About two years ago when I went to Jacmel, Haiti, with my youth group, we were told that every morning we would walk around the village talking to people about how we came to find Christ. Each morning we would walk around town, offering to plant fruit saplings, and be welcomed into people’s homes to tell them how faith had gotten us to that moment in our lives.

I have thought a lot lately about how comfortable I came to be sharing my faith with strangers, when I hadn’t talked about it with people in my own communities. So, this is my story of how my faith has brought me to this point in my life.

I was born into a Christian family -- both my grandfathers served the ministry, and my parents took me to church. I was dedicated, as a baby, at the same church that my family still attends.

My parents took a different stance than many of my friends’ parents. As soon as I was old enough to stay home by myself, it was my choice whether or not I wanted to go to church. There were a couple of years when they first gave me that freedom that I wasn’t at church on Sundays as often as my friends whose parents didn’t give them a choice.

But I will always be thankful to my parents for allowing me to choose to go to church -- because they let it be my faith.

I became a member of our church’s Youth Group when I was 13, and went to church every Wednesday night, Sunday morning, and Sunday night because that’s where my best friends were -- and, in full disclosure, where my boyfriend was.

My favorite week of every year was the mission trip with my youth group. I have tried to explain to people for years the feeling on those trips, but there almost aren’t words.

When I was able to travel to Haiti, the final day that we were walking around the village telling our stories, we had about 10 minutes left before we had to walk back to the church that was hosting us. There was a debate between us about whether or not to go to visit one more family or start walking back, and we decided to go to one more house.

We went to the door of a woman, offered to give her a plant, and then asked if we could pray for her. And she just started to cry. She told the translator that her daughter had just left for the Dominican Republic for school and that she had been worried. She took us as a sign from God, rounded up her whole family, and a group of 15 of us prayed.

I think that most people would say that your faith is strongest when you are given the chance to serve God in that way -- but I would almost argue the opposite. In that moment, I didn’t need faith, because I saw God. It felt as if I didn’t need to have faith, because I didn’t have a single doubt. I saw him, I felt him, and I had no doubt in my mind that he was present in that second.

That summer I was able to go on two different mission trips and felt God more than I ever had in my life. The school year that started afterwards, I needed God more than I ever had in my life.

I watched everything that I had decided I wanted fall through my fingers. I often refer to it as the year that a God-Boulder hit my perfectly organized plans. I was so mad and angry and confused that I spent months furious.

Then I hit what I would have defined as the worst possible scenario, the worst thing I could have heard -- and in that moment I felt an encompassing peace I could never explain. What I had defined to be the worst thing ever had happen, but I was still OK -- I still felt peace.

I realized that the years and years I had been praying to God for strength, patience, faith, and whatever else, he was giving it to me in that moment. He was giving me that strength that I had always wanted, but He couldn’t just place it in my head; He was giving me a chance to gain it.

As I have started college people are surprised, often impressed, or perhaps intrigued that I still wake up on Sunday mornings and go to church. But for me, it is the same decision I have been making since I was ten.

I have been one of God’s hands when someone was at their worst moment in their life, and had Him be there for me at the worst point in my life -- and for me that is why I go to church, and that is why I have faith.