I'm blown away!

So I have been doing a whole lot of thinking lately. I calculated it out, and I really think I met close to 600 new people while I was raising support. And then I got “released to assignment” and came out here to Estes Park, Colorado, to be on staff with our GCM Leadership Training program, and I've met at least 100 more. I really do love meeting new people, mostly just because I love people. I love seeing the different and unique personalities that God has created, and I like to learn what makes others think and act the way that they do. One thing that’s really crazy to me, though, is that I seriously used to have Social Anxiety Disorder. It’s interesting because I will always say that, and tell everyone I know, yet most of the time it seems like a far off, distant reality. I mean, I know I had it, but I feel so removed from all the pain associated with it, and God has healed me so much that as I tell others about what it was like, it almost seems as if I’m describing a person that doesn’t exist, or I’m telling a story about someone I used to know. It’s hard to believe that was actually ME!!! I mean, I was so scared to talk to new people (and even most of my old friends and family) and now it’s my full-time job to love people and help build genuine community. I seriously think that is so crazy, and such a testimony of God’s power and his goodness! He makes all things new, and we really are “new creations in Christ” when we accept him into our lives.

I also feel really honored because so many of my friends have invited me to be bridesmaids in their weddings recently. I love to take pictures and turn them into scrapbooks, and I remember making one about 5 years ago and crying because I thought, “This will be the last scrapbook I ever make because I’m never going to have friends again.” And I really really believed that! I thought that disorder was incurable and that I was doomed to be alone for the rest of my life! But praise God that he delivered me! And now I not only have a lot of good friends, I have such close, intimate, and real friendships that they actually want me to be a part of their weddings. I’m really just in awe of Jesus and his goodness to us!!

"Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things" Psalm 107:8.

This is me, support raising.

As of April 21, 2010 (after a little over 10 months of support raising), I was officially "released to assignment." That means I get to go back to Texas A&M University and officially begin full-time ministry! On a scale from 1-10, I’d say this whole process has been an 8 or 9. God has been so wild and faithful, and I really just want to share how good He’s been to me.

To preface all this, I should say that last year was a pretty hard year overall. I graduated in May of 2008 and I knew that all I wanted to do was go on staff with GCM and Fellowship Church. However, I took a year off before-hand because I knew the Lord wanted to do some healing in my life. And that's exactly what happened!

God did so much deep healing in my heart last year; it was crazy! I’d been really hurt by a lot of stuff I’d seen/experienced in the world, and had a lot of brokenness from men and relationships. God began to bring the depths of my heart to the surface and show me who I really am, what I really desire, and why I was so scared of it all at the same time. My homegroup was really there for me during this time, and was so instrumental in the whole healing process (I could talk about how much I love them for pages and pages!!) During this time of dealing with issues and crying out to the Lord, he'd always give me promises from Scripture such as, "those who sow in tears WILL reap with shouts of joy" (Psalm 126:5) and "blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted" (Matthew 5:4). Then, about 2 weeks before going to the GCM New Staff Conference (where we learn how to raise funds), God finally brought all this healing that I had been praying for!! I remember being upstairs in my apartment, crying for joy and saying, "Oh my gosh, I am about to be in a season of reaping! This is going to be a time of great joy in my life!”

I don't even know how to begin to describe it. I guess I’ll start by saying that I had an awesome community here in Houston. My brother Mike is an amazing guy and we’ve always been pretty close, and last year our friend Danny received Christ and moved to Houston to live with our community. Adam had recently come back to Jesus after running away for a few years, and his girlfriend Christa also dedicated her life to the Lord and wanted to chase after him hard-core. My best friend Abby left seminary and came home because she felt the Lord leading her to, and then I met Preston, Bill and Gabe after sitting down with them to talk about support. God brought us all together and started building our community, and then he poured out his Spirit in power on us! I began to see a lot of the things I’ve always wanted to see- miracles, prophetic giftings, healings, spiritual gifts, and tons of love!

