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Drafted: Called for Life
This post is part of the “Drafted” series—reflections on how spiritual performance, religious systems, and a desperate desire to belong shaped my understanding of faith, purpose, and identity. I’ve already shared how it started.The enlistment at the altar.The moment I first felt “called to go.”My first brush with spiritual training.What it was like to step onto the missions field.And what it felt like to come home and no longer recognize myself in familiar places. But this post is different. This time, I’m not just recounting a moment—I’m opening a time capsule. What follows is a breakdown of a missionary support letter I wrote on December 27, 2004. I was 17…
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Drafted: Foreign on Familiar Ground
Coming back didn’t feel like coming home 📖 This picks up after Part Four — Counting Conversions & Carrying the Cost — where I began to question the currency of worth in ministry, and what it meant to measure impact by salvation tallies. But the story begins long before Garden Valley. In From Altar Calls to Enlistment, I wrote about how a child’s ache to belong was baptized as calling. Then, in Signed, Sealed, Sent, I explored what it meant to disappear in the name of devotion — convinced that being willing to go made me worthy of love. Boots on Holy Ground followed the moment I was sent, ready…
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Drafted: Counting Conversions and Carrying the Cost
I didn’t just count conversions—I started using them to count my value. Drafted is the story of a girl who was told she was called, chosen, and set apart — before she even knew who she was. It’s about the rush of revival weekends, the pressure to be holy, and the slow, silent trade of identity for belonging. I grew up on the frontlines of teenage Christianity, armed with a Bible, a purity ring, and a deep need to be enough. If you’ve watched Shiny Happy People, you’ve seen part of the story. But there are thousands of high-control Christian environments that shaped a generation — and I was in one of…
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Drafted: Boots on Holy Ground
Teenage Training for the Mission Field Drafted is the story of a girl who was told she was called, chosen, and set apart — before she even knew who she was. It’s about the rush of revival weekends, the pressure to be holy, and the slow, silent trade of identity for belonging. I grew up on the frontlines of teenage Christianity, armed with a Bible, a purity ring, and a deep need to be enough. If you’ve watched Shiny Happy People, you’ve seen part of the story. But there are thousands of high-control Christian environments that shaped a generation — and I was in one of them. Teen Mania Ministries. Acquire the…