Narrative Summary
Interview with April Morton by Hannah Vargas
The person I interviewed was April Morton. She is the college pastor, as well as a youth
worker for her church, Faith Assembly of God. I have personally known her for about nine years,
and she has been involved in that church the entire time. In the late 2000s, she started working
with college-age people because the current pastor felt like he needed to go to a Bible college.
She is not only a really good friend of mine, but she is also one of the most real and
down-to-earth Christians I have had the privilege of knowing. She is not one of those Christians
whom I have been around my entire life, those who think that they are somehow better than other
people or are more spiritual than the Christian standing next to them. Any time I have had
questions about my faith or I’m going through something very trying, she has always been there
to listen and give advice where needed. The best aspect of her is that she will say it like it is
without sounding condescending about it, which is a rare quality to have. Most people who have
grown up in a strict fundamentalist church have probably felt demeaned at times. I know I have.
Meeting someone like April has been a refreshing change, to say the least.
She is a very spiritual person, not just in her words but also through her actions. She
spends time in the Bible every day, but it is not a routine with her, commenting, “Oh, it’s 6:30;
time to read Psalms 1:14.” She actually emphasizes the need to spend time in the Bible because,
as she quotes John 1:1, “The Word was God.” She says that the words in the Bible are teachings
from Christ himself, and those words become alive in someone’s life when they study them and
apply them to their life. It is clear that she is very passionate about spending time in the Word.
She feels the same way about prayer as well. She made the analogy, saying, “anytime you
have a relationship with someone, whether it is a mom, husband, sister, whoever. How do you
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develop a relationship with them? You do so by communicating with them. It makes God
personal, not just a routine.”
Another aspect of her Christian life that she really emphasizes is the need to have true
fellowship, not just a going-to-church-and-hanging-out-with-other-Christians type of fellowship.
What she emphasizes is spending time talking to other Christians about spiritual matters, about
their own spiritual walks, about issues that they are having with friends and family, and about
how can God help them deal with these issues. Another way to have fellowship is to hold each
other accountable in each other’s actions. This is not forced on anybody; rather, the people who
want others to hold them accountable are actually longing to get closer to God. They understand
that by sinning we drive a wedge between God and ourselves; sin keeps God from being
effective in a Christian’s life. April is a person who is truly being effective in her faith, which
helps her reach out to youth in a positive way.
It would be easy to assume April came from a strong Christian family, but that is far from
the case. Hearing about the way she grew up shows how much she has grown in her own
spiritual journey. When she was a kid, she did not grow up in a stable home. Her parents were
presumably Christian, but according to her, they did not have a strong relationship with God. In
fact, the only times she really went to church were with her grandmother. Her parents
discouraged her from being too passionate about her faith, saying that she should experience life
and not miss out on things that kids are normally supposed to experience.
She says that as a child she wasn’t really an atheist, but she wasn’t really concerned about
being a Christian either, that is until she was 13. From then on, she dedicated herself to God. She
mentions it as being an almost overnight change; suddenly, she became a new person. She says
there were other Christians around who really helped her grow as a Christian by teaching her the
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Bible. The interesting thing to me about it is that they not only taught her doctrine, but they also
showed her love though their actions. Sometimes she would hang out with families, and they
would cook for her. I know from personal experience that my family would invite her and
several of the people her age over on a Sunday afternoon, and my mom would make tortellini for
them (which is, by the way, the best food on the planet).
God has helped her in other ways with her faith. If she had any doubts about him, he
would totally blow her away with how real he was in her life. He has shown her miracles that
cannot be explained by doctors. She mentions her mission trip to a small Mayan village in the
Yucatan Peninsula. Her group was walking around when they noticed a blind man sitting against
a building. They could tell he was blind because he was not responding normally to people who
were walking by. His eyes “were grey and clouded over,” as she describes it. They decided to
pray for the man. They could not really understand the Spanish or Mayan language that he spoke,
but they laid their hands on him and said a simple prayer. Almost instantaneously, April watched
as the glaze over the man’s eyes disappeared, and his eyes became clear. She was not sure of his
language, but she could tell he had been healed from his sheer joy. Other people in the village,
those who probably knew him, also noticed the change and were awestruck. This is just one of
many miracles she has encountered.
Another miracle she received from God is that he completely changed her personality.
She mentioned that when she was a kid, she was very shy, to the point where she did not even
want people to acknowledge her. She says that shortly after becoming a Christian, she became
more assertive in her actions. She became much more outgoing. The fact that she is able to talk
to groups of college-aged kids today speaks volumes about her ability to be more confident in
her interactions with others.
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I asked her who has made an impact on her the most. It was really hard for her to answer
this question because every person is different, and they all had something they could teach her.
She said that in general, the whole group has made a remarkable impact on her; however, there
was one person in particular who really helped her spiritually. This guy, who was about 20, was
a person who she worked with when she started teaching college kids. When he first started
coming to the group, he did not really know anything about being a Christian. However, once he
developed a relationship with God, he grew remarkably fast, and became very passionate about
his faith. In fact, April says that he ended up teaching her a few things. One of those things was
boldness, which has been a reoccurring theme in her life as I mentioned earlier. He would
encourage her by saying stuff like “April, you really need to talk to so-and-so.” In a sense, he, as
well as others in the group, has taught her as much as she has ever taught them.
Since this is a project concerning women in religion, I thought I should ask her if being a
woman has been a hindrance to her work in any way as a leader. She said that she has been very
fortunate and that she has had very few problems, at least overtly. She was asked by a guy to
replace him because he thought she was called to serve. She also mentioned that she feels like
her students respect her, and it is a gender-mixed group of people.
There is so much more that I could probably mention, but if I were to summarize April, I
would say that she is very bold, without being overbearing, and is humble in her approach to
others. Throughout the interview, she would mention that God was the one who was calling her
to serve others, and that it was not something she chose for herself. Even though she felt like this
ministry opportunity was chosen for her, working with youth and college kids is definitely
something she enjoys, and she cannot imagine doing anything else.
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