

For about a month, the church had been asking for people to help on the Multi-Media team, I gave little thought about joining, but thought I wouldn't fit in, but I ended up volunteering anyway. My first day of volunteering had arrived; I woke up at 4 o'clock A.M., forced myself out of bed, and reluctantly, made my way to the movie theaters in Kaneohe, where the church was located. When I got there at 4:30 in the morning, I was surprised with the people; they were loving, and so energetic. I was puzzled, how could people be so happy to be at church at 4 in the morning? The whole day, complete strangers, as they call, "loved on me," and welcomed me with open arms. They expressed that it was the love, and spirit of God, that kept them coming every Sunday, and kept them so happy every morning. After months of volunteering, I soon experienced what all those people were feeling, and my relationship with God got stronger and stronger. I finally felt the strong urge to convert to Christianity, and begged my mom over and over, to let me get baptized, and when May 2009 came around, she finally granted my wish.

The experience was so spectacular. Getting baptized was one of the biggest and best decisions in my life. Words couldn't even explain the experience, it was refreshing, and I felt like a new person. When I came out of the water, I didn't feel ashamed of my religion, but proud. Maybe it was just my naive mind, but at that exact moment, I felt God was calling me to get into ministry, and that my calling in life, was to serve Him for the rest of my life.

Since my baptism, I have gotten even closer to God, and have continued to volunteer every weekend. I have learned to speak openly about God, and use Him and my religion in everyday life. I can now easily express my love for Him, without shame, or being scared of what others think of me, and truly love speaking about Him. I'm currently interested in sharing my love for God with other, which explains my interest in studying the bible and having have the honor of helping God lead people to Christianity, I guess you could say it's my passion and dream.

My friend once told me, "Destrie you have a lot of knowledge, and one day you'll share that knowledge with the world!" I believe that sharing my knowledge of God, is my true calling; to bring people to Christ, and change their lives, forever.