Summer Serve Send | feat. Healey Mathison
This year, Girl Talk Ministries has been celebrating 10 Years of Girl Talk Ministries and we are beginning our 11th summer!
One whole decade. 12 grades. 21 cities. 4 missionary countries.
Thousands of girls. Thousands of moms. Thousands of families.
Our 8th and 7th grade Girl Talk girls who began Bible study with us in 2013 have now graduated from college, began jobs, moved across the country, gotten engaged, two have gotten married, some have started graduate school and so much more as they all take Jesus with them in every place. Celebrating 10 years, we have been writing testimonies from girls all across these last 10 years, and as summer approaches we also want to bring you testimonies of girls serving over the summer. Here you will find testimonies of what God has done in their lives through Girl Talk and beyond and the ways they are living and serving Jesus with their lives where they are now!
Today is part of our "Summer Serve Send" series and we are talking to one of our Montgomery Girl Talk girls, Healey Mathison, who Amy has known since she was born! Healey's parents were leaders in children's ministry when Amy was growing up and Healey's granddad was Amy's first pastor. Healey just finished her sophomore year at Auburn University studying marketing and hopes to continue serving the Lord through marketing and business. She serves at Auburn Community Church in numerous ways, including serving on the prayer team. Healey has been a part of Girl Talk since before middle school and she has interned since her freshman year in high school. This summer, she will be leading a high school Girl Talk small group in July.
We cannot wait for you to hear all the Lord has done and is doing through Healey.
Girl Talk: Healey, you have always had the biggest smile and you truly make the lives of everyone who know you better. You are constantly wanting to grow in wisdom and in your identity with Him and we are so thankful and honored to walk alongside of you on this journey. We have already mentioned that you have really been a part of Girl Talk since the beginning. You were going into 5th grade when we started, but Amy started babysitting you when you were running around in diapers. How has Girl Talk impacted your life?
Healey: Girl Talk has impacted my life in SO many ways but the key thing it has taught me is the importance and the essential part of doing this life with Jesus - community. Community is the thing that keeps us accountable, a group of people to share your burdens with, and is absolutely crucial in this life of faith. Girl Talk showed me this necessity when I didn’t even know I needed it. I thank Jesus that He stressed the importance of being around other dedicated believers and stirring up affection for Jesus with them, my faith has grown tremendously because of the community of Jesus followers I have found, a community that first started with Girl Talk.
GT: We love community and we love building that community with girls in a place to really know Jesus and all that He is. We are all on a journey, and while in community, we all see Jesus at different times and in different ways. This is the beauty of growing together and stirring up affection for Jesus together. Growing up with this community of Girl Talk, with your granddad as a pastor, with family and friends, a Christian high school, so much good around you.. when was it that you really understand Jesus for the first time?
H: I really understood Jesus for the first time my freshman year of college. Growing up in the church, I knew all about the Bible, what a good Christian girl should look like from the outside, and even followed the rules because I was expected to. But what I didn’t know was missing was the understanding of not just believing in Christ but the fullness of living life with Him. He so kindly revealed Himself to me in ways that I could understand, the more He revealed, the more I delighted in Him, yearned for Him, and wanted to do this life for Him - realizing that nothing else the world has to offer is better. He changed my perspective of faith from being one of rule following and pleasing people, to spending time with Him and being transformed from one degree of glory to the next as I learn more about Him, and above all, enjoy living this life with Him!!! I became more spiritually mature when I delighted in Jesus more.
GT: He is truly so amazing and faithful to fulfill His Promise that when we delight in Him, He will give us the desires of our heart. Because truly, when it comes down to it, we all desire to be loved, to belong and to have purpose. He has shown that to you and been that to you in so many ways. Not coming to know this until college, what struggles did you face in middle school and high school in trying to do good but missing God?
H: The struggles I faced in all of my education years and still face in some degree today are those that many girls often struggle with. The struggles of identity. We were all made to find our identity in one thing - and that is Jesus, but because of the tempting desires of the flesh, I was looking to find my identity in all other places: how many friends I had, how deep those friendships were, boys, sports, even my academics.
GT: Yes! We agree, many girls often struggle with every single desire you mentioned. Whoever is reading this today, wherever you are, no matter how old you are, how far you have gone, you are not alone! Healey, how long did it take to see breakthrough in those struggles?
H: Like I said this struggle with identity is something I struggle with on occasion but I found so much breakthrough when the Lord kindly taught me about my true identity, He did this in Genesis 1 and in Psalms 8.
GT: The Lord wants to teach us so much and He wants to be our everything, but we have to let Him. He will not force His Way into our hearts and lives, and like you said, there are so many tempting desires of the flesh. We have so many distractions but He is standing in victory ready to give us all we need when we surrender our lives to Him. What victories have you seen in surrendering your life to Christ?
H: He softened my heart and allowed me to see the identity that I was born into, His heir, His child, His completed masterpiece. He created this good good world and saw fit that women be the completion of this artwork. That is crazy !! He is the origin of all creation and the artist always determines the value of his art. And Jesus placed a value on us that we cannot comprehend, an identity that we should be able to rest in instead of striving to find it in other short-lived, temporary things that the enemy tries to persuade you with. The victory is in Jesus' Name, and the fact that Jesus wins, and it wasn’t even close.
GT: Amen!!! Jesus places His Value on us that nothing in this world can take away or compare. God has worked in and through your life in so many ways giving you all of Him as you have given all of you to Him. What is a specific time you have seen God at work in your life that girls or moms reading this can see the testimony of His Faithfulness when we give our all to Him?
H: One way God has worked in my life is though my sanctification, becoming more like Him as I spend time with Him and living with the community He has blessed me with. The fact that I am becoming more like Jesus is a testament that the Father is alive and moving, and He moves when His children desperately plea for Him though prayer. The Father so kindly and continually keeps answering prayers, and moving in my life, all because of His Goodness and His Character. That's just who He is, He is a God that wants to move and work in our lives, if only we sit back and create space to let Him. And He wants to do that in your life too!
GT: Mic drop. Healey, we have seen this first hand in your life and we are so proud of you for chasing hard after Who He is in you. How is God using you now through all of this?
H: The way that God is using my now is so humbling and honoring. He has given me the opportunity to humbly serve His Church through prayer. I get the privilege to steward what the Lord has given me and intercede for His people on their behalf. I get to participate in praying for the community, my church, and His bride with a community of other believers. I believe that God is also just allowing me to be a witness to His people. In the New Testament Paul says “imitate me as I imitate Jesus”. I believe we are all called to imitate Jesus and be an example for the people around us, our whole mission in this life is to spread God’s Kingdom and worship His Name simply because He is worth it. The Father has so kindly allowed me to see this and imperfectly imitate Him and be an example for His people.
GT: Where is the Lord leading you to serve this summer and how can we pray for you as you go?
H: The Lord has prominently put it on my heart to go abroad for a long time now and I have been very blessed to have the opportunity to study abroad in Seville, Spain for the whole month of June. While I am there to study, I will be staying with a host family and will be completely enriched into the Spanish culture. I am very prayerful over the intentional conversations and evangelical opportunities that the Lord will put before me. You can join along side me in prayer that the Lord would lead me, guide me, and go before me in every conversation, interaction, and relationship formed while I am there. My prayers are that His Name be known and praised over everything else. Psalms 148 is the passage that I have been praying and will continue to pray over my time there. Thank you for all of your prayers❤️🇪🇸
GT: We love you, Healey, and we are so proud of you. Girl Talk Fam and anyone reading this join us in covering Healey with prayer this month as she serves the Lord abroad and allows Him to lead her for all He has for her this summer!
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