Hey YOU!
Thanks for coming here to learn some background about my life.
I’m Meredith. I am 18 – soon to be 19 – and I am from Greenville, South Carolina. I have 2 amazing siblings (an older brother & sister), the most supportive parents in the world and a black lab named Zoey. I am currently living Charleston, SC – where I am attending school, training to lead in Young Life, making music, surfing on my off days, walking with Jesus, and capturing it all through my passion for photography.
My journey with Jesus began about 4.5 years ago. I grew up in the church, but I really started walking in relationship with Him when I was 15 and had just finished my first semester of high school. At just the right time, God gave me 2 amazing leaders and a group of girls to grow and learn in community with. Soon after the blessings set in, I decided I needed to know more about this man who kept making His way into my life. I began to spend time with God in His word and creation, and watched Him show up more and more in the places I least expected. The answered prayers, the peace in a time of trial, the strength I knew was not my own. In His timing He filled in the holes of my heart with His promises to love and protect me and I found myself desperate to share this with others.
At 16, the Lord woke me up to a love I have for individuals with disabilities and serving others. Through growing up with siblings with disabilities, He equipped me to serve fellow highschool students with special needs. My senior year I had the opportunity to begin serving with Young Life Capernaum in Greenville. Young Life Capernaum is an organization that guides high school students in following Christ in a community with other high schoolers and leaders. Capernaum brought me some of my best friends, and a community of leaders that has supported me tremendously in serving as a missionary. Without the people I met through Capernaum, I would not be the person I am today and I would not have made it financially to be able to serve the Lord on mission in the past.
At 16 I realized the Lords call on my life to serve long distance. I have always had a dream of traveling and experiencing new cultures, but the Lord captured my heart just in time to give me a new purpose in doing so. While serving in Guatemala last summer with Adventures in Missions, I saw Him show up more than I ever thought possible. I had gone with the intention of teaching children, but what I didn’t fully expect is the way they were about to teach me in return. I watched Jesus break the language barrier through music, VBS games and a whole lot of joy. I got to teach children the Gospel, English and how to play a G chord while they taught me in return that less is more and how to live out joy.
He blows my mind with the way He so perfectly connects the dots in my life and others around me. He blows my mind with the way He is beautifully unpredictable. He blows my mind with they way He is so good, all of the time.
I can’t wait to share the things I’m learning, struggling with, and thriving in with you. As I pray for what’s to come in Zambia, I also pray that He be my strength in being vulnerable here in the meantime. In addition, I hope that He speaks into your heart through my words. That He would be your hope and you would see Him connecting the dots in your own life.
Blessings!
-Mere
