THAT'S WHERE MY LIFE BEGINS!

This year, I have had the opportunity to serve in various areas through my church. I have served on worship teams and participated in a charity event for homeless neighborhoods downtown. All of these experiences have helped grow me as a person through my compassion for others and my musical abilities which I am using to serve God. 
My most unique service experience was definitely going downtown. Honestly, I was terrified the whole time. I had never evangelized before and I was in a part of town that I had never frequented before.  I would say the experience was good for me, but it left me feeling dismayed after witnessing how people live on the streets. I learned about this opportunity from my church youth group, and I wanted to get plugged in with activities so I figured it would be a good start. Overall, this experience taught me to be grateful for what I have because there are so many people who don’t even have a bed to sleep in at night. It also showed me God’s incredible power in bringing some of these people to tears when we discussed the gospel with them. My heart goes out to the homeless, and I know in the future I will be more considerate when I see someone on the street.
This year, most of my service hours have come from serving on the worship team at Shadow Mountain’s Alpine Campus. Through this experience, I have learned how to blend with other voices in a band, how to use in-ear technology, how to develop my lower register, and countless other tips from my worship leader. I have thoroughly enjoyed serving on their worship team, and I am so happy to have a small-church environment in my life again. This experience has affected me because it has continually shown me the heart of worship. It doesn’t matter if I have a solo, if the audience is empty, or if we have technical difficulties; I just need to give my all to the Lord because worship is a celebration of Him. Going forward, I hope to serve on more worship teams, such as the one at CBU in college. I might even pursue being a worship leader in the future, following in my dad’s footsteps.
My service opportunities have been beneficial for me in many ways, and I am grateful for the chance to serve my church and my community.