Testimony Letter

I just sent in my testimony letter for my trip to Pemba next summer! If you want to visit Iris Ministries in Mozambique you have to send in a testimony letter so they can decide if you should come or not. I hope that I get approved!
If you want to read my testimony here it is:

My name is Lauren Tollon and I am 16 years old. I have always grown up in a Christian home. The older I have gotten the closer my parents have gotten to God and along the way they have set a good example for how my relationship with God should be.

I have grown up always knowing that God was there and that he loved me and cared about me but I never really realized how much he could change my life.
I struggle through a lot when I was younger; when I was 2 years old I went into a coma and was diagnosed with a heart condition. My heart rate reached over 200 and I was on and off medicines until I was 7. Eventually we found a doctor who was willing to do surgery on such a young child and we went to North Carolina for the operation. In the middle of surgery my heart stopped beating and they had to stop immediately. My heart had three extra pathways that caused it to beat faster than normal and they were only able to burn off two before they had to stop. The doctors said they didn’t know what was going to happen, so they put me back on medicine. I was so sick and tired of being on medicine, a few months later I had all the kids I knew pray for me at church. I knew that if they prayed I would be healed and afterwards I told my mom that I was healed and I didn’t need my medicine anymore. She was nervous but I persisted and finally she told me to ask my doctor what he thought. I told my doctor that I was healed and I didn’t need my medicine anymore. He told me we would wait until summer and he would give me 10 days without the medicine to see if I was right.

I could not wait to get off that medicine and I was thrilled when the day came. They put me on heart monitors and I counted every one of those 10 days, not once did my heart beat fast. We went back to my doctor and he was amazed to say that I was fine, I was so happy to be healed.
A few years after my surgery we decided to move entirely. Things were not going well with our church and we felt like we needed something new. We moved to an area near Cleveland and started attending a different church, Bethel Cleveland. Ever since I have known we made the right decision moving. Our new church is just what we needed. The past couple years I have been able to grow and be taught things I could have never imagined.

Last March things began to change even more. We had an amazing youth conference at our church with Jesus Culture called Campus Awakening and I was hit so hard by God. I realized how important my life was and how I could make such a difference in this world with God in me. God opened my heart and my eyes to so many things. Ever since I was little people prayed missions over me, I was told time and time again that I would be a great missionary and go to the nations, but ever since I was little I didn’t listen. I never thought that I would want to do something like that. I was so comfortable in my little world I didn’t want to go to a different one. But at this youth conference I began to realize that I did want to. I decided to go up for prayer that night, a lady began to pray for me and the first thing she said was “you are to go to the nations” and right then I knew that I could never want anything else. The lady bent down and kissed my feet and ever since all I have wanted is to go tell the world about Jesus.

After my realization things really began to change. I got rid of the things in my life that were holding me back and I started moving forward in the call God has on my life. Instead of ignoring all the stories about the horrible things happening in other countries I started listening and my heart broke especially for one continent in particular, Africa. I was at another conference about a month later and they played a video about the starving children in Africa. Usually when I saw something like that I would turn my head and not pay attention but this time I could not take my eyes off the screen. I began to cry and cry and I had no clue why. All I could think about was how badly I wanted to help those children and all the people in Africa in any way possible.

A new spot in my heart was opened up for Africa, a lot of times it is all I can talk about. I know deep in my heart that God has called me to make a difference in the continent of Africa whether big or small. I have completely given my life to missions. I do not know what God has planned but I know that it will be more amazing than I could ever imagine!