My S3 Story
I was a part of Students Standing Strong (S3) for about 8 years. My journey with S3 started when my family moved back to Texas from Denmark during the summer of 2005. Moving to a new place in the middle of the summer was a challenge to make new friends. It just so happened, that one of the first friends I made after moving to the area was Clint Kelly, Terry Ann’s (The S3 Founder and President) son. We became fast friends, our parents met each other, and our family was quickly exposed, and drawn to, Students Standing Strong. When moving to a new area, there was a period where our family had to search for a church home, so S3 was a perfect way to make sure that I continued my relationship with God.
As the years went on, I continued with S3 but really found it to be a strong source of
community for me once I began high school. I felt that the most my sophomore year when I experienced a life-threatening brain injury that I was extremely fortunate to make a full recovery from. Through my hospitalization, I had so much support from the S3 community and my investment in the organization grew. As I continued through my junior year, the bulk of my testimony grew out of my injury and how the circumstances around that event dramatically strengthened my relationship with God. A significant part of that realization is due to my involvement in S3 and I’m confident that my relationship with God would not look anything like it does today without having found a sense of community: S3 connected me with my peers that I saw every day, that faced many of the same struggles that I did, that shared social circles, sports teams etc. I walked through life with the same people with whom I was learning to walk with Christ and it was an incredible way to develop relationships with my peers and the Lord.
In hindsight, the only thing I wish I would’ve done differently is to invest more time and energy into the organization as it made more of a positive impact on my life than any other organization that I’ve been a part of.
Christian
S3 President 2012-2013
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