A Summer of Serving, Growing, and Finding God’s Light
Alyssa Hicks served as a Service Project Ministry Coordinator this summer. She is from Goodlettsville, TN and attends Austin Peay State University, majoring in Nursing. Alyssa has been part of the Mountain T.O.P community since 2021. She enjoys playing with the marching band, spending time with friends, and traveling with her family.
When I reflect back on this summer, I think about the person I was before and then reflect on how much I have changed. Something about Mountain T.O.P. always brings me back to a sense of peace. As a camper, every summer I became more and more in love with the mission of Mountain T.O.P. I would leave with a sense of home and a heart ready to serve others. The thought of becoming summer staff always made my heart so happy.
This summer, I went in with the mindset of ensuring the fulfillment of others, but as the summer went on, I realized that as much as I was pouring into others, I might have been the one getting fulfilled. The homeowners I worked with were not just people I had casual conversations with. I got to learn so much about their backgrounds, their stories, and why they were where they were. Most importantly, I got to see how God had truly shown His light to them through some of the darkest moments of their lives.
There was one day this summer when I truly saw God at work and felt Him connect me with a homeowner. On a Wednesday of a project day, I was at the house doing a midday daybreak with one of my Youth Renewal Groups and the homeowner. Before I started, we were all sitting around talking. The theme for the day was “Waiting on the Light.” Before beginning, we did an activity where we passed a paper around with all of our names on it, and we wrote encouraging notes to one another to bring some light into what could be a hard work week.
As I was about to begin speaking about my daybreak, the homeowner started talking about how she was always in a season of waiting. She shared how she always seemed to see God in all of her seasons of darkness, almost like He was a lamp turning her darkness into light. I sat there for a moment thinking about what was on my sheet to discuss, and I continued to check off every box. It was almost as if she was reading my mind. She was talking about almost every concept I had planned to discuss, but she was doing it through her own personal experiences and her own relationship with God.
Then I read my page and the passage from Psalm 18:28, which was exactly the concept she had been talking about: “You, Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.” I discussed how God can use our seasons of darkness to truly show us the light. I could tell that the homeowner felt so connected to each one of us in that moment because she had experienced so much darkness in her life. Yet, she had recently begun to realize that even in those dark seasons, God had always been there, showing her the light.
“You, Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.”
This is just one of the incredible moments I experienced this summer. I grew so much in my faith and in my life, and I was truly shown what it looks like to live out God’s light in everyday life. Each homeowner gave me a new connection and a new story to learn from. God was with me in each house I visited, each homeowner I met, and each camper I talked to. I went into this summer thinking that I was there to pour into others, but I left realizing that God was pouring into me just as much. Mountain T.O.P. reminded me that serving others is not only about what we can give, but also about being open to the ways God can use the people we meet to change us, grow us, and bring us closer to Him.
