My Life (in a pistachio shell)

11/15/2010

10:34am

Just a few minutes ago I was trying to fix myself all-natural peanut butter and fruit spread so my stomach would shut up and I could get some more sleep. Let me tell you, you KNOW you have to get rid of your strawberry fruit spread when it turns the color of your WWII grandfather's combat fatigue and starts to smell like your mawmaw's wine cabinet!

Anyway, while I was throwing out two of the three jars I was hit with a suburb idea! I've been thinking about doing it for a while, so why don't I just do it now? So here's my two-page testimonial I had to submit with my application for the Media school. This is the fragile history that is weaved into the colorful garment of who I am. It's vague (not much you can put on two sheets of paper) but stuff I think a lot of people know, or should know, about me.

Let it also be known this is not EVERYTHING that I am--it's only the brighter of stars in a sky of trillions. So please keep that in mind whilst you read it. =) At the end, I had to sum up my desires of what I hoped to gain in the media school so that's why I ended it on a 'hopes/dreams' note.

Also, for your pleasure I put up some pictures to give this a little creative feeling. So, enjoy getting to know me better!

With Sincerity,

~Rose

Personal Testimony

I have been blessed to live a life under the covering of God’s wings and mentored by the wise protection of Christian parents. This pure, sheltered life is nothing short of God's hand in preserving me. I know I have a special calling on my life to be set apart for Him and I have a history and destiny that is made unique through His saving love. Even though my testimony is not graphic and tear-wrenching in comparison to others I am still deserving of hell apart from Christ and that alone makes it worth proclaiming without shame or arrogance.

As far back as I can remember my childhood consisted of Hosanna music, a tongue-talking, spirit-filled mamma and a handsome Puerto Rican father, selfless when it came to providing for his family. I received Jesus into my heart and was water baptized at nine years of age. I began speaking in the Holy Ghost shortly thereafter.

I grew up with two brothers, Jonathan and Joshua (who has a severe case of Cerebral Palsy); my father has a daughter who was raised in another country; I have never met her. My eldest brother left home in rebellion when I was eleven and my grandfather died a few months later. Both situations were devastating, painful events in my life.

When I was fourteen I developed an emotional attachment to a boy at my church and even though we never dated I still ended up with a broken heart when he started dating my best friend at the time. God used that experience in my life to teach me not to give my heart away out of season, but to save it all for my future husband.

At fifteen I found my identity and talents in researching history, storytelling, and characterization; stories and research consumed my every waking moment. I decided I wanted to pursue a career in this for my glory, fame, and comfort. By the time I was sixteen, my life was full of compromise. Secular music ministered to me at deep levels, television and PC games ate away the leftover time I didn't spend writing, and I was half-hearted in my home school studies. I had more friends on Nancy Drew message boards than in everyday life. I had a stinky, festering root of bitterness towards those who had been involved in the situation with the boy mentioned earlier. I wasn't interested at all in God and I had no idea that he was, even then, calling me his beloved bride. The thing that astounds me the most is that I really thought the way I was living was what life was all about. When I was seventeen I saw Lou Engle for the first time on television. He spoke about repenting for the sins of our nation and forefathers in a 12 hour day of fasting and praying; I wasn't interested. That same weekend I was invited by a church friend to attend The Call in Nashville. It was a battle, but I finally decided to go motivated solely by the idea of a road trip. It was at that solemn assembly that God just stepped into my world and marked me. He invaded my life, captured my heart, and set His seal upon me in the most tender of ways. He rooted bitterness out of me in an instant, and I felt so alive and unhindered for the first time. I made my marriage vows to Jesus and covenanted myself to Him.

For the rest of the summer I began to attend intercessory prayer on Monday nights at my church; He began walking me through the process of embracing prayer. I am still on that journey to this day. That December I went to The Call in Kansas City followed by four hours at the International House of Prayer for the first time. In that prayer room he wooed me into laying down my writing gifts and beckoned me to focus my attention on Him. It's a struggle even today to keep it under my feet but He leads me on the path of victory every time. He also began to lead me on a journey of fasting. In 2008--at eighteen--I got the chance to travel to almost every single one of the Calls. It was also in that year I felt God challenge me to take an internship to seek direction for my future. Through a series of circumstances I felt led to do Fire in the Night.

In April-June of 2009 I took Track I of Fire in the Night. Even though the road was difficult to travel, I learned so much from that experience. It was actually in this internship that I first heart about FMI. My heart was so deeply stirred within me at the April staff meeting that when Allen Hood asked those who were interested in it to raise their hand, mine shot up even before I could think of lifting it. I had already taken strong interest in the media school before the internship, when I heard about ways to get involved, but I sensed it the most at the staff meeting.

When the internship was over and God told me to go back home to New Orleans and help my family fix up their home before media school, I wasn't very pleased but I obeyed anyway. I'm so glad I did! In the year and a half I have been home God has matured me and given me endurance to stand alone and with friends; I have more trust in Him to endure the difficulties that might face me during the media school. He also spawned in my heart an undying love for the nations of the world, Germany in particular. He has also used my job to strengthen my prayer life. I have eight hours a night mostly by myself to do maintenance work so I pray up and down the isles for employees and customers. It is through this that God is giving me glimpses of his heart for the African American community in New Orleans to come out of hip-hop and into IHOP. God really is giving me an understanding and love and burden I never had before for people dying in their sins and compromises. His leadership is perfect.

This year God has given me the word "Equipped," and I believe that is what He wants to do next in my life. My expectations for my time at the Media Institute is to get equipped not just in technology but especially in His word and His heart. I felt apprehensive to even fill out this application because of my lack of media skills but I have a vague understanding that He desires to use my voice in the media--I don't know how exactly, but I know this is the direction He has chosen for me. I can do nothing but walk in it.

I hope this media experience will also help me go deeper in the place of prayer and truly hide his word in my heart. I also hope it teaches me to love Him and serve others in ways that are deeper than my human mind can envision. I want my love for the lost and the nations to increase in the place of prayer. I also hope for this to teach me how to center God at all times while involved in practical aspects of ministry.

My goal is to one day impact the nations in an intense, eye-opening way (especially the church) concerning the seriousness of the hour we are living in. I see myself traveling the world through missions and I can envision myself spending an extended period of time in Germany working in media ministry and possibly participating in the establishment of a prayer room. I also strongly desire marriage and to serve and raise a family and teach my children how to be God’s mouthpieces.