My 100th Post Reflection

Hi. My name is Vikki. I wanted my 100th post to tell you about me. I wanted to remind you that I'm nothing special. Im really not. I mess up everyday. This time back in Ireland, looking back on the eighteen years I spent here, seeing friends and family again has really caused me to look at myself, how far I have come, and I want to tell you a little about it.
A month before my 12th birthday, my Mum died. Of something that could hit anyone at anytime. After this I sunk into depression. I never wanted o leave the house. Was terrified the same would happen to my Dad. Struggled with self image. I was a mess. My best friend Caroline kept hassling me to go to youth group and to be honest it was the last thing I wanted to do. But when I did go, is was to keep her quiet haha I heard all I needed to hear. I suddenly got life back when I thought I had given up on it. It was a gradual change, I had an still do have huge trust issues, and trusting something that I cannot see with every part of my life wasn't high on my to-do list. I started volunteering when I was 15 at an organization which takes in American teams, I was a quiet and self conscious 15 year old and I had no idea why I felt I needed to go there, but I did and the consequences of it would greatly alter my life. From this a guy called Richie Shilliday organized for me to travel to the states, I went when I just turned 16, again quiet and huge self image problems among other things. I loved the two summers that I travelled to Lakeside Christian in Ky. They changed me. They contacted me to Cincinnati Christian University where I got accepted and was blessed with a scholarship. God is really molding me at this school, rebuilding me the way I should be and changing me more into what God wanted me to be. I have a passion for God,for ministry, for people. I still struggle with self image today but He's helping me. More than you'd believe. This is who I am. Life is still hard, but the strength I get from Him when I look for Him outweighs that every time. This is my love story with Christ, the man who has been pursuing me since I was born. I will never have a love story that will match it. Ever.
I have a passion for the Bible, for art, for literature. I have a heart for girls ministry in particular and ministry for those with addictions. I want people to find their worth in Christ. It makes me so sad when I see people but they have no idea of their worth, of their identity in Christ, and how precious they are. I can be the worst offender, believe me. But that's my mission: to show people that they are indispensable, there is no one in this earth who can fill their shoes, that they're beautiful, God created (and our God doesn't make crap, He always makes the best)
YOU are beautiful, yea YOU reading this. 'the king is enthralled my your beauty', yea that's in the Bible!! The king! The guy who created the sea and the mountains and the landscapes which take our breath away! He is ENTHRALLED by your beauty, he loves it when you talk about Him, he will always answer you when you call Him, will love you at your lowest and when everyone else has given up on you: He will be right there, arms open, never closed. His love is relentless. It's a furious love. It's a love that changes absolutely everything. Turns your world upside down. But its what kept me alive. What gives me hope. What sustains me.
This is an epic love story which you can have with Christ. The author of love writes it. The Bible is the greatest love story of all, and it's written by the author of life.
This love is what it's all about. And when the world makes no sense to me, I still know I have that love. That no matter what I do, where I am or who I'm with, it NEVER changes. Never alters. This love is where I should look for comfort, acceptance and strength, not in people or things.