Emma Evans left Hickory on a missionary journey to the Philippines on Aug. 28. Evans, 18, will return home in about 11 months, she said.
Emma Evans reads a passage from her Bible while sitting in a pew at First Baptist Church in Hickory. Evans said she gave her life to God at a youth conference in 2019. “The other day, my friend said that I was most likely to be a soccer mom, but I think that God’s calling for me is to be a missionary,” Evans said as she read a passage from her journal.
“I was just reading through it, and that was just funny, I can’t believe that, since I was 13 years old, I was just like, ‘This is what I want to do.’” Evans was homeschooled. She graduated from high school and received her associate degree from Caldwell Community College earlier this year, she said.
Evans is the first member of First Baptist Church of Hickory to do missionary work internationally in more than 100 years, she said. First Baptist Church is located at 339 Second Ave. NW.
Evans raised $12,000 for the trip. Evans discussed her religious path and hopes for the future. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
In 2019 when I was 13, I went to a conference in Birmingham, Alabama, called the Motion Student Conference. It’s like a youth conference. On the last night during one of the sessions, I gave my life to Jesus.
It was a beautiful moment. I remember telling my youth leader after that, “Nothing else matters to me but Jesus. What can I pursue in the .