A Little Bit About me and my Testimony

Hi, if you couldn’t already tell, my name is Olivia Butler! I am a college student at the University of Arizona.

I was raised in a Christian household with my four other siblings. My mom became a Christian after she married my dad, so most of our Christian influence and values came from her. She valued going to church on Sundays, but there was never really much talk about the Bible. In middle school, my perspective of church was so minuscule; I honestly don’t remember learning anything, it was just a fun place to be on a Friday night. When I entered high school, going to church became a chore. I was pretending to be someone I truly wasn’t at the time. I did everything for the wrong reasons: to please my parents, to keep my friends, to “do the right thing.” I remember having a very vulnerable and open conversation with my bible study leader about not connecting and feeling absolutely lost. I felt so empty and depressed, doubting my purpose and the existence of God.

After that conversation, my life shifted. Church didn’t really change for me, and my relationship with God was still surface level. However, I had acknowledged my feelings and realized that the path I was taking was leading me to nowhere, and I was deeply troubled by what I was feeling. If God wasn’t real, why does anything we do matter? This question had dwelled in my mind for a long time.

About a year later, I met my current best friend Madi Cadwell. She was an answered prayer and the light I needed in a very dark place in my life. I was fascinated by the joy she radiated and the faith she had. She invited me to her church and to summer camp with her. I had so much fun and really connected with people on a personal level. I learned about the Lord, about myself, about others. I had opened my bible for the first time in a long time. I soon began to seriously pursue the Lord and was experiencing the same joy that Madi had radiated and realized that it came from God. I had received the love from the Lord that I had so desperately craved for a long time.