My name is Glavine McDonald, and I am a senior basketball player at Van Buren High School. I grew up in a Christian household, going to church twice a week and doing what a Christian is supposed to do. Around the age of 8, I went to a church camp and decided it was time to give my life to Christ. This is a significant thing, but I never really understood what that was. I never felt the change, and I never changed. I just did what I knew to do and when I knew to do it. After that, I never really had any struggles in my life until I got into 7th grade. I got stuck in the wrong group, started cursing, and made the wrong decisions. On the outside, I was fine; I kept things to myself and just kept on playing basketball and going to church. Going into my 8th grade year, I moved schools. For anyone who has ever moved schools, you know it can be a big struggle with friends and just the change in general. Well, that year I really got put in the wrong crowd; they were the more popular kids in the school, but they were also more of the party kids. Again, I struggled with my faith and was what is considered a lukewarm Christian, not really living through Christ and just doing my own thing. I struggled with things all kinds of kids struggle with and just kept going back to them. At the end of my junior year, I and my closest friend got into an argument over something silly, but it stayed with me and made me question everything that I was doing. So I battled it mentally by myself, never really reaching out and instead just trying to let it go. Well, about a month went by, and I was in a group chat with a bunch of my friends when someone said something a little unsettling and against my faith, but as a lukewarm Christian, I just let it go. Then that friend that I had not really talked to for a while steps in and says something about it. Which put a sort of weight on my shoulders, like why am I so afraid and what am I even doing for God? About a week goes by and the same thing happens again, so this time I texted that friend separately and just said flat out, I've seen what God has done for you, and I can tell that there has been a change in your heart. What happened? He told me a long story about what God did for him, and that night I could just feel the presence of God in my room. I knew there was something greater than what the world has to offer, and I had been battling that for so long. So that night, I rededicated my life to Christ, knowing what it truly meant and understanding exactly what I was doing. Since that night, I have started multiple Bible studies with people, making God a point of interest in my life. I became a leader of our FCA program at my school, helped lead Fields of Faith, and can not wait to do so much more. I and a few others have started a change within the community in Van Buren and can not wait to see God work even more!