My name is Tara Anderson. I am 16 years old and in the 11th grade at Friendship Christian School. God has blessed me greatly in allowing me to be born to a Christian family in America. I have grown up in a Christian home and have always been in a good church and a Christian school. I became a Christian as soon as I was old enough to understand what that actually meant. God saved me when I was 5 years old in April of 1994. I was a Sparkie in AWANA and during our counsel time, our leader gave a clear, simple picture of salvation and explained so that, for the first time, I truly understood what Christ had done for me and what I had to do to accept this free gift. During the "invitation", I went to the back of the room with a few other kids and told the leader I wanted to be saved. She took me to another room and led me to the Lord.

     I took a missions trip to Peru with Missionsports this last summer of 2005. It was an incredible experience and definitely one of the highlights of my summer. It was amazing in three ways:

   1. I got to spend time with and have fun with other Christians.
   2. I got to see some awesome scenery down in the jungles and appreciate God's beautiful Creation.
   3. I got to be a part of a ministry teaching others about Christ and loving His people.

      This trip really showed me how much I have to be thankful for. Many of the people in the villages have close to nothing materially, and yet they seem to have everything because they have Jesus. That is another lesson for me to learn. I do not need anything else when I have the best gift ever given--Jesus Christ. I so often take my possessions and my salvation for granted. I realized this summer more than ever that I need to always remember that God has greatly blessed me with material things but that Jesus is everything to me.