First, thank you for your consideration and taking the time to read my essay. My story is a long one and all glory to God on where I am today. I'll start my story in high school. I was raised in church and went all the time. I was active in my youth group but that was mainly to please my girlfriend at the time and my parents. I had a prescription drug problem in high school and dealt with mental health issues from childhood rape and sexual assault trauma. At 19 years old I got a girl I was hanging out with pregnant. At 20 years old I became a single father. Living with my parents at the time I was fortunate that I had God-fearing parents who used this time in my life to teach and help me develop more of a personal relationship with the Lord. As I would visit with them and my pastor on being a better dad and what the bibles says about being a father, my personal walk with the Lord really grew. Over the next few years I was seeking the Lord and found that as I wanted to be a better father I felt the Lord calling me to more. My calling I felt was the Sunday school class I was helping in already. I would visit with my pastor and as I shared this with him he told me no. I was confused at the time and keep praying as we met weekly. At a session when I was a little annoyed I asked why he said no and he said I believe God is calling you to more and I won't let you settle for less than God's calling on your life. I left that session confused and ended up taking a few days off work to pray and have real quiet time away from everything. At the end of that season in my life I surrendered my life to ministry. When this happened I felt a huge weight I wasn't aware I was carrying come off my shoulders. Shortly after publicly surrendering to preach, my childhood came back to haunt me. The person that had raped and sexually assaulted me ended up coming up to my parents and asking for money. My parents not knowing at the time of our history got a feeling and said no. This was when the person admitted to his wrong doing and he's just trying to fix all his issues. I felt at the time my ministry was over before it ever really got started. I had to go get counseling to finally address the issues I had let simmer and compounded by my bad decisions in high school. This is where I feel in love with counseling. I had a Christian counselor who was a pastor also come into my life and completely reshape how I saw the word forgiveness. From this I was able to get through the struggles and that become a part of my ministry to share with others to help others see forgiveness in a biblical way. I plan to utilize my faith and how the Lord has worked through me to help others. I want to finish this counseling degree and get licensed to help those through the churches I am called to serve at. Thank you for your consideration and I will pray that this story can touch you in a way that brings glory to God.

My passion to pursue a career in mental health therapy is a two-sided coin. The first side of the coin is the personal history. I was a rape victim and sexual assault victim from my childhood. A person I trusted and my parents trusted to watch me took advantage of the situation. I was groomed to not say a word until I was older and viewed a video of sexual relations between adults I just assumed adults and children were normal. For years I never said a word and repressed so much trauma from that and compounded bad decisions to hide it further that I was in a dark place. I went on to attempt suicide while I was still a senior in high school. I felt like everything was coming to an end with school and sports so I felt my need to be around was for not and I decided to try and end it. I, fortunately, was unsuccessful and survived enough to get real help. I am passionate because I got a therapist after this and got real help for many of my problems. Later on, another therapist came into my life and helped me with the repressed childhood trauma. This is just personal so much to me. Someone out there sadly is probably going thru what I did as a child. Becoming a therapist would give me the tools for this side of the coin to be there and give a child some hope and help to not compound decisions off trauma but take the necessary steps to heal and maybe even one day avoid the land mines in life that I stepped on. The second side of the coin is my environment. I am currently a bi-vocational pastor. I have seen how helping people battle addictions can not only change one person's life but often affects an entire family and close friends. In my previous church, the head pastor who was also my mentor was Logan Ferguson. Before he was full-time staffed at the church he worked as a parole officer. The church's growth came from his job loving others and offering help and resources instead of just throwing everyone into the same assumptions. I had a front-row seat to seeing people come to church high one week and several weeks later come back healthy clean and full of life again. I know I can help make a difference. I see the need and if even just one family is positively impacted because I get my license and help someone not harm themselves or break an addiction it will all have been worth it.

