My wedding day
I’m standing at a major crossroads, where the Lord is calling my family and I to jump headfirst into the unknown, leaving everything behind. Lately I’ve been feeling like I need to write about it; to document this year of great change. To understand where I’m going, you must know where I’ve been. So this is my story; the story of how God has brought me to this point. I’m going to cover the first 29.5 years of my life, and I want to be thorough to fully explain how I’ve made it to this point so I’ve split my story into three parts.
Part 2: AD – as in, after I died to myself
February 25th, 2007 – I was reborn.
Reborn – what does that even mean anyway? Simply put, to me it means that I am not the same person anymore. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!” The old Allison died, and a new one was born.
Morgan and I started dating a few days later and the following year and a half of high school was an absolute roller coaster. I had a bit of a reputation by that point, so trying to live this new life felt nearly impossible and I felt constantly judged by people who didn’t even know me. But I also had the pleasure of going to two more Young Life camps where my leaders taught me how to really love people and share the gospel with them, and after a year of walking through life as a Christian I had the privilege of sharing my own story at campaigner weekend my senior year.
I went to the University of Cincinnati where I studied special education. I became a Young Life leader in January of 2009 and was placed at Oak Hills High School. At the time it was the largest single-campus high school in the state, and it was HARD. I had the honor of leading with some of my absolute best friends, but ministry felt nearly impossible. During my second year of leading I applied to coach cheerleading there and had an interview. Still to this day it was the absolute worst interview I have ever had. I said things I didn’t even believe and walked out so confused about what had happened. Looking back I genuinely believe it was the Lord blocking that path.
A month later I applied to coach cheerleading at Northwest, where I had graduated from. I got the job without even interviewing, because the Athletic Director knew and respected me from my days on the team in high school. With this job I knew I had to stop leading Young Life at Oak Hills. The hardest part was that I felt like so many people were disappointed, and were basically telling me God would not want me to stop. But I felt deep in my heart that He did, and so I trusted Him and held on.
I coached at Northwest for two years and I loved it. Morgan and I got married during that time, and we tried to lead Young Life there but it just never seemed to work out. Again, it is so easy to see after the fact that God had other plans for us. Entering what was supposed to be my final year of college I had to take a Friday night class for my major. There was no way around it, and it meant that I would not be able to continue coaching. I had to resign even though I loved it.
The Northwest cheerleaders at my wedding
At that same time we were receiving our student teaching placements. I remember looking through the list beforehand and noticing there was only one school on the entire list that I had never heard of: St. Bernard-Elmwood Place. And sure enough, that was where I was placed to student teach. I immediately reached out to the athletic director and offered to help out with the cheerleading team on a volunteer basis. He said that was fine, but asked if I would be willing to coach the junior high team and I agreed to think about it. I met with him and helped out with tryouts the following week. To this day I still remember those tryouts and my initial impressions of those girls. Some of them grew to be some of my dearest friends, ladies that I would do absolutely anything for to this day. Needless to say I agreed to be their coach.
So in the fall of 2012 I began coaching and student teaching at St. Bernard – Elmwood Place and I fell in love fast. Morgan and I were still Christians, but at the time there was nothing active about our faith. So my time at SBEP began with absolutely no thoughts of where God was or how he wanted to use me. He wasn’t even on my radar when I set foot in that building every day. I still remember the day I walked into homeroom to two of my absolute favorite girls crying. They were sick and having some pretty serious family drama. The Lord’s love crashed over me like a tidal wave. In an instant I became deeply aware of that school’s need for Jesus.
My SBEP Cheerleaders
I called up my dear friend Cat and met with her. I didn’t know what to do. How the heck do you share Jesus with kids as a teacher and a coach. Isn’t that illegal or something? She told me that her Young Life area had just been praying to get into new schools, and on a far off chance maybe this was the Lord’s answer. She encouraged me to love them, and so I did.
Riding on the bus to an away game a few weeks later I felt the urge to read my bible. I didn’t, because I know that I get terrible motion sickness and that seemed crazy. We arrived at the game ridiculously early and again I felt the urge to read my bible. It was so random, but in obedience I opened my bible. Within a minute one of the girls started asking me if I was a ‘real’ Christian. I texted Cat. This was my opportunity, the door had been opened, but I had no clue what to say. She informed me that Young Life was having an all area club that very next week and I should invite her. So I did, and the following week I had TWO cars full of girls on their way to their first ever Young Life event.
They loved it, so at Cat’s suggestion I began taking them to her school’s Young Life club every week. It was a beautiful season of borrowing mini vans and begging my husband and friends to help me drive kids there. Ultimately we sat down with Young Life staff and agreed to start Young Life at SBEP and we committed to 3 years there. The Lord began something absolutely incredible that year, and I had the incredible privilege of going along for the ride. I hate when people put the credit on me, because from my perspective I did nothing. It was a few simple acts of obedience on the incredible plan he had laid out before me. Seriously all glory to Him on that one.
The first official SBEP YL club
The following years of ministry there were honestly my favorite. It still breaks my heart that the Lord called me out of that place. Kristin and Derek became our co-leaders and honestly two life-long friends. I adored the girls who I led there, and still love them so much. I mean it when I say I’d still do anything for them. We tried to buy a house there and we were ready to go all-in with a life in St. Bernard, but the door was shut and God called us out.
Instead we moved to Harrison. When I began this blog series I wanted to be thorough, but to tell you of all of our tales with the Lord could honestly fill an entire novel at this point… But here are the things I want you to know of our time here:
Up to this point my life’s dream was to be all-in in one place, and the Lord answered that prayer in Harrison. Through many more of those crazy God-ordained moments we ended up leading Wyld Life and joining a church that we love. After being jobless and after many many tears I got my dream job of teaching and coaching at the junior school. We joined a small group and then another, made many, many incredible friends, and started raising our family. We have learned what real community looks like and how to pursue it. We have learned to trust the Lord with our finances and to be giving even when it hurts. We have learned to take big risks when we know the Lord is telling us to, and we have seen him be so faithful in our obedience time and time again. We have learned to trust Him in so many ways, and now we are ready to trust Him with what’s next.
Joining the Harrison Wyld Life team