Minister-in-training Lashonna Smith didn’t have an ideal upbringing. Her mother battled with a drug addiction and there was ample opportunity for Ms Smith to get in trouble as a teenager.

However God intervened in her life in a big way while she was in college and she has since determined it’s her mission to prevent other women from choosing the wrong path.

Q: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and how you got into the ministry?

A: Officially I preached my first sermon in May 2009, but I had opportunities to speak before that. I answered my call to preach in 2011. Right now, I am a licentiate (minister-in-training) at Mount Zion AME Church and I’m pursuing ordained ministry with the goal of becoming an itinerant elder in the AME church.

Q: Last Saturday you spoke at the Bethel AME Church prayer breakfast, what was your message about?

A: I spoke to a room full of women to encourage and remind them of their worth. The title of the sermon was ‘Because We Are Worth It’. The aim was to remind and encourage us that no matter what we’ve done; who we are to God doesn’t change. He sees us as being worth it. There are often times when we don’t feel like we are valuable or worthy to be loved or respected. And often times we don’t feel we are important, but the scripture we studied shows that the relationship God wanted to restore with the people of Israel is the same relationship that he wants to restore and have with us. We can see that in the fact that Jesus died on a cross for our sins. No matter what age or stage or where you are in life, you have purpose and value. It’s important that we live with that same purpose and encourage others to live out their purpose along the way.

Q: When did you personally learn you had value?

A: For me, growing up in a home where my parents weren’t going to church and where I didn’t have a strong spiritual upbringing had a big impact on my young life. My mom was on drugs, so not being raised by my mom made me feel like I wasn’t worth it. But God still placed people in my life to direct, guide me, to mentor and pray for me. There were also decisions I made in my life that could have destroyed me, but God didn’t let that happen.

Q: What in particular were you struggling with at that time? And how did God redeem you?

A: Some of the relationships that I was in at that time were somewhat unhealthy. And when it came to family, seeing the choices that some of family members had made, had I chosen to go down that road, it definitely would have destroyed me. But God raised and redeemed me to the place I am today where I can mentor and encourage others. For me, it was empowering to know that God still loved me and I realised that when I was in college. When you are away from your family and really on your own a lot of things can happen. But for me that was the moment when I first sought God for myself. It was Easter 2004 when I sought out God and wanted my own personal relationship with him. I felt the Spirit guiding me back to God and I made the commitment from that day on to live my life for the Lord — and my life has never been the same.

Q: What’s one thing you hope women took from your message?

A: I hope women left that space knowing that they are loved by God and can always have a relationship with Him and can grow in that relationship. Because oftentimes society has their own notions of who we should be and what we should be doing. People think whatever they want about us and they don’t know us. But the amazing thing is God knows us and our worth and that’s enough for us to live our best lives and empower others and not tear others down. Even at our lowest point in our lives we still have value and it’s important to know that.

Q: What circumstances do you think hold women back from seeing they are precious and valuable?

A: I think there are some situations where woman have been abused — physically, sexually, emotionally or mentally — and that takes away from their feelings of self-worth. Sometimes in society women are raped and made to feel that we did something to ask for it. We get judged for having children outside of being married. We feel useless when we’re out of work. We feel overweight and don’t like our image and what we see in the mirror, or sometimes we dislike our skin colour or the texture of our hair and some women don’t feel they are valuable because of that. There are so many different issues we deal with as women and people — whether it’s someone on drugs and struggling to get off, someone who has had an abortion, didn’t graduate from school or raise their own children — which can impact a woman’s self-esteem and make them feel unworthy at times. Sometimes it might not be something we’ve done, but the labels that other people place on us. But no matter how they feel, we are still valuable to God and God can use you. For those sisters who came out to the prayer breakfast, it was important for me that they know that God has forgiven us. We don’t forgive ourselves, because we don’t feel we are worth it or worth enough, because we hold on to things. So we need to forgive ourselves and let it go so we can be liberated.

Q: How did the women respond to the message?

A: I really feel the lives of those women in attendance were transformed and I thank God for that because I didn’t know who was going to be in the room and what has gone on in their lives, but God knew who he wanted to hear that message. The Spirit of God definitely spoke through me and to empower my sisters on so many levels and it was just incredible.

Q: For those people who missed your last message, but want to hear you speak again, how can they do that?

A: I will be preaching at Mount Zion AME (on Whale Bay Road, Southampton) in the morning worship service on November 16 at 10am. Then on November 23, I will be speaking at St Philip AME’s Women’s Day celebration at 4pm.