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YORKTOWN – November 12, 2009. Apostolic News. Gabby VanOoteghem says she’s different than the average teenager. Unlike most of her classmates, the 14-year-old Yorktown Middle School student doesn’t wear makeup, wears a skirt every day to school, doesn’t cut her hair and attends church at least three days a week.
Why?
Because she’s devoted to serving God. VanOoteghem attends River of Life church in Muncie, where her father serves as executive pastor. And though she admits to being a little “different” from her classmates, she’s comfortable in her own skin and is happy to share about her religion — which she does in her essay, “Me at 14,” which was published by a United Pentecostal Church magazine, Trumpet.
When seventh-grade language arts teacher Suzanne Fox asked her students to write about their lives at 14, VanOoteghem knew exactly what to write about. “I wrote mostly about my religion, because that’s basically the base of everything I do,” she said.
The essay impressed Fox.
“I thought Gabby showed real courage in talking about so many things that are important to her,” Fox said.
VanOoteghem admits that she rushed through writing the article to get the assignment done, so she was surprised when editors of the magazine wanted to publish her essay.
In fact, she didn’t even know the article had been submitted. VanOoteghem’s father read the article when he printed it out for her, and submitted it to a church Web site.
“Our Indiana youth minister was on there and he saw it and asked if he could submit it to Trumpet,” she said.
The article ran in the September 2009 issue of the magazine.
“I’ve never had a student be published before … I thought it was really encouraging for her,” Fox said. “She’s a good kid.”
The Yorktown Press
