Ricky Jean~ Chief Editor<\/em><\/p>\n Adriana: Tell me a little about yourself. Where did you grow up, stage in life, working, going to school, are you from DFW originally?<\/b><\/p>\n Ruby:<\/b> I actually grew up in Texas. I was born and raised in Irving, Texas. A little rinky-dink town. I\u2019m 22. I work for an Auto Finance place in Collections. The company I work for is Exeter Finance. I love the company though, they take really good care of us actually. During the whole Covid thing they were actually quick to send us home, which I was really grateful for.<\/p>\n I actually got kicked out of my parents\u2019 house at the beginning of Covid. I never had a good relationship with my parents, and so, it finally led to me getting kicked out because I just exploded. I just couldn\u2019t live there anymore. So I went to go live with my best friend, and I lived with her for about six months. I was really grateful because towards the end her mom actually was like, \u201cHey, I’m not going to charge you rent.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to let you save up, so that way you can move out.\u201d I\u2019m really grateful for her because if it wasn\u2019t for her I wouldn\u2019t have been able to move out. Now I live on my own but I have a roommate. It\u2019s a two bedroom apartment. We moved in together this past December, and we just been living together since.\u00a0<\/p>\n Adriana: What are some of your favorite hobbies and something you would consider unique about yourself?<\/b><\/p>\n Ruby: <\/b>I\u2019m a very happy person. I\u2019m literally always smiling. If I\u2019m not smiling then there\u2019s probably something wrong. That\u2019s how I\u2019ve always been, even while growing up in my situation with my parents. Everybody knew me as a very happy person. I always just try to be happy no matter what. Everyday is not promised. So I just try and look at the positive in everything.<\/p>\n Adriana: Tell me how you were met\/invited to Church?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Ruby: <\/b>It wasn\u2019t until I actually met German (I actually used to go to Elementary school with him), then I moved so we lost contact. It was funny because the friend I used to go to church with– the guy that she was dating was friends with German. That\u2019s how we met back up. One day he got in touch with Alan, and he was like \u201cI\u2019m going to give a girl your number, so that way you can text her, and ask her more information and set-up some studies.\u201d<\/p>\n I was like \u201cOk, cool. I\u2019m fine with that.\u201d I actually went to Devo, that was like the first service that I went to. I honestly did not expect Edie to look like what she looks like! I was not expecting a ginger, and I did not expect her to have a British accent. The funny thing is I love impersonating a British accent, I was so amused by her. She actually did my first bible study alongside Claudie.\u00a0<\/p>\n It just goes to show that God has a plan for all of us, and there\u2019s a reason why everything happens.<\/p>\n Adriana: Describe your relationship with God prior to studying The Bible and how it has changed?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Ruby: <\/b>I didn\u2019t really have a Christian background growing up. I lived with my real mother for a few years, and then I actually went to live with my dad. When we went to go live with my dad he met my step mom, and she was actually Catholic. We ended up becoming Catholic as well. We would go to church every Sunday. In a Catholic church– I guess you could say it\u2019s traditional, so it\u2019s very boring.\u00a0<\/p>\n So I didn\u2019t ever really grasp what they were talking about in church.\u00a0 It was actually a girl who used to babysit us, and she took us to her church. That was a Baptist church, but we went to the Youth Ministry. That’s where I got my first understanding of who God was. She ended up passing away, so we went back to the Catholic church.<\/p>\n I basically went to a Catholic church all of my life, and then one of my friends actually invited me out to her church. It was a Christian church in Irving. It was really nice. It was like a completely different feeling from the Catholic church. It was really refreshing being able to actually understand what they were talking about.\u00a0<\/p>\n They weren\u2019t necessarily delivering the truth, because in my mind I thought as long as I repented and asked for forgiveness before I died– I would be saved. I was completely wrong on that. Eventually, I actually quit going to church altogether and I lived a worldly life.<\/p>\n I used to have these fits of rage. I had really bad anger issues. Even though I was a nice person, people also said that I was mean. I used to be harsh sometimes. Once I started reading and informing myself of God\u2019s word, and really trying to correct what I\u2019ve done, knowing that I had to forgive my parents for what they have done. That was like a hard pill for me to swallow.\u00a0<\/p>\n Understanding they may not have realized what they were doing, but I also didn\u2019t help because I didn\u2019t express the way that I felt. But a lot of times it was hard to express to them, because my step mom ran the house like a dictatorship. She had a very \u201cIt was my way or the highway\u201d type of mentality. We couldn\u2019t really express ourselves like we wanted.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Adriana: What are some of your favorite scriptures and why?<\/b><\/p>\n Ruby: <\/b>The scripture where God is talking about forgiveness and forgiving others. If we can\u2019t forgive others– how do we expect God to forgive us? That was something that really hit me, because I had such resentment towards my parents. It was a scripture that really hit me in my heart, because as much pain they may have caused me– God still loves them, and they are his children too. And they may have not known they were doing wrong.<\/p>\n At the end of the day I still need to forgive them, because if I didn\u2019t forgive them then I\u2019m not being a true Christian. And I\u2019m not living God\u2019s word. I\u2019m sinning as well. Before I got baptized I wanted to actually talk with my parents, and ask them for forgiveness. I had also made my heart cold towards them. It was the day before I got baptized. When it came down to it, and actually talking to them it was actually quite easy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Adriana: What advice would you give someone who has started studying the Bible or is considering it?\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Ruby: <\/b>To really be open. Ask questions. It’s okay to ask questions, especially if you\u2019re just getting into it. There\u2019s a lot that we don\u2019t know, so if we ask those questions the Bible has the answers. But you also have those there in the study with you who has been studying the bible, and they\u2019ve gone through this process themselves. So ask them those questions, that way you can make yourself a better disciple. A better follower of God.\u00a0<\/p>\n Just be open minded and have a soft heart when you go into it. It\u2019s going to tear you down, but God will build you back up into something beautiful.\u00a0<\/p>\n Adriana: What do you love about the Kingdom?<\/b><\/p>\n Ruby: <\/b>I love how friendly and how family oriented it is. Growing up in a Catholic church (at least the one that I went to) we weren\u2019t very involved or very family oriented. Everybody just kept to themselves. They were very hypocritical, and very judgmental people. It was never like a comfortable place. Being a part of DFWICC is a completely different environment.<\/p>\n Everybody makes you feel welcomed as if they\u2019ve known you forever. And it’s just an amazing feeling compared to any other churches I\u2019ve been to. Even like the Christian churches that I\u2019ve been to. I\u2019m not saying people are mean. But you don’t\u2019 see people going up to you as if they\u2019ve known you, and give you hugs and just being so welcoming. It\u2019s very shocking at first. It\u2019s almost like \u201care people ok?!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But when you go through that, and do the studies and you get baptized– you see why it\u2019s like that. It’s God. He just makes you so happy and so cool, and he\u2019s brought all these beautiful people to you. They are going through the same thing as you. It\u2019s just nice how family orientated it is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A beautiful Rose “God has a plan for all of us, and there\u2019s a reason why everything happens.” Although we may have our own set of expectations from life, God always has a different plan. Sometimes we may not be able to understand or even see it, until he reveals it to us. What is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":35158,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-fullwidth.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-post"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tribechurches.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/IMG_3269-1-209x300.jpg\")
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