I think learning a dance is hard. It's hard to remember, it's hard to do, it's hard because
you're out of breath. I think that it's hard in every area, but I think the hardest part
is you learn dances and pieces. You learn part A, part B, part C, part D, whatever. You learn
eight counts and then 16 counts another day. And then you get on stage and then everything
kind of begins to become clear. And then the lights turn on and then you're standing in the
wings and it's time to go. And then it's like, all right, I understand what's happening here.
My soul loves music, it loves art, it loves creativity and so it's an easy direct line
into the spirit. It's how I can love the Lord. I danced all through high school, all through
middle school, everything, and then I went to college. I really struggled. I wasn't enjoying
myself and I quit after my first year. I don't want to regret anything like I regretted quitting.
Here we go, guys. I hope I don't get an accident. Yeah, so I grew up in this neighborhood. I grew
up in the 205 zip code. I went to school here, I went to church here. When I was a kid, like
Plasmidwood was not, Plasmidwood was not like an up and coming area. Like all of this housing
back here, like all of it was refugee housing or like international. There's so many refugees
here and they're just like hidden in little pockets of Charlotte. Yeah, and people don't
even know. I do remember like when I was young, not fully understanding what a refugee was,
and I probably didn't for a long time, but I still was like with them all the time. I just
thought I was like, oh, these are just like our international friends. In middle school,
we accepted our first refugee family into our school. I remember like the dad praying like,
oh, with our church, like I'm trying to get the rest of my family over here. I remember hearing
like the dad talking about the process of getting his daughter over here. And I was like, oh my
gosh, like this is a major deal. And that's probably that's actually probably the first like
story of a refugee. I really heard thinking about that now. Like this is not just something to
read about. This is this is my neighbor and church. So these events and growing up in this
place and in and having these moments, that's really the Lord like setting the stage and
working behind the scenes in a way that you don't understand until later in your life and
then you look back and you can see what the Lord has done. One of the biggest lessons I've learned
has been that the call on my life has been constant, whether it looks like dancing, no
matter what the profession is, the call is to love God and to love people and that's been steady
the whole time. Science, I'd love your neighbor. Look at that. I think it's like always a surprise
to people because they're driving through like half a million dollar neighborhoods and then they
like stumble into a refugee apartment complex. It's just like so crazy to think that our city can
host those two people groups in the same zip code. I think that's like makes Charlie really unique.
To talk to someone and for me to say oh yeah this is how the Lord has been working in my life
since I was five and they tell their story and oh I've walked my way through seven different
countries or whatever and then you see oh my gosh the Lord has been working simultaneously in my
life and in this person's life and then led us to this one spot and it's just all over the world,
28205, Eritrea, Columbia, whatever. The Lord is always moving and he has a plan and he's so
faithful and then when we come together we can say oh yeah I remember now the Lord is so redemptive
in all these things. I forever have disqualified myself because I'm young or a list of other reasons
and then the Lord started speaking into my heart you know quit, quit disqualifying yourself for
something that I called you to because I am the one who has called you and I am faithful in this
call and everyone is qualified to love their neighbor. That's the like the behind the scenes
work that leads to life transformation. It's not the program it's the relationship in the community
that's like a little glimpse of what heaven is anyways and so that's what we do here.
