What the TN WMU Acteens Scholarship 2011-2012 Recepient...

 ...has to say about how this scholarship impacted her new college career:

For every high school senior the main priority is figuring out where you want to go to college. Luckily for me, I had known that I wanted to go to Union University for years and I felt that was where Christ wanted me to go, as well! So, after I received my acceptance letter my main priority changed to figuring a way financially for me to attend Union. I am very fortunate enough to have parents that have always been there to support me and help me as much as they can. Yet, I didn’t want my family to have to pay for my entire college education. So in order for me to financially afford college I turned to scholarships! I filled out one scholarship after another and I prayed every night that those scholarships would be enough! Then a day or two after returning from Connection in Gatlinburg, I was starting to contemplate on whether I should find a cheaper college because I wasn’t sure if the scholarships I had received were going to be enough. But then I got a call from my Acteens leaders and she said, “Sara! You got the Acteens Scholarship!” “Thank you, God!” was all I could say after that phone call. Luckily, after I received the Acteens scholarship several more came filing in. God had answered my prayers; He just wanted me to be patient.

Once September rolled around, I was thankful to say that I was a freshman at Union University. Union is a fantastic college and I encourage people all the time to come here. Union has so many opportunities for college students and there are so many charming people. Two of which are my roommates, Rachel Hudspeth (who I met through being a panelist) and Paige Eubanks. These two young ladies are two of the nicest, funniest, polite, and Christ-like people I have ever had the chance to meet. They have truly helped make my first semester an awesome one.  I feel that God has a reason for me to attend Union, and that would be for me to gain a closer relationship with Him. Since I am a Biology (Pre-Med) major, I would love to one day go into medical missions and I feel that Union is a great place for me to learn how to do that. I am so thankfully that God allowed me to find a way to go to Union and hopefully He will find ways for many other high school students to attend, as well.

Sara Gatlin, 2011-2012 TN WMU Acteens Scholarship Recepient

Tell about a project your Acteens group has done and what impact it made on you and your community.

By Lydia Huggins
2011-2012 TN WMU State Acteens Panelist

A recent project my Acteens group did was to show our gratitude for veterans for Veteran’s Day. We made cupcakes and thank you cards for the veterans at the Veterans Administration hospital in our city. We wrote encouraging notes on the thank you cards and decorated them with ribbons and stickers. We made regular cupcakes and we also made sugar free cupcakes for the diabetics. After icing the cupcakes and decorating them with American flags, we prayed over the cupcakes and cards. It took a whole afternoon to bake seventy-two cupcakes and two hours to write and decorate seventy-two thank you cards for the veterans that were hospitalized during that time. We spent a few hours at the V.A. hospital visiting each of the veterans. The time and effort it took to bake, write, decorate, and deliver our small gifts to the veterans was worth it when I saw their happiness from our visit.

I enjoyed handing out the cards to the veterans and visiting with them. They greatly appreciated it. Their families and the hospital staff were also glad to see the veterans remembered for their service to our country. We visited with one of the men for a while. He had had many struggles in the past year. Even in the most difficult circumstances, where others would have been sad and depressed, he still praised God and felt blessed. He encouraged us to keep doing good things for people because you never know what God will do and what a difference you can make in someone’s life.

Tell about a project that your Acteens group has done and what impact it made on you and your community.

By Sabrina Thompson
2011-2012 Acteens State Panelist

One recent mission project that our Acteens group has done is Operation Christmas Child. Operation Christmas Child is a ministry of Samaritan’s Purse, where groups or individuals can pack gift boxes to be sent to children all around the world at Christmas. At first we set our goal for 50 boxes. My Acteens group isn't that big so we thought that 50 was a reasonable and achievable number. We started promoting it around the church and asking for donations not only boxes but for the other things we needed. It was the start of football season and our choir director had the bright idea of calling local high schools and getting old boxes from the cleats. By the time our deadline came we had about 300 boxes. We were all really excited about having all these boxes but now we had to come up with the money to pack and ship them. During Sunday morning services we showed little clips about Operation Christmas Child and how these boxes brought so much joy to a child’s life. We eventually raised enough money to pack and ship all 300 boxes. One Saturday we all got together and had a shoebox packing party. We a good time and had amazing fellowship. It’s amazing what faith can do. It turned our little Acteens mission project into a church wide project and let a little church like Black Oak pack 300 shoeboxes. The small everyday things are easily taken for granted but doing things like this is what makes me realize how blessed I really am.