At an early age, I really felt alone because I wanted more stability and love for my family.
And since I wasn't getting that, it felt like I needed to grow up fast.
At the age of eight, my parents started their separation and that grew into a divorce that
went until I was 16 years old.
So I got really good at hiding how I truly felt.
And I remember people asking me, how are you doing?
And I'd just say fine.
But I knew that they could see that I wasn't.
My parents sat me down and told me what church was all about and what God was all about.
And they told me all I really was to them was another notch in their belt.
I was another name in the book and all they really wanted was my money.
Started getting involved with Ultimate Frisbee because the environment is just a party scene
all the time.
This youth pastor started getting involved and I was expecting him to shove religion and
church down my throat.
And he actually cared about me and it really threw me off.
And I remember saying to him, aren't you supposed to tell me about God, aren't you supposed
to tell me about church and drag me to church?
And he kind of chuckled and I started asking him more questions.
And he invited me to help him out and serve coffee and serve in the cafe at their church.
And I was sitting there thinking, this is real, like they're actually talking about
things that I question about life.
And he would introduce me to people in the group as if I was part of his family already
and I barely knew him.
My roommate started dragging me to the small group that I really didn't want to go to.
But I kept on hearing them say, I heard God say this or I feel like God is saying this.
And I was trying to muster it up the courage to ask people a question and the question
was, how do you hear God's voice?
I remember people sitting down all their stuff and sitting on the edge of their seats and
everyone wanted to answer the question.
And to be honest, I had no idea what they said.
However, someone did say something to me, God's going to continue to speak to you like
he has, but don't take him as coincidences.
See it as him speaking to you.
And so I started taking that perspective.
Books had asked me to serve at a summer camp.
I was really still questioning who God was and if I wanted to do this thing.
So I went to the summer camp and at summer camp I was kind of wrestling a lot and I remember
sitting in a service and the speaker was saying, someone here has been hearing God's voice
for the past couple of months, kind of been seeing if this is what they want to do.
And I knew instantly this guy was speaking directly towards me.
Next instant I'm standing up with 20 people surrounding me praying for me and I'm just
crying and started drilling, started reading the Bible in small groups, meeting with Brooks
and Drew and just the people that I surrounded in my life and started going to college-age
Bible study that really influenced my walk with God and continued to have those relationships
and Brooks has been really influential in my life, just showing me what a man of God
looks like but also just being consistently involved in my life and just being genuine
and caring and just processing through what it is to be a Christian, to seek, just hearing
God's voice.
Man, it's been a struggle but I'm glad that God is going to use me to speak to people
and to share who he is and to invite people into this walk, into this family, into this
congregation.
My name is Riley Sullivan and this is my story.