Also, I was freed through a deliverance/healing ministry over 4 years ago, and ever since then I have always prayed and asked God to allow me to set captives free too. He has been slowly building that in me, and he gave me the gift of discernment of spirits (1 Corinthians 12), and taught me how to truly know his voice and love him and his people. I’d always get to tell people about deliverance and see them go through and experience inner healing, and then several people asked me to sit in with them. Then I’d get to sit there and watch God speak to the broken places of my friends’ hearts, and heal their wounds right in front of my eyes. The whole time I was learning how to listen to the Holy Spirit and facilitate the prayer ministry myself. I always knew that I didn’t have to pursue deliverance-that God would open a door for me at the right time and it would just start to happen.

Then one night all of my friends were over at my house talking and hanging out. I was in my room making phone calls for support-raising, and when I finished I walked outside to be with everyone. They were all super happy and talking about things God had been doing, and then all of a sudden Adam started freaking out and got really weird, and some of his stuff started manifesting…..so we just started to lead him through repentance and deliverance. It was crazy!! Then we all had an awesome worship time afterwards, and we were filled with so much joy in the Holy Spirit! Ever since then, God has continued to lead more captives to us so that we could help set them free by the power of his Holy Spirit (see Isaiah 61:1).

Support raising itself was really neat too. Coming in to it I had some fear, because I had heard a lot of people’s negative experiences, and it’s not like I knew a whole lot of Christians to go talk to. Plus, the initial support raising conference was really hard for me, and I felt inadequate and freaked out a lot of the time. I was really down after I got back to College Station, and for a few days I couldn’t snap out of it. I was trying to seek the Lord and had tons of friends praying for me, but nothing seemed to be working. Then one night I prayed, “God seriously, if I don’t feel better by tomorrow morning I’m not getting out of bed.” The next morning I just woke up in God’s presence and felt really close to him. He reminded me of the Scripture where Jesus turned water into wine, but before he did, he asked his disciples to fill the jars up with water (John 2). I’d heard a teaching about that years ago…how God calls us to simple acts of obedience, but how he is the one who does all the miraculous stuff. He said to me in my spirit, “Sharon, all I’m asking you to do is fill the jars of water-I’ll do the rest.” That was so encouraging to me, because I realized: oh, I can make phone calls, and meet with people, and talk about GCM’s ministry at Texas A&M. And that’s all I have to do, because YOU will open the doors, and YOU will raise all the funds that I need!

Although I was still nervous, I felt a whole lot better, so I stepped out in faith and started to make calls and set up appointments. The very first meeting I had was with my friend Ben’s parents, and it was probably the best appointment ever. They joined my GCM support team, gave me a bunch of people to connect with, loved me, prayed over me, and even gave me a muffin! I feel like they were the perfect first people to meet with, because God was showing me that this whole process really does work, and that he had tangible plans to provide for me. It set the tone for everything else that was to come.


I loved getting out and meeting so many believers who love the Lord, and hearing so many people’s testimonies of how God rescued them from different things. Almost everyone I met with was super encouraging and full of love. I wish I had time and space to go through all the miraculous ways that I’ve seen God provide these 10 months.. I mean, I’ve had people in Starbucks be randomly listening into my conversation while I was talking with someone else, and then afterwards they’ve joined my support team. I’ve also got to lead people through deliverance and had them join too! I feel as if I could talk for hours about all the cool ways God has opened doors and provided for me. Every person and story is truly special and dear to my heart.


I’m SO EXCITED to be back in College Station, and to see what else God is going to do in our church and city. I have been up there a lot recently, and it’s been so refreshing and encouraging to see all of my friends in my homegroup and at Fellowship Church. I love it so much-I truly feel like there’s nowhere else in the world I’d rather be! Honestly, the fact that full-time ministry gets to be my job seems WAY too good to be true. Many of the things I’ll be doing on staff are what I choose to do in my free time, only now I’ll actually get paid for them. I look forward to seeking Jesus, loving His people, and leading more of his kids to freedom in Christ!

Yay! I have a blog now! I read my friend Rachel's blog recently, and ever since then I have been wanting to make one of my own. I thought it would be great to record some of the cool stuff God does in my life, and it's a lot easier than hand-writing it all out. Plus, I love telling stories and posting pictures.