My passion to pursue a career in mental health therapy is a two-sided coin. The first side of the coin is the personal history. I was a rape victim and sexual assault victim from my childhood. A person I trusted and my parents trusted to watch me took advantage of the situation. I was groomed to not say a word until I was older and viewed a video of sexual relations between adults I just assumed adults and children were normal. For years I never said a word and repressed so much trauma from that and compounded bad decisions to hide it further that I was in a dark place. I went on to attempt suicide while I was still a senior in high school. I felt like everything was coming to an end with school and sports so I felt my need to be around was for not and I decided to try and end it. I, fortunately, was unsuccessful and survived enough to get real help. I am passionate because I got a therapist after this and got real help for many of my problems. Later on, another therapist came into my life and helped me with the repressed childhood trauma. This is just personal so much to me. Someone out there sadly is probably going thru what I did as a child. Becoming a therapist would give me the tools for this side of the coin to be there and give a child some hope and help to not compound decisions off trauma but take the necessary steps to heal and maybe even one day avoid the land mines in life that I stepped on. The second side of the coin is my environment. I am currently a bi-vocational pastor. I have seen how helping people battle addictions can not only change one person's life but often affects an entire family and close friends. In my previous church, the head pastor who was also my mentor was Logan Ferguson. Before he was full-time staffed at the church he worked as a parole officer. The church's growth came from his job loving others and offering help and resources instead of just throwing everyone into the same assumptions. I had a front-row seat to seeing people come to church high one week and several weeks later come back healthy clean and full of life again. I know I can help make a difference. I see the need and if even just one family is positively impacted because I get my license and help someone not harm themselves or break an addiction it will all have been worth it.

My experiences with mental health have made my career choice to submit to this field an easy one. I have been trying to find a way into this field as the schooling requirements have made it difficult to pursue until now. My passion to pursue a career in mental health therapy is a two-sided coin. The first side of the coin is the personal history. I was a rape victim and sexual assault victim from my childhood. A person I trusted and my parents trusted to watch me took advantage of the situation. I was groomed to not say a word until I was older and viewed a video of sexual relations between adults I just assumed adults and children were normal. For years I never said a word and repressed so much trauma from that and compounded bad decisions to hide it further that I was in a dark place. I went on to attempt suicide while I was still a senior in high school. I felt like everything was coming to an end with school and sports so I felt my need to be around was for not and I decided to try and end it. I, fortunately, was unsuccessful and survived enough to get real help. I am passionate because I got a therapist after this and got real help for many of my problems. Later on, another therapist came into my life and helped me with the repressed childhood trauma. This is just personal so much to me. Someone out there sadly is probably going thru what I did as a child. Becoming a therapist would give me the tools for this side of the coin to be there and give a child some hope and help to not compound decisions off trauma but take the necessary steps to heal and maybe even one day avoid the land mines in life that I stepped on. The second side of the coin is my environment. I am currently a bi-vocational pastor. I have seen how helping people battle addictions can not only change one person's life but often affects an entire family and close friends. In my previous church, the head pastor who was also my mentor was Logan Ferguson. Before he was full-time staffed at the church he worked as a parole officer. The church's growth came from his job loving others and offering help and resources instead of just throwing everyone into the same assumptions. I had a front-row seat to seeing people come to church high one week and several weeks later come back healthy clean and full of life again. I know I can help make a difference. I see the need and if even just one family is positively impacted because I get my license and help someone not harm themselves or break an addiction it will all have been worth it. I want to thank you for your consideration of this scholarship and for taking the time to read my application submission.

My passion to pursue a career in mental health therapy is a two-sided coin. The first side of the coin is the personal history. I was a rape victim and sexual assault victim from my childhood. A person I trusted and my parents trusted to watch me took advantage of the situation. I was groomed to not say a word until I was older and viewed a video of sexual relations between adults I just assumed adults and children were normal. For years I never said a word and repressed so much trauma from that and compounded bad decisions to hide it further that I was in a dark place. I went on to attempt suicide while I was still a senior in high school. I felt like everything was coming to an end with school and sports so I felt my need to be around was for not and I decided to try and end it. I, fortunately, was unsuccessful and survived enough to get real help. I am passionate because I got a therapist after this and got real help for many of my problems. Later on, another therapist came into my life and helped me with the repressed childhood trauma. This is just personal so much to me. Someone out there sadly is probably going thru what I did as a child. Becoming a therapist would give me the tools for this side of the coin to be there and give a child some hope and help to not compound decisions off trauma but take the necessary steps to heal and maybe even one day avoid the land mines in life that I stepped on. The second side of the coin is my environment. I am currently a bi-vocational pastor. I have seen how helping people battle addictions can not only change one person's life but often affects an entire family and close friends. In my previous church, the head pastor who was also my mentor was Logan Ferguson. Before he was full-time staffed at the church he worked as a parole officer. The church's growth came from his job loving others and offering help and resources instead of just throwing everyone into the same assumptions. I had a front-row seat to seeing people come to church high one week and several weeks later come back healthy clean and full of life again. I know I can help make a difference. I see the need and if even just one family is positively impacted because I get my license and help someone not harm themselves or break an addiction it will all have been worth it.

