\n
By Chasity Shavon Jones<\/strong><\/p>\n I am 24 years old and worked in the social work\/mental health field prior to moving to Seattle.\u00a0 I received my bachelor\u2019s degree in psychology in 2014 and I am currently working on my master\u2019s in Public Health.\u00a0 I love the people of Cambodia and hope to work there as a missionary in the field of public health in the future.<\/p>\n Since I trusted Christ with my life in 2012, I have heard whispers directing me to be a missionary.\u00a0 This idea was met with substantial resistance from my family and friends, however.\u00a0 The resistance led to the delay in answering God\u2019s call for my life.\u00a0 In my final semester at Southeastern Louisiana University, I was fortunate enough to speak with a missionary at my campus\u2019 Wesley Foundation. I told her of the conflict between mission work and my family.\u00a0 She, too, informed me that most of her family has never supported her work, but she did not let that keep her from answering God when He called her.\u00a0 She then secretly made the director of the Wesley Foundation promise to being me on his next mission trip because of the potential she saw.\u00a0 Her name was Marsha Alexander.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When I was asked by the Rev. Emile to go to Cambodia, I thought he was joking, but I accepted regardless because it had always been hidden desire of mine to serve in that capacity.\u00a0 I have always wanted to advocate for the voiceless and oppressed but felt too young and insignificant to do anything about it. Little did I know that the decision to go would put me on a trajectory that I would never have dared to dream.\u00a0 The love and pure religion that I experienced in my time in Cambodia ignited dormant passions that I have never known existed inside of me.\u00a0\u00a0 I am now driven to protect children and their innocence.\u00a0 I now recognize that righteous anger, stirred up from witnessing injustice can be focused into seeking justice.\u00a0 Ever since then there has been this intense motivation to love and protect all children, but especially the children of survivors of genocide in Cambodia.<\/p>\n I have also recently realized that I am in the midst of an identity crisis.\u00a0 I am unsatisfied not knowing my true culture, my true name, my true land.\u00a0 I desire to know that I belong somewhere and that my culture is not limited to that of a \u2018Black American\u2019, but so much more than that.\u00a0 I want to know that I come from more than pain and suffering, chains and whips.\u00a0 I want to know the land that loves me and calls me her own, even though it is likely that my land has been soaking the tears and blood of genocide that colonization has birthed.\u00a0 Even though the land that brought me forth may be crying herself and has been rendered barren, I would still like to know her.<\/p>\n Because of these desires within me and the recent events of police brutality in the United States, a desire to advocate seeps from my pores.\u00a0 The strength of the desire to advocate on behalf of my people, black Americans, continues to surprise me daily.\u00a0 As I witness violence against my brothers and sisters who want protection and equality and as I witness a nation ignoring their outcry, I am moved to action.<\/p>\n![\"news_gmf_chasity_self2\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/NEWS_GMF_Chasity_self2-240x300.jpg?resize=240%2C300\")
I am Chasity Jones of Mandeville, La.\u00a0 I have always been a fan of beautiful things, but not until recently has the most beautiful thing to me been the sunset.\u00a0 It reminds me that God is creative and He has created me to create as well.\u00a0 As I walk farther along my journey with God, I am witnessing the beauty of the people of God as well as the beauty of freedom.<\/p>\n