Cammie Jo Wires is from the Washington, DC metro area and currently works full time in behavior therapy at an alternative school for students with physical, emotion, and learning disabilities. Cammie Jo holds an Associates of Science degree in Social Science from Northern Virginia Community College and a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Psychology with a minor in Applied Behavior Analysis from George Mason University. While at Mason, Cammie served on the student government as a senator and served as the Chair of the Diversity and Multicultural Affairs committee. She was and is still currently involved with two campus ministries: YoungLife and Intervarsity. Finally, she served as the founder and president of the Christians United For Israel (CUFI) chapter at Mason.

Cammie Jo is one of the worship leaders at her church and loves engaging with youth to build relationships, accountability, respect, and a divine trust in God. Cammie Jo first met Chrysandra at the annual CUFI summit in DC and instantly felt drawn to the passion she possessed for God and also for The Calling. After thoughtful prayer and consideration, Cammie Jo jumped on the
opportunity to serve as The Calling’s Washington, DC ambassador. Cammie Jo’s go-to scripture is “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”  Hebrews 11:1.

Read her story powerful story below!

SAVE ME FROM MYSELF 

“My name is Cammie Jo. I grew up in a non-Christian household in the suburbs of Washington, DC. My parents always taught me to believe in the existance of God, but we never went to church or lived a Christian lifestyle. My overall childhood was pretty good. I was on the color guard and rowed for the Crew team in high school, I had my select friends who I always hung out with, and I really loved playing with my german shepherd when I got home every day. My life was going really well— or at least I though it was. Then, three months after turning 17 and my world came crashing down and I hit the lowest point of my life. During the middle of my senior year in high school, I found out that I was adopted through the social media platform, MySpace. My biological sister had found me and told me I was adopted and told me where I came from. I showed my parents the messages she was sending me but they kept denying everything and said she was lying.

Quite some time later, they finally admitted that it was true— I am adopted. Hearing them admit it to me, that everything my sister told me was the truth, ended up turning my, what seemed like a happy life, completely upside down. It sent me into a spiral of anger and depression. At the time, my mind couldn’t grasp the fact that my parents not only lied, for the last few weeks, but they also lied to me for 17 years. On top of that, knowing that my biological mother chose the life of drugs over my siblings and me was heartbreaking. Unfortunately, I let the depression get the best of me and I got into a bad relationship, started drinking more, started smoking marijuana, went to crazy house parties, hooked up with guys even though I was in a relationship, and just did a lot of things I shouldn’t have been doing. It might seem so cliché, but this was my escape from the anger and sadness I felt. My parents even forced me to go see a psychologist but not even that could help me.
Three years later, I was working at a gym and this family had been approaching me for several months trying to get me to come to church with them. I was still so caught up in my lifestyle of bad choices that I kept rejecting them. My ideology was that if God really existed, he would have showed up before I got into drinking, smoking, and sex way before it even began. 6 months go by and this family is still begging me to come to church with them. I finally agreed to go, but to be honest I only agreed because I wanted them to stop asking me to go. I went with a somewhat open mind but wasn’t expecting anything. They ended up taking me to their Thursday night prayer service, so that way I wouldn’t be overwhelmed by their typical Sunday services. I sat and watched as everyone was praying and I sat to myself wondering “what’s the point?” After a few minutes of staring at everyone who was crying in prayer, I simply said “God, if you’re there, I need help.” Then, the atmosphere changed all of a sudden and something came over me that made me start to weep. It felt like all of my bad and negative emotions were being dragged out of my mind and body and were replaced with love and contentment. I thought I was going insane, because I literally heard a voice in my head saying “I have your back.” That was the moment I knew that God really existed, because he had approached and touched me in a way no human being could. On Thursday July 1, 2010, when I was 20 years old, was the day that I accepted Christ into my heart and asked for forgiveness. Two years later, I made the choice to become baptized.

If you had asked me when I was 17, if I would ever be a Christian, I probably would have given you “the finger” and laughed in your face. If you need an example of God’s miracles, me accepting Christ, and turning my back to my old self, is one of them. Bringing Jesus into my life has been the best decision I have ever made. Over the last 6.5 years of being a Christian, I have faced SO many struggles that have almost put me back into my old ways of living; however, God never failed once to step in and save me before I fell flat. When I lead worship at my church, I always have to remind myself that I am ministering to people and allowing my body to be a vessel for God to use to connect to his church. The problems I have in my life can be a huge burden sometimes but those are the moments that I have to go to God for help so that way I am able to have a clear mind to be able to connect God’s heart to the heart of the people.

See, we all face many struggles and trials every single day. Some struggles you face will be worse than others; but, you have to always remember to have FAITH in God because even though we trip and fall in our walk with Christ, He will always grab you by the back of the shirt right before your face hits the pavement. The Bible says “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). That tells us that even though we may not see God during our hard moments, we still need to put all of our trust and faith into him and know that he will never leave us or forsake us. The moments when we are hurting are the moments we should be speaking to God more and asking for help.

No prayer is too big or too small for Him. Praise him in your high moments and also in your low moments and remember that he is with you with every literal step you take. God changed my heart and delivered me from depression, anger, and sadness, which at 17 seemed impossible to escape from. Now, I have no doubt in my mind that God can do a miracle in your life and in your family’s life too. I have a motto for my life and that’s to: Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly. If you don’t have one already, try and find an accountability partner or someone to pray with you so that way when you are facing those trials, you can go to them and get that Godly advice that you might need to be able to push through those challenges. If God can save me from myself, he can save you from yourself too.”

God bless you.
Cammie Jo

www.thecallingnonprofit.org