WBCCollege will be selling breakfast burritos and taking donations on Sunday, May 23 for a young lady they met at the Baylor Festival. Aly is going with YouthCUE’s International Chorus  to Canada this summer. This experience is a miracle for her. Aly was in a terrible car accident and has had a long recovery. She missed her senior year of high school and began her first semester of college in January 2010.

Aly was a leader at church and school. She won first place in All-Around Gymnastics in the Texas State Gymnastics Championships in January 2005. She is now thankful to be alive and walk. Aly went through a season of being mad at God and “decided I wasn’t going to believe in God anymore.” Aly has come a long ways in her relationship with God and in her physical recovery.

Our college-age students fell in love with Aly at the Baylor Festival and decided they wanted to help her go to Canada. Please make checks payable to WBC and designate it Aly. Thanks.

Aly is active at First Presbyterian church in Houston where she teaches Sunday school for mentally disabled children, she sings in the adult choir. Aly participated in the 2005 YouthCUE Festival in San Antonio and 2010 YouthCue Festival at Baylor. She has been on mission trips every year since the 5th grade until her car accident.

The car accident has complete changed Aly’s life. She can no longer write with her right hand so she had to learn to write with her left. She still has almost no feeling in her left leg and no feeling parts of her right leg (this should improve over time). She has relearned to stand, walk, and somewhat job. Aly still has many restrictions – no running, not twisting or bending, no lifting over 10 pounds, and no cheerleading or gymnastics.

Listen in on some of Aly’s thoughts:

I can't even list all the times I have had to put my faith in God. I know my mother did the day I went into that eight hour surgery and came out pale and asleep. I remember her telling me she wondered if I might not wake up. But the car accident was not the first time God has made appearances in my life. I think the first real time for me was when my house burned down. For a while I believed there was no God, how could there be. A loving God would never let such a thing happen. But like all things in life, there was a reason for it. We just needed a new house, a few years later we would need the extra room in the new house for my ailing 89 year old grandfather. I have had numerous surgeries that I have had to pray I would come through in. A knee surgery for a torn ACL and ligaments and tendons, with a dislocated knee cap. Internal bleeding for a month, and we had no idea. A mass of ecoli in my kidney that started as a UTI and traveled up (I spent a week in ICU for that beauty). And all of this is BEFORE the accident. After the accident came five more surgeries, one being a spinal fluid leak (CSF leak), and ending up straight on my back with no pillows for a week. The last and most recent surgery (August of 2009) was my spinal fusion, where my spine was fused at L5S1 and had screws and rods inserted (I do hope not to set off any detectors anywhere). I have to have that wonderful surgery performed again in 20 years. Through it all though I have prevailed for one reason only. God. At one point during my ongoing recovery I was so mad at God. Why me? What did I do to deserve this? It has changed my life so drastically. In my bedroom I have a wall of crosses (I collect them) and one day I decided I wasn't going to believe in God anymore and so I ripped them off the wall and threw them in the trash. My mother saved them knowing my anger would pass. Needless to say, all my crosses are back up on my wall.

I am so excited to go go to Canada. I love mission trips; they leave you with a feeling of renewal and joy and peace. It brings you closer to God and those you are with. I have no doubt that it will be the same when I am in Canada. I am excited to learn new things, including French, and meeting the welcoming people in Montreal. I am excited to be able to have a chance to minister to those who may not know Christ!

It was very clear to me when I arrived at the Baylor Festival in Waco and met Lois that God had something in store for the weekend. On Friday night when I was reviewing materials to help me understand about the International Chorus, it was immediately clear to me this was something I wanted very much to be a part of. The next day after we finished interviewing people, I asked Lois if i could try out even though I knew I didn't have the money at the moment to go on the trip, but I hoped I could raise enough money over the next year in time to go to Mexico. I was interviewed and I auditioned, Lois told me if it was meant to be, the money problem would work itself out with God's help. Mexico is one of my favorite places. I went on a life-changing mission trip in Tecate, Mexico in 6th grade, and that's when I truly started to know God. I knew that going back to Mexico would be amazing and a dream come true. But unfortunate things started to happen in Mexico, so the 2011 trip was canceled and I was offered the chance to go to Canada, which is equally amazing.

Prayer Requests: 1. I have been released from many of my restrictions and I am eager to "push it," so to speak. Please pray that I know my limits and that God will prevent me from doing something stupid. 2. I am not yet finished with my first semester of college. I am only taking three classes right now, but it is almost more than I can handle. Please pray for my sanity of getting through the first semester, and that I do well on my exams and can keep up my 4.0 GPA so that in another semester I can transfer to University of Houston! 3. My family is my rock. They have never waivered through all of my troubles. Please pray for their continued health and strength, especially my SUPER-WOMAN mother!

The only thing that gets me through the day is Psalms 23. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake (I believe I am meant to go to Canada for his name's sake). Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death (my car accident and the surgeries and trials and tribulations that have followed), I will fear no evil (though I may waiver at times), for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overfloweth. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.