Her passion: God began working in my life in the way of girls ministry when I was a teen girl myself. Even though life was hard around that time in my life, I still desperately longed to live a life of service and be a disciple of Christ. I was able to lead a girls bible study called "Sisters With a Heart" my freshman year in college which I loved. At the time, I had no idea what God had in store for my life and the freedom journey He was taking me on. In 2008, I sensed the Lord's call to girls ministry which led me to begin serving the Lord by reaching out to struggling girls through an online mentoring ministry called Speak Don't Bleed: Giving Teen Girls a Voice. Speak Don't Bleed has been renamed to Restored by Love Ministries for it's in Christ's unending love that we find freedom and restoration from the broken areas of our lives. Currently, I am attending Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary where I am studying to get my M.A. in Biblical Counseling. I enjoy speaking with girls about freedom from self harm and abuse recovery. My ultimate passion is to see girls breakfree from strongholds and past hurts and find new life in Christ and for them to "grasp how wide and long and high and deep" the love of Christ is.

Her story: I'm now 30 years old and have overcome a 10 year battle with self injury.  I've come to realize that though its not easy to overcome, it's a choice to walk in freedom from self injury. As a teen I struggled with grasping that God loved me simply because He created me and that now God sees me not for what I have done or will do but solely through Jesus' death on the cross. It's so easy to believe the lies about who we are that run around in our minds but doesn't it make sense that our Creator God would be the most reliable source for who we are and how He sees us. By God's grace, I have found freedom by learning to focus on the Truth-Teller (Creator God) instead of the Deceiver (Satan). I have come a long way from where I used to be in my healing by coming to the understanding that I need to commit myself to live in God's truth everyday. When we practice living in God's truth in the less chaotic times in life, we will be more equipped to do the same during the rocky times in life. I'm here to tell you that freedom in Christ is possible. Will it be easy? Probably not. Will it happen without a fight, reliance on God for strength and determination? No. Is it worth the battle and the work? DEFINATELY!

Her Freedom: If you would have asked me as a teen if freedom from self injury or freedom in Christ was possible, I would have said no. Hopelessness had a grip on me. However, God's unrelenting love always breaks through. It broke through in my life and God wants you to know that same love He has for you. The following is my declaration of freedom. "Your goodness shows compassion for the hurting heart, so tired. It's been bruised beyond recognition but still beats with the love of God. It wanders in the silence on the Hill of Calvary. Then from within a voice cries out, "By You I've been Redeemed."