I grew up going to Crossroads Oakley with my family and was part of Middle School and High School Ministry. I really looked up to all of my leaders and the volunteers and thought it would be cool to do that some day.
When I reached college, I started attending Eastern Kentucky University. My freshman year was pretty busy, so I basically stopped going to church. Last fall I randomly came across Crossroads Lexington and thought I would give it a try. When I went, I loved it and knew I wanted to get plugged in but I wasn’t really sure about how to make that happen.
In August, Ellen, who’s on staff at Lexington, sent me a Facebook message since I had liked the Crossroads Lexington page. She was as nice as can be! I felt really comfortable asking her about how to get connected. I shared with her that I had grown up at Crossroads and was interested in helping with Student Ministry. Within hours Daniel, who is in charge of Lexington Student Ministry, emailed me with some next steps and said he was excited for me to join the team.
My first experience as a volunteer was Off the Grid Day, and it was so fun! I loved getting to see everything they were doing and the way they were handling Student Ministry in the craziness of everything going on this year. After that, I started shadowing some small group leaders and felt called to help with the ninth grade girls group. They welcomed me with open arms – not literally because of Covid – but I felt at home right away. We hang out every week and we just got to do Friendsgiving together.
Leading has helped me learn a lot about myself and I’ve really started to connect with these girls. It’s amazing being able to give back to them the way people gave to me when I was in high school. I never knew I would be able to be the one connecting these girls and sharing what Jesus is doing in my life and how he can do the same things in theirs. I get to meet them where they are and share with them the way my leaders did with me when I was going through the same things. -Becca T.