Give Your Witness Challenge

There are many things that I love about the Give Your Witness Ministry and one of those is the different platforms that we come from and the approach and experiences that we bring. In terms of sharing our experience challenge from our Lord on behalf of our founder, Lashon Bush, I am reminded of how Christ changed me completely both mentally and physically.

Different times in our lives, when we look back, we realize just how much things change and while we do not always appreciate the changes when they happen, later, we are thankful for the changes because they made us much better. For me, this came before I was born with a birth condition that I was completely unaware of until my teenage years when I started experiences the side effects of the condition that would later require surgery.

With that said, this surgery would change everything about my life including any hopes and dreams that required my physical abilities and talent and this was very disappointing and heartbreaking for a long time. In fact, it was very discouraging because I knew what I wanted to do with my life but after the surgery, I would need a lot of therapy and rehabilitation to recover a lot of my physical abilities including the ability to walk straight.

At the time, I could understand this and for a long time, years even, after the surgery I was upset but there was nothing that I could do. No matter how much therapy I did, I was never going to get back to where I was prior to the surgery and what made things worse was going to the Army recruiting station only to hear the sergeant tell me I was wasting my time. Although I knew I was different, this really clinched it and for some years after this, it was really a bad spot.

These are moments when we think that things could not get any worse but the truth is, God sees things that we do not. After the 9/11 attacks, I truly wanted to be in the military but a month prior is when I had my first surgery so looking back now, I see that God was putting into motion His plans for me but I could not yet see or understand them: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

It’s not often that I desire to discuss myself or even write about myself because I do not like to make things about me but the Give Your Witness Ministry gives us opportunities to reach and help people with the use of scripture and stories from God’s word. It also gives us a platform to reach people by using our stories and experiences and combining them with scripture to help others in the same situation or similar spots and one of the most important lessons that I have learned since joining the ministry is we are in this together: “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also [is] Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12).

Today, I am physically stronger than ever before but I am also stronger mentally now than at any point in my life and my faith is rooted and grounded in my relationship with Christ. While the physical part may have turned out differently another way, I know that my mental state and my relationship with Christ would not have gotten to this point without the changes. For that, I am personally thankful for all the ventures and changes which have truly made me much more than I ever was before as I have been grown and matured both as a human being and Christian. Furthermore, because of such experiences, I understand my story was only beginning and God was in full control: “The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, [so] shall it stand:” (Isaiah 14:24).