Tanner Cole Wilson

     "If I were to have died before I turned 17, I probably wouldn't have entered into the pearly white gates of Heaven. Yes, I had “Christian” labeled across my forehead my entire life, but I was never connected spiritually with Christ until my parents divorced when I was in 10th grade. Up until then, I had always followed the rules and gone to church, but had never had to rely on God for anything. But once the divorce took place, I was immediately thrown into the darkest time of my life, and didn't know what to do. I became extremely depressed and it seemed like no one reached out to help me. This period lasted about four months, until I attended Winter Chill, a high school church retreat at Fellowship Bible Church. There, one of the youth pastors pulled me aside and asked me how I was doing (I guess he had heard about my situation). We sat down and talked for no longer than fifteen minutes, but it was enough to set my life back on course. He was the first person in four months to see if I was alright.
            However, I still wasn't very close to God, but I was feeling less depressed and lonely over the next year now that I knew somebody actually cared to know how I was feeling. In the summer leading up to my senior year, I attended a mission trip to Guatemala with my church. After exploring the intense poverty of the nation, I had a revelation: my life is nowhere near as bad as the majority of the Guatemalans, who have to live on a concrete slab and eat tiny pieces of spoiled meat just to survive. When I arrived back to the states afterwards, I cracked open my Bible for the first time ever. And I just started reading, and slowly, after several months, began to have an intimate relationship with Christ.
            My faith grew even stronger my freshman year in college. I had attended Ouachita Baptist my first semester, and was not enjoying it due to the fact that I wasn't making any close friends and I felt like I was missing out on so much. This slipped me into a slight depression (although nothing compared to a few years earlier) and forced me to read my Bible religiously. I ended up transferring to the University of Arkansas, which I am much happier with, but still struggled making any close friends. I continued my Biblical habit to remain close to God. The school year ended, and now I am now less than a week away from heading back up to Fayetteville, and I pray that God allows me to have a better year but still to be just as connected with him as I was freshman year."



Age: 19 years old
Attends: University of Arkansas
Little Rock, Arkansas

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