My family rarely attended church, but I did go with whoever I was with at the time (i.e. grandma, aunt, cousin, friends etc). During my Junior year of high school my family became homeless for months & I remember my mother saying she needed to get us back into church, so we went and found one. Immediately doors opened for us & we were able to get into a low income apartment. I was so grateful & wanted to know and understand how God works and began to seek Him more often.
Soon after that, I came to USF. After attending service at Cornerstone one Sunday I knew it was the church for me. I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit & was eager to learn more. At the service, I met a campus minister & we set up a weekly Bible study. After a few months I realized I had not counted the cost of following Christ with my whole life. I prayed to God and His Spirit convicted me to lay down my life & pick up the call He had for me just like Abraham had: “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.” (Heb. 11:8). I repented of my sins & gave my life to Jesus on October 10th, 2009!
After this, the Lord slowly but surely pointed out to me the places in my life that needed to change; one significant thing was my Modeling Troupe. I was heavily involved in a campus troupe & was the Secretary/Vice President. I had to prep, plan, teach, & learn new techniques about modeling & practice late nights, sometimes until 12am. Needless to say, this particular type of modeling was not godly and it was killing my grades. I had given my life to the Lord, but had not yet stopped participating in all of these kinds of worldly activities. I was practicing one night and I got so convicted of the type of movements and music we modeled to, that I actually talked to the president & did not participate in that show. The next morning I texted the president again, letting her know I was not returning to the troupe and told her it was because of the conviction I had in the Word of God. She seemed uneasy about what I said but I left it at that. I felt great. I knew it was because I had obeyed God. Now I’m a member of Cornerstone Christian Church & I am taking my spring break to preach the Gospel to students who are just like I was & tell them how Jesus changed my life! ~Lonitra
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Click on a students' name to see a previous Testimony of the Month: Carlos, Ali, James, Dan, Lonitra