Introduction to Me

Hi everyone! My name is Brenna Stanford, I am a 20 year old daughter of the King, wife, and a product of the local church, mine being Life Church in McAlester, Ok. :) This blog is a product of a calling and dream God has placed in me! Here is my story...

I was not raised in church, growing up I knew that there was a God (because everyone told me there was) and that he had a son named Jesus who died on the cross so that I can be forgiven, but I had no clue what any of that meant. I also knew that you could pray to that God if you ever needed anything and supposedly he would answer you.

In my family we had our own challenges and things that not all families go through or deal with, but it was all we knew. I am the oldest of three girls, and we were all raised together. Our parents didn't divorce until my sophomore year of high school. By then I was already rebelling and acting out. I made very dumb choices to do drugs and get involved in that crowd. I was never addicted to any substance and never had to go through any sort of rehab for it, I simply chose to do things that I knew would numb the world around me and upset my parents. You see I was the oldest, I have always been very strong willed and would do anything to prove any thought or theory I had. I also always had this feeling down in my soul that there was something more out there, that there was a greater purpose to life than what I could see in the world around me.

After a long time of rebellion and messing up every living situation I had, I ended up in a place I never wanted to be. I moved away from home and in that place I suffered many types of abuse and become so broken I did not feel like a person anymore. At that point I called home, my aunt told me that I could move back home but I had to go to church with her. She had started going to church in-between the time I moved out and made my rounds at some other places and ended up where I became broken. She told me that she wouldn't make me go to youth, but I had to go to Sunday service. Another thing about me was that from a very young age I always hung around the adults instead of the kids my age. I was too "adult" to go to youth group.

After a couple of months of sitting in those purple chairs at LC balling my eyes out while Pastor Terren read my mail I surrendered my life over to Christ. It didn't make sense to me, not logically anyway. I mean I was broken, I didn't even like myself much less love myself, and there was this pulling on my heart that was so strong it's like I could see that Jesus Pastor Terren kept talking about standing in front of me saying "I love you! Come to me, let me love you!" I couldn't deny him, I couldn't not try it out. I had nothing left to lose.

I was saved a month then I started going to Life Church's youth group, Realife. A few months after that I can remember very vividly sitting on my bed reading my Bible and just feeling this "more" in my heart. Part of me thought I was going crazy, that I was losing my mind. It was that night, in that moment that I knew God was calling me into the ministry to do his work. That feeling in my soul that I had from childhood was being fulfilled, answered. There was a world out there that I had never experienced, but with everything that was in me I wanted it, I needed it or I would lose my mind!

From there I met with my youth pastor, Pastor Chad, and we created an internship, 180 Turn. I interned over a year while working 3 jobs and attending Eastern Oklahoma State College before I got offered a job at Life Church. That was one of the best days of my life! This was not only my church, the church had become my identity. They took me in under their wings when no one else did. My family thought I was crazy and wasting time doing an internship for more than a couple months. I was asked time and time again to quit it so I could work more hours at my jobs, I just couldn't give up on it. Turn was like a baby of mine, God allowed me to be in a place where I could learn hands on the things that He needed me to do. My dream for Turn was to be like a diving board, to help other students who didn't know there was another option find that option, to help them go further in their dreams and passions! Now Turn will be entering into it's 3rd summer for these students. It has been fabulous watching it grow and develop each summer!

I now am the Associate Director of Student Ministries at Life Church. I will be married a year in November and I look forward to starting a family with my husband. God is also birthing a new dream inside of me, one we call Awakening. I look forward to telling you all that story! That's all for now!

~Be Awakened~
Brenna Stanford