My passion to pursue a career in mental health therapy is a two-sided coin. The first side of the coin is the personal history. I was a rape victim and sexual assault victim from my childhood. A person I trusted and my parents trusted to watch me took advantage of the situation. I was groomed to not say a word until I was older and viewed a video of sexual relations between adults I just assumed adults and children were normal. For years I never said a word and repressed so much trauma from that and compounded bad decisions to hide it further that I was in a dark place. I went on to attempt suicide while I was still a senior in high school. I felt like everything was coming to an end with school and sports so I felt my need to be around was for not and I decided to try and end it. I, fortunately, was unsuccessful and survived enough to get real help. I am passionate because I got a therapist after this and got real help for many of my problems. Later on, another therapist came into my life and helped me with the repressed childhood trauma. This is just personal so much to me. Someone out there sadly is probably going thru what I did as a child. Becoming a therapist would give me the tools for this side of the coin to be there and give a child some hope and help to not compound decisions off trauma but take the necessary steps to heal and maybe even one day avoid the land mines in life that I stepped on. The second side of the coin is my environment. I am currently a bi-vocational pastor. I have seen how helping people battle addictions can not only change one person's life but often affects an entire family and close friends. In my previous church, the head pastor who was also my mentor was Logan Ferguson. Before he was full-time staffed at the church he worked as a parole officer. The church's growth came from his job loving others and offering help and resources instead of just throwing everyone into the same assumptions. I had a front-row seat to seeing people come to church high one week and several weeks later come back healthy clean and full of life again. I know I can help make a difference. I see the need and if even just one family is positively impacted because I get my license and help someone not harm themselves or break an addiction it will all have been worth it.

To help others I had to first become who I was called to be. On August 28th, 2016 I surrendered to Ministry at my home church, FBC Danville in Danville, Arkansas. I wrestled for months with this decision of surrendering after past sins and struggles. What came after that was a weight lifted off my shoulders because from that moment moving forward I have been able to be who God called and created me to be. 4 years ago in 2018 I had a very difficult moment where I thought ministry was going to be over. As a 9-year-old boy, I was raped and molested by someone my parents trusted to watch me. I never spoke about it and never revealed it to anyone, but the person who did it was in a bad way and tried to reveal that story as a way to get my father to help him in a situation he needed assistance with. When this was revealed to me I went thru a lot of emotions that had been bottled up and covered up over the years with prescription substance abuse and other poor choices. I went to therapy for months and was able to finally speak about my experiences to my youth group. On that night we had several youth kids in tears and were finally able to see someone else they looked up to had been thru rough times as well. Your prompt question is asking how we've helped others and this story is one of them. I'm not afraid to let my past mistakes and past experiences be a crutch that I try not to let the Lord use, but rather allow the Lord to use my life and my story in a way that he shines thru all that he has gotten me thru. I will graduate in the Spring from Ouachita Baptist University with a bachelor's degree in Christian studies with an emphasis in Theology. That degree will go to help me as I take pastor jobs and teach God's grace and Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross for everyone. After that, I am accepted into Grand Canyon University's graduate program for Licensed Mental Health Counseling. I want to help others at an earlier stage than me get help and be a resource for others when life puts them thru the fire. That way even if I am called to a full-time pastor position I can use my degrees and training to better serve others, and if I remain bi-vocational then I am better equipped to help others in the secular world as well as in my church and community. Thank you for your consideration and God Bless Andrew Papasan