I was a teenager with a horrible relationship with my parents, rebelling against authority figures, involved in regular drug activity, and had no hope for any change in my life. After my parents busted me for drug use for the second time, I had no idea what I was doing with my life. I suffered with depression, anger, and was very self-conscious in this time of my life. My parents soon told me about an opening at the church they attended to go to a summer camp. Desperate to get out of the house, I agreed to go to camp. I found God during this camp experience and became a new creation. From that point on, I vowed that with my life, I was going to pursue God with all my heart. I was inspired by this God named Jesus and was motivated to make an impact with my life.
When I began working, I met a teenager that also loved God that would change my life; his name, Cody. In meeting Cody, we were inspired to create a ministry for teenagers to experience God for whom He really is. We created the ministry "RealTalk" to see teenagers and young adults' lives impacted by God and to see them make a difference in their families, friends, and community. During our “RealTalk rallies”, we have a worship band play and a sermon from one of our leaders, as well as free food and drinks before the rally. We do many other forms of ministry also, such as bible studies, fun events, and outreaches to our community. In running this ministry, we have seen and heard awesome testimonies of God's power. In the spite of all that God was doing, we faced challenges in that we both had jobs, no one believed in our capacity to make an impact to our generation, and we lacked a team to accomplish all of our goals. We were determined to not only continue the ministry, but to also see it strengthened and widen its' influence on young people.
As a ministry, we have seen hundreds of teens' lives changed. I will name a couple of the testimonies of the impact that God has made in young peoples' lives. One guy that had been living in a lifestyle of drug use found God during one of our worship rallies and gave up his drug use and started following God. He was inspired to make a difference in people’s lives with similar struggles. My sister used to struggle with anorexia for a short period of time, and during that time she had damaged her female organs, due to her eating habits. The doctors informed her that because of this irregular eating habit, she had become infertile. Even though I helped my sister overcome the struggle, she still had medical issues. God soon intervened and during a church service, she was completely healed in her female organs. She is now serving as a RealTalk Volunteer and is also serving as a leader in my home church. My sister, growing up as a shy, conservative person, is now bold and ready to make an awesome change in young females' lives. Because of this healing testimony, my mom gave her life to God and she is also now making a change in her workplace. These are just two examples of the impact that RealTalk has made on the teenagers in this region.
As young people’s lives are changed, the community is also changed because of the teenagers that have devoted their lives to living above the standard of an average teenager. Many teenagers have begun fixing relationship problems with others that were caused due to their past. I have also risen up teens to take my place as I go to ministry school so that these things do not have to stop when I leave. I believe that when teenagers hear about other teenagers making a difference, they will be inspired to do the same in their cities. What makes all the countless hours we put into filming videos, setting up for our rallies, staying mentally prepared all worthwhile, is seeing peoples’ lives changed. This is only the beginning of the impact that RealTalk will make in our community and surrounding cities. We plan very soon to start up volunteer park clean-up programs, feed the poor, and pray for the sick to encourage other teenagers that they CAN make an impact in peoples' lives no matter what their circumstances are!