Jessica Smith is a 30-year-old local director with Child Evangelism Fellowship, a Bible and Theology student at Shasta Bible College, and a student at Trinity School of Natural Health.

In 2014, Ms. Smith moved from Oregon to Missouri to attend ministry vocational school. Despite growing up on a farm with a general awareness of ticks and Lyme disease, she was not taught to take steps to avoid or check for ticks. While taking a hike on the 600-acre school campus, she discovered a small tick on her arm. Shortly thereafter, she exhibited acute Lyme disease symptoms such as fatigue, flu symptoms and brain fog.

Her acute symptoms dissipated in a few weeks and she “did not notice any decline in her health” until 3 years later when she again suffered flu symptoms, lost an “alarming amount of weight,” followed by severe joint pain, mental struggles, and heart palpitations.

The debilitating symptoms sent her to a Naturopathic doctor who diagnosed her with Lyme disease after she tested CDC positive on a Western Blot blood test.

For the next several years, she battled through a grief cycle and both sides of the pride and imposter syndrome coin before learning to become a good steward of her life and health. Today, she is “105%” healthier than before she suffered the tick bite.

If you would like to learn more about how chronic Lyme disease sent a minister on a “New Path” for healing and a school to study natural health, then tune in now!