Set Apart SPOTLIGHT: Ariel Richardson

         

I always start my testimony with before I was conceived.  All of my life the doctors told my mother that she would not be able to have children.  So when she became pregnant with me it was evident that the Lord saw fit for me to be here regardless of human thoughts.  Growing up the first five years of my life I really don’t remember but from looking through photos I would say I was a pretty happy child.  Starting kindergarten I was mean and violent, much so that I was expelled from my elementary school.  I believe this behavior was a mirror of what was actually going on in my home.  Around this age my mother and father filed for divorce and my father left my mother to raise my brother and me by herself.  This put a lot of pressure on my mother and this is when abuse started to happen.  Patience wasn’t present in our house thus as young children and even teenagers when my mother would lose patience it was brutal punishments, emotional and verbal damage.  So here I was during the most critical time of nurturing development left to find that somewhere else.

            We were a normal family, my brother and I were very active in sports, we went on family vacations with my mother, my mother paid for us to go to private school for a while, and she provided all that she could.  We went to church occasionally but I never had a relationship with God until 20.  So back to my story, my mother was in survival mode and my dad was gone and I felt alone.  At 14 I decided that I was going to look for love and I wasn’t stopping until I found it.  I wanted love so bad that I became involved with sexual immorality, and when I still couldn’t find it throughout the years I searched for it in selling and using illegal drugs, pornography and masturbation, unhealthy friendships and relationships, violence, partying, drinking, and lying.  My life was a mess and the void that I was trying to fill wasn’t filling fast enough.  O yeah and to top it off I thought I was a Christian.  I knew that when things were going really bad I could pray and then go back to how Ariel wanted to live life.  That was also a fail but I believe that God had his hand on my life during those times.

            Fast forward I was a junior in college and I had just joined the college chapter Pinky Promise at my school. I found out through them that there would be a conference in Atlanta, GA and I wanted to go.  I love traveling and meeting new people so I made up my mind I was going.  While at the conference the host and founder Heather Lindsey said “I betta see y'all tomorrow for quiet! AT 7AM!!  In my mind I wasn’t going because it was so early and I never heard of a quiet time before.  So my roommates were going and I decided I would go to.  The next morning January 25, 2013 she explained that it was a quiet time set aside between you and God.  So I found me a tiny space in a ballroom filled with 749 other girls and I cried out to God.  I said “God I’ve never done this before but I want to have a relationship with you.”  It was in that moment that I felt the presence of God envelope me and I heard his voice.  He was so clear and his love and grace filled me.  In this one moment I found and felt the love I had been wanting and looking for my entire life.  I was crying and it wasn’t the pretty cry either.  It was so ugly but it was what my life had been.  My flesh created a life of darkness but in this very moment God gave me His Son in exchange for my mess.  I will never understand why but all I know is that I will worship him for the rest of my life.

            I would like to say that life became easier but that would be a lie.  I came back to Texas a changed person but my surroundings was still the same.  It was plain hard man.  I had to learn to trust God, my flesh was trying to go back to old comforts during hard times, and I still had unhealthy relationships.  I wanted to give up plenty of times but my relationship with Christ wouldn’t let me.  For so many years I placed my hope in things, people, and places but now it was in Him.  I have been a Christian now for a year and 5 months.  God has done a work in my heart.  I’m friendlier, I love and serve like crazy, he is restoring me and mothers relationship, I love my father, and I am comfortable being me.  He has given me a newness that’s such a miracle.  Now that he has done this in my life I surrender so that his same love can go and do that to other people’s lives.  I fight the enemy but not with violence (flesh and blood) but with the Word of God (sharper than any two edged sword.)  Every good thing that I have comes from The Lord and it is only by his strength that I am able to do anything.  Every day I fail but I know that He is my shepherd and he will never leave nor forsake his sheep.  Love conquers all, it doesn’t keep a record of wrong doings, it is patience, and it preservers until the end.

Now that you know what God has done in my life I would love for you to partner with him as well.  I was accepted to the World Race. The World Race is a missions program run by an organization called Adventures In Missions. It’s a mission trip for 21 to 35 year-olds which spans 11 countries in 11 months! So where will I be going and when? Well, In January 2015 I’ll leave to serve in: Dominican Republic, Haiti, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Botswana, Swaziland and South Africa. I’m incredibly excited to be able to use my gifts and talents to teach English to children, feed the hungry, give my testimony to encourage others to have faith in the Gospel, and assist in freeing prostitutes from the bondage of sexual slavery—and those are just a few of the things I’ll be doing on the Race!  Of course, this opportunity of a lifetime doesn’t come without a cost. In order to go on the World Race, I must raise $15,500 (yep, you read that correctly).  In order for him to do the work that he wants to do here on earth he needs the entire body working together.  I humbly ask that you’d consider either a monthly gift of $10, a one-time gift of $120, or a gift of whatever size you feel comfortable giving. If you are led to partner with me, you can contribute by clicking here

            The kingdom of God needs the vessels to move.  I can’t do this on my own but I will be making decisions that will benefit this mission the most.  Please keep me, my team, those we will minister to, and everyone involved in prayer.  We need God to work through us!  


Ariel Richardson is from Dallas TX. She loves music cooking and anything funny. She loves God with all her heart! She laughs at almost everything. Her passion is to see women develop into who God called them to be! You can connect with her on facebook and follow her blog as she documents her world race journey.



We would love to hear your story of how you are Set Apart! Click here for more information.