Less of Me

I graduated!!

So I graduated from college four days ago. And of course, I have been asked a bazillion times "What are you gonna do now?" Well friends, here it is. Enjoy!

I walked into the halls of my first day of high school and I was terrified. I had just transferred from my tiny, Christian, private school to, what I thought was huge, public high school. I was in a new town and by 2nd period, I had gotten lost 5 or 6 times. When lunch came around, after I spent 30 minutes just trying to find my locker (which had my lunch in it) and after three unsuccessful attempts to seek help at the from office, I just sat down and cried. Yeah, that was my first day of high school. 

This actually sounds like your typical first day of high school experience, especially when you're the new kid. Things did get better and don't worry, by the next day, I had that whole locker situation down. Still, I remember that first year getting this awful feeling in the pit of my stomach when we started to get closer to my school every morning. I had made some friends and I did fine in my classes but the constant pressure to conform and the insecurities and that feeling that high school was the center of the world, is just not always easy to deal with. 

My second year of high school God began to change some things in my heart and change my perspective. Instead of viewing this place as somewhere I was forced to go everyday, I began to view it as my mission field, a place I was called to reach. As I said, I had to go everyday right? And when would I have this opportunity again? So I made a choice, I prayed, emailed my principal and started a Youth Alive club. This is a Christian club on middle school and high school campuses through the Assembly of God (AG). It was slow going at first but every week a group of us met, we had worship, ate food and I shared what God put on my heart every week. We had guest speakers and God did a lot of things, especially my senior year. Little did I know then how much that choice would impact my life. 

Jenna, one of my small group girls and best friends.
You can read about her story on my blogpost "A Pink One"

Right after I graduated, I was going to work a bunch and then head off to med school so I could change the world someday. God had other plans and I am so thankful. At the last minute (which seems to be a pattern in my life), I became an intern for Alaska's district youth director and lived and worked at Alaska's AG summer camps. I was one of the youngest interns there and that summer really impacted my life. I met several college students who had had their lives changed through this thing called Chi Alpha at North Dakota State University (NDSU) in Fargo, ND. I had never heard of Chi Alpha before or NDSU (I'd be lying if I said North Dakota was on the top of my list of college destinations).  

Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship is an international ministry through the Assemblies of God for college students and young adults. In universities across the world, groups of students gather every week on their campuses to worship the Lord and grow in Him together. Although I had already had my plans, God had better ones and after a lot of prayer, I moved to NDSU and became apart of Chi Alpha. To say that being apart of Chi Alpha changed my life, would be an understatement. My sophomore year of college, I became an RA in one of the dorms and a Chi Alpha small group leader. God did so many things that year, I still look back amazed!! My time in Chi Alpha was one of the most fruitful times in my life and I look back in amazement at all that God did!. I have hundreds of stories and testimonies (see blogpost “A Pink One” for one of my favorite stories). Even though I transferred my junior year to be closer to my family, I was still a leader and a part of the Chi Alpha at the new university that I attended.  I saw God completely transform the lives of students. I saw students getting set free, healed, saved and delivered all on secular university campuses!

When you get close to graduating, whether its high school or college, everyone seems to ask the same question "So what are you going to do next?" I remember the question in high school and it felt daunting then but it is about 75 times worse when you finish college because now what they are really asking is "what are you going to do with your life?" Believe me, I tossed around every idea under the sun, from grad school to Africa to worki

ng to Alaska to living at home to Urkaine. I mean really, I had no clue what I was supposed to do other than whatever God told me! Well as my junior year ended, I knew that I could not ignore the call on my life for campus ministry. So after a lot of prayer, I have applied and been accepted to become a Campus Minister in Training Intern (CMIT) under Pastor Brad Lewis back in Fargo, North Dakota for the 2014-2015 school year. There are multiple groups and multiple campuses under Pastor Brad and these combined Chi Alpha groups have around 500 students in attendance on a weekly basis (don't quote me) and from these Chi Alpha groups, other Chi Alpha ministries have been started all over the United States. I have seen first hand students being saved, set free from sin, addictions and pain, being physically and emotionally healed and called into full-time ministry through this campus ministry. I know that Fargo is not my final destination but I know this is one of the steps I need to take and everything that I will learn through this experience will prepare me for what God has next. 

When I started college, I asked God to give me a heart for my campus and to make an impact. Since I prayed that prayer, I found a verse that has become a theme of my life and something I try to live out "He must become greater; I must become less." John 3:30. This was stated by John the Baptist about Jesus. Throughout college, I prayed that my life would be used to make God greater and my own desires, needs, wants, less. Through those prayers God has used me in extraordinary ways and that is a prayer I am continuing to pray in the next season of my life. That in every way, God would become greater I would become less. 

Small Group sophomore year at NDSU

In order to complete this internship, I need to raise $1,800 per month. This has been a huge step of faith for me and a stretch in my trust but God has and continues to confirm this next step for me and has begun to open doors. I am excited to watch as this journey unfolds. I have begun to write and send support letters to specific individuals and to request monthly financial support. This has been a huge step of faith me and I am completely relying on God to provide! And I need your help!

Chi Alpha National Missions Conference Junior Year

If you would like to join my support team on a monthly basis ($10, $25, $50, $100, $1000) please use the following website: http://giving.ag.org (enter Hope Hagerty in the search engine) that will connect you with Assembly of God accounts.

I am praying that God will open your hearts to join my support team and we can partner together in this journey God has placed before me. In a book entitled The God Ask, the author quotes missionary William Carey who sailed from England to India in 1792. When William Carey contacted his friends and relatives to ask for their support he told them this “I will descend into the pit, if you will hold the ropes.” That is what I am saying to you now. Although Fargo, North Dakota hardly seems like a pit, I know this is a small step in the future that God has and His calling extends far beyond North Dakota and into all of the world.

Thank you,

Hope Hagerty

Bison statue in downtown Fargo. It was a lot harder to climb than I anticipated!