2020 was the year that the world shut down, but minds remained busy. Like any other college student between zoom classes, I mindlessly scrolled through Tiktok for fleeting entertainment to distract me from my overwhelming workload. I landed on a post that had a gentleman who looked to be of college age talking about something. I had my sound off, so for a couple of seconds before I tapped for sound, I examined his demeanor. He was poised yet expressive with hand gestures. “He must be talking about something important,” I thought, so I released my finger to tap.

The words didn’t shock me as much as the person speaking them. You have to understand, this was the first time I saw someone around my age preach God’s word. A month after an attempted suicide turned into seeking God, I was searching for guidance. I looked for God in every way I could get him; I yearned to understand more than I ever did before. This interest led me to click and follow Un-Associated on Instagram and tune into Church Boy Confessions, religiously–pun intended. Listening to Emmanuel break down the gospel for what it gave me a better understanding of who my Heavenly Father is. My faith began to spread farther from my earthly situations but to God’s will and purpose. This was a gateway to exploring more of the organization, like Kreate with Kendra and the devotionals.

Within the next two years, I started to experience a boldening that allowed me to have about conversations about God outside of church. Un-Associated helped me to understand that my faith is not a secret but an identity known by others.

I started my own online women’s ministry and hosted weekly bible study because I began to see the importance of sharing God’s love and truth. It wasn’t long until I experienced a lot of spiritual warfare because of that fact, and it discouraged me greatly. I had never known how to deal with this, so I felt paralyzed in my imperfection. I had this looming lie from the enemy that I wasn’t good enough to serve God’s people and that I should just stop, so I did.

I thought I was doing a noble thing, but somehow I felt unfilled in my day-to-day life. I felt restless and frustrated because I didn’t feel like I was doing enough. The following week, Emmanuel is speaking about using our gifts for the Kingdom on Church Boy Confessions and inquires about signing up to volunteer for Un-Associated. I took a leap of faith and applied, seeking the stretching of my capacity to reflect God’s presence to his people. Un-Associated sparked a hunger for God in a way that I never thought I could experience. Through this community model, Un-Associated has connected young adults to the word of God and its application to our society without dilution. I am forever thankful to this organization for giving me a direction of where the Christian walk starts. I met Un-Associated when I was looking for God, and now I know where he is.