A decision to serve on HOPE Youth Corps would change her life forever... 

Mikayla Nations went on the Zambia Volunteer Corps with her family last year. This year, after she turned 15, she signed up to go on the Philadelphia HOPE Youth Corps by herself. Both trips had a profound effect on her. She was baptized after returning from the Philly HYC. Here is her testimony...
"Growing up in the church can be difficult. The church I grew up in was small and it had been struggling for a while. When I first started thinking about wanting to study the Bible, we had no teen or campus disciples, and most of the adult disciples had known me since birth. I felt awkward asking them to study with me. Then, in January of this year, we had Kip and Bethany Harms move here to help lead and replant the church.
Before I get too far, let me backtrack a little bit. In July of 2017, I went on a HOPE worldwide Volunteer Corps to Zambia, Africa, with my family. It was a great experience, and I loved going and serving. One of the leaders on the trip was Dan Ajet, who lives in England. I honestly thought that I wasn’t going to see him again, but when I went to visit London in April of this year with my mom, we just so happened to go to the church that Dan was at. We were actually going to see someone else from the Zambia trip, so it was surprising seeing Dan there too. We started talking about how I wanted to go on a Youth Corps trip this year by myself, but I had no idea which one to sign up for. Dan told us that he was leading the second Philadelphia trip. I told him I would consider going on that one, and we said our goodbyes.
Fast forward to about a month later, I was back home and I had completely forgotten about Youth Corps trips and hadn’t signed up for one yet. One day, Nadine Templer posted on her Facebook page that there was ONE spot left on the second Philadelphia trip. I decided to send in my application and see if I got the spot. A few days later we got an email saying that I had got accepted, and I was going on the trip. I was so excited, but at the same time, I realized that I didn’t know anyone that was going on the trip aside from Dan. It made me extremely nervous, especially since my family wasn’t going with me on this HYC. Around this time, I started studying the Bible and it helped me to realize that I just needed to trust God and know that he was going to take care of me.
The trip was amazing. I learned so much and made so many friends from all over the country. One specific moment from the trip that really impacted me was on the last night. We watched the video that had been made about our trip, and it made almost everyone cry. Then we got to stay up super late, and we just hung out and everyone went around and said their goodbyes because some people had to leave at 3am the next morning. I personally am not a very emotional person, and I didn’t start crying until one of the girls came up and talked to me. She told me all about how excited she was that I was studying the Bible, and that she was going to be praying for me to get baptized. I was so touched that she even thought to come up to me and say that, I felt so encouraged. Every disciple that I have ever talked to has had that one moment where they just knew that they needed to get baptized. I think this was the moment that I realized. Of course, I still had to get home and finish my studies before I could become a Christian.
Leaving all of the people from this HYC was quite possibly one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, but at the same time, I just wanted to go home and see my family. I got to the airport on a Friday afternoon and my family still had to drive me home, so it was fairly late when I got back. I went straight to sleep. On Saturday, I slept in, and spent all day doing nothing but telling stories about the Youth Corps trip.
On Sunday, we had a special service and people from Santa Barbara and Bakersfield came down to Santa Maria. I was super emotional this day because I was missing everyone from the trip. Also, one of the guys that I have known since I was born was getting baptized that day and no one had told me. After his baptism I was crying again, and I went up to hug him. Before I left he looked me directly in the eyes, pointed at me, and told me, “You’re next”. It took me a minute to realize that he was saying that I was going to be the next person getting baptized in our group. At the time, I wasn’t the only one studying, so i kinda brushed it off and thought to myself that I was definitely not going to be next.
Little did I know that two and a half weeks later, on August 24th, I would be getting baptized at the beach. I am so happy that I made the decision to get baptized and make Jesus Lord of my life. I really think that I wouldn’t be baptized yet if it weren’t for the Philadelphia HOPE Youth Corps. Everyone is so supportive, and I love them all to death. I’m not saying that my journey so far has been easy, I’ve had some pretty brutal days, but knowing that I will always have people to love and support me helps me get through them."