Getting to Know Me {Declare Link-up}

Hi, friends! For those of you who don’t know, I joined the Declare Conference team this year! I was honored and humbled when they asked me to join the team at the Community Encourager. I love community and encouraging so it has been a perfect fit for my giftings and heart for people.

The Declare team at a pre-conference planning meeting.

In case you’ve never heard of Declare, it is a conference who equips women to walk in their calling as Christian communicators. Before being on the team, I have attended Declare for the last 3 years. Every year we do a link-up for those attending. I love these “getting to know you” post because it is a fun way to get to know other people online who do what you do!

This year we had 7 questions to answer:

1. When did you feel called to be a digital evangelist, what’s your main medium and how long have you been doing it?

In March 2014, I went through a class at our church called WILD(Women in Leadership Development). One of the classes was on writing and the woman teaching it said blogging is a great way to work on your skill of writing. I began my first blog (Life Outside the Shell) to simply work on my writing and I fell in love! God has opened many doors since in both the area of writing and speaking and I now blog at rachaelgilbert.com. These days I tend to be more active on social media. I love insta stories and Facebook LIVE!

2. What is your life scripture?

Our family life verses are Jeremiah 29:11(For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord) & Exodus 14:14(the Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still). My personal life verse for years was 2 Timothy 1:7: For God has not given you a spirit of fear or timidity, but power, love, and a sound mind. This verse gave me the strength to push through my fears of speaking and writing.

3. What are your passions?

My husband and I are both very passionate about health and fitness (he is a chiropractor and I am a group fitness instructor). We love to run all kinds of races from Spartans to marathons. We are currently training to hike the Grand Canyon this Fall!

I am also passionate about seeing women walk confidently in the direction of their God-given dreams.

4. What is your favorite candy and/or food?

My husband jokes that I am a sucker for any and every kind of health food. I love to try all the crazy new drinks and snacks. Some are wins and some a total bust but it’s always fun to try them and see if I can make them at home!

Other than that, I love baked goods, especially anything with cinnamon!

5. Where is your happy place and what’s it like?

If the weather is nice