Welcome…I am Chelle and I am a Christian Who is: ALL ABOUT THE FISH!

About Me My name is Chelle, pronounced like shell, which is short for Rachelle. I was born in Texas, but came to Iowa when I was just a few months old and have been here ever since. I went to school at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls and got my B.A. in Mathematics Teaching. I have been teaching in Iowa since 1991. I teach math at the middle school level and as of 2002 I am also the coordinator and teacher of the middle school program for talented and gifted students.

I am married to a wonderful man named Brian. He was born and raised in North Carolina. After high school he went to Ohio and attended school with the intentions of going into music production. That did not work as planned, and he had been working as the Chief Engineer (head of maintenance) for a Holiday Inn Express since we got married until 2006, then tried something else and now is back at a Comfort Inn as Chief Engineer. He has also taken flying lessons to become a corporate or commercial pilot...he has his private and is working on his instrument. I am blessed by the fact that Brian is a Christian as well!!

We have two wonderful sons named Matthew and Owen we are amazed at how much we have changed for the better since they came into our lives in 2004 and 2007.

What’s up with the Fish? The fish I am referring to is the icthus symbol:

The icthus is one of the earliest known Christian symbols. It was a secret form of communication that early Christians used to represent Jesus Christ. Early Christians (as are many in certain regions in the world today) were persecuted and forced to worship secretly, so this symbol helped them to identify one another as believers in Christ. Sometimes you see the letters ICOYE inside the icthus meaning, “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior.”

I am “all about the fish” because I am a Christian and am not at all ashamed to tell people. I have fish earrings, rings, bracelets, pins, necklaces, t-shirts...anything I can find with this symbol. It is often a great way to introduce people to my faith when they ask me, “What’s up with the fish?!Three Crosses Often images of three crosses are shown to represent the Trinity of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. They are three different personifications of the One True God: God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit. Since Jesus died on the cross, many Christians wear crosses to identify themselves as believers. What was once kept secret and hidden is now something to be open and proud about! From the ancient and secret symbol of the fish, to the modern and open symbol of the cross, Christians have always used something to identify themselves to other believers.

The Holy Bible The Bible is the inspired Word of God. In this sacred book, many authors were inspired or directed by God to document the events of the world He created before Jesus Christ was born (the Old Testament) and after He was sent by the Father to pay for the sins of the world (the New Testament). In it you will find many answers to life's questions. You will also find guidelines to live your life by. I still learn something each day from the Word and am by no means an expert. Just being in the Word gives me peace!!

What I believe about the past, present and future God, our creator and Heavenly Father, sent His son, Jesus Christ as savior for the world. This is the real reason behind Christmas. Jesus was Son of God, and son of man, Joseph and the virgin Mary. He was born to cleanse our sins making us pure and forgiven in God's eyes. Jesus performed miracles and preached the words of His Father. This went against the law and teachings of the time and Jesus was eventually arrested. Jesus was convicted as a blasphemer and heretic. He was sentenced to crucifixion. He died on the cross and was buried in a tomb. God the Father resurrected, or raised Him from the dead, after three days. This is what Easter really means. Jesus ascended into Heaven to reign with His Father. His life, death and resurrection fulfilled prophesy and created a bridge so that we could be forgiven our sins and have eternal life if we accept Jesus as our Savior. In Jesus' place, God sent the Holy Spirit to guide, protect, comfort and empower us with God's will and Jesus' grace. Jesus WILL return to reestablish the True Church and all who have committed their lives to Him will be taken up to live in Heaven for eternity. All needs will be taken care of and we will want for nothing.

My Personal Spiritual Journey When I was 6 and my mom married my father, (step- actually, but I have never viewed him that way), she converted to the Catholic Church because he was Catholic and, well, that is just what was done at the time. We went to mass once in a while, but never really regularly. I never attended religious education (CCD) classes and just sort of floated along. I had an idea something was out there, but did not know what. When I was a senior is high school, I had a huge crush on this guy and it was not mutual. I had never really had a boyfriend and was feeling sorry for myself one night. Out on the front porch, I sat sad and pouting when I saw what I thought was the biggest and brightest star I had ever seen. Slowly, it began to descend...not fall, but sort of "set" like the sun does...and it got smaller and dimmer as it went down. For some reason, I suddenly thought that God was saying to me, "No matter how large or how blinding things seem to be, I will be here for you and I will make them go away over time. I will become the light of your life." I didn't give it much more thought until I went to college. I felt this void and I knew it was spiritual.

Since the Catholic church was all I had ever known, I went through adult classes and then I became a member of the church. I attended mass regularly and I found myself less empty. Then, my junior year, I went on a retreat through the church and it was there that I had an epiphany and came to know more about Jesus and the Spirit. My best friend at college had lost her grandmother earlier that week and my roommate, also Catholic but not on the retreat, asked me to pray at a certain time for my friend and her grandmother while on the retreat. I told the nun and one of the leaders and the three of us went to the chapel and prayed together for my friend. It was during this prayer that I felt the overwhelming presence of warmth and peace. Later, I described it to the nun and she said that it was the Holy Spirit and He was there to comfort me. Again, I just mentally logged this and went on with my life.

During my first senior year at UNI (I took the 5 year plan on purpose) there were an abundance of Christians living in my house in the residence hall. It was then that I began to "church hop" and explore outside of the Catholic church. I went to mass on Saturday evenings and then to other churches on Sunday mornings. After many long talks with Christian friends and a pastor from another church (he ended up performing my wedding), I accepted Christ as my personal savior and began to soak up the word. I continued to church hop until my last semester before I left to student teach. There, for some sense of normalcy, I attended mass, but kept up my passion for learning about Jesus.

When I graduated from UNI and after a year of substitute teaching, I got a job and began to teach. I was active in the Catholic church...even taught CCD for a year or two. But, my longing to be with a church that was more personal and based on Jesus Christ and the Word of God was so strong. After I taught my CCD confirmation class...when they formally join the church...I left Catholicism and began to search for a church.I found one and attended for several years. I was really involved for a while, and then fell away. My life seemed to be wrought with bad habits and some obsessive compulsive behaviors. I was not happy though I was "saved" through Christ.

Finally, I got so angry at God (myself, really) that I literally would scream at Him and wonder why I had to go through so many negative things if I was His child. I was at one point suicidal and finally sought counseling first from my pastor and then from a psychologist. My original psychologist ended up having to leave town for an emergency and I got a different one. I found out after a few sessions that he was also a Christian. With God's help and Patrick's guidance, I realized that my problems were a power struggle with God over my life. It was then I slowly began to grow towards Him.

It was through the grace of God during this dark period that I met my husband. Since the day that we got married, we had been wishy-washy about going to church...sometimes it was too easy to sleep in or find another reason not to go. I could tell the difference in my life: I was not as happy and my old habits and obsessions came back.

During Christmas of 2000, Brian and I both decided that we needed to make God a priority in our lives again. We began to attend church more--we rarely miss now, to pray more, read our Bibles more, seek the company of fellow Christians more, and to trust Him more. I am here to tell you now that I have been transformed by Christ. It has only happened through surrender, prayer, fellowship, prayer, faith, prayer, and more prayer, I have grown closer to Jesus Christ than I ever thought I would be and every day I get closer to Him. My 2001 New Year's resolution was two words: TRUST ONLY. I have lived those words as faithfully as possible. I can say that my experiences over the last few years have led me to BELIEVE that when I TRUST ONLY I will be blessed. Please don't misunderstand and think that it has been easy, painless, and quick. Each and every day it is a struggle. I still have a human heart along with my Christian heart and I wrestle with temptation and backsliding every day. But as I grow to TRUST the Holy Spirit more and more to guide me and keep me in my walk with Christ, I can feel God's will working in my life. If I make mistakes, I repent and humbly seek forgiveness and I know that He will forgive and still he loves me. What an awesome God we have!!!!!!!

How the Holy Spirit changed my life with one prayer!! I have always been a bit jealous of people who could quote scripture off the top of their heads or know exactly where to look in the Bible for help or a specific scripture. One night, before prayer meeting at my church, I decided to pray and prepare myself for worshiping the Lord. I had been really depressed and I asked God for a sign or a reason for why I was going through this pain and agony. I was determined to get an answer.

I sat and just prayed and ran my thumbs along the edges of the pages in my Bible and when I felt the Spirit nudge me, I stopped and opened to a page. It was Psalm 13. It begins, "How long, O, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, O, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes or I will sleep in death; my enemy will say, 'I have overcome him.' and my foes will rejoice when I fall."

I stopped and I said, yes!! THIS is what I have been going through...the darkness and the feeling of defeat...but why God, why I asked. The Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, "Read on. You are missing the most important thing."

Psalm 13 continues, "But I TRUST (my emphasis) in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord for He has been good to me."

There it was. My human heart had been invaded by Satan and the great deceiver told me that God had abandoned me and I was lost and not worthy of His grace. But, the last few lines of Psalm 13 reminded me, through the Holy Spirit, that I WAS worthy of His grace and nothing could take that away from me as long as I remembered and believed my New Year's resolution of TRUST ONLY.

This can happen to you, too! Believe me, my life was transformed that evening in a way that I had never believed possible. It was the first time I sincerely felt the Spirit speaking to me. I had felt His presence, but never had I heard His voice in my heart like I did that night. I pray that this would happen to all believers. Thank you, Lord!! AMEN!!!!!!!!

April 21, ‘02: A double recommitment to the Father, Son & Holy Spirit For a while, the pastor at our former church had mentioned that there were some in the church that wanted to get baptized for the first time or rebaptized. It was not too long that after the Spirit spoke to me with the psalm that I mentioned before, that He spoke to me again about being rebaptized. I told pastor and he added me to the list. Each of the people were individually praying about when this was to occur. It was decided that the evening of Easter Sunday would work...then a glitch in someone's work schedule changed that time.

Meanwhile, Brian and I were talking about the change in the car on the way to my parents' house and he mentioned that he had been thinking that we could both get rebaptized as a recommitment. After many phone calls and praying, God finally worked out all of the details and six of us, two couples and two others were baptized on Sunday, April 21, 2002 at 4:00p.m. It was a small gathering of church friends who listened to each of us give a small testimony about why we had came to this point. God really moved Brian that day to share his heart openly, which for him is difficult. I am just a bigmouth, so it was easy for me =) No, just kidding...it really took a lot out of me because I brought up some of the negative things in my life that God had worked me through and that was not easy, but I felt I had to share these things.

I can't speak for Brian's experience, but for me it was incredible.When I was in the baptismal font, my husband was just a few feet away, my friends were watching from a distance and as pastor spoke to me about the journey that I had taken to get there, I was overwhelmed by the presence of God in all forms: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Pastor asked the question if I believed that Jesus was the one and only Son of God and I answered yes, then asked if I had accepted Him as savior and Lord of my life, I said yes. The he said that he baptized me in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, I felt not only his hands on me as I was immersed, but Their hands as well. I knew I had already been baptized, but I felt that somehow it was unfinished. Now that part of my journey was complete, but the rest was just starting!!

Home Sweet Home We left the church we attended not long after being rebaptized because we felt God was calling us to find a new home to grow closer to Him. We church hopped for a while and then thought we had found a home...but after six months, we felt God saying we were close, but not quite there. We sort of gave up and then after we had been trying to get pregnant and knowing we wanted to be established in a good church when our child was born, out of the blue (actually, truthfully, after being nudged by the Spirit) Brian said we should try this one church that he drove by every day for work. That was in August of 2003 and we are there to this day! We knew even before the pastor finished his message during our first visit that we were Home.

I Needed Some Light After the birth of our first son, I suffered post partum depression and sought out counseling from my pastor who refered me to a lady in our church who does Theophostic counseling. It literally means the Light of Jesus and it is a process that has helped me psychologically, emotionally, but most importantly spiritually. I am still in the process and am becoming closer and closer to what God has destined me to be. It is awesome. I highly recommend this to anyone.

What about your spiritual journey????? If you are a Christian, praise God!! You know about the things that I am speaking about.Do you feel and know that something is there, but don't know what? Please keep reading and see what I have found for my life.Were you once an active Christian and now have fallen away or walked away? It is not too late to come back! God has always loved you and will always continue to love you. Is this all new to you? Please read on for more information. Then don't just trust me...speak to a pastor, a friend you know is a Christian or visit more websites. God loves you and wants you to come to Him when you are ready.

Personal Interests
*Besides reading, studying and learning from the Word of God, or the Bible, I love spending time with my family and with my students.

*I am a penguin NUT!! I just love them. I collect all kinds of them both at home and at school. One of the first things my students say when they walk into my room for the first time is, “Boy, you sure like penguins, huh?”
*My favorite junk food is caramel…chocolate doesn’t even hold a candle to it in my book, although, I won’t turn down that, especially if is very dark chocolate!

Favorite Links Here are some sites that I like to go to for information and even some fun now and then. Some of them are Christian sites, some are educational, some are just for fun.
Christian Mommies
Set...A Visual Learning Game
University of Northern Iowa
Urban Legends Reference Pages
BibleGateway.com: A searchable online Bible
BabyCenter
Picsearch - the search engine for pictures and images
Braingle: Brain Teasers, Puzzles, Riddles and Games.
BrainBashers : Puzzles and Brain Teasers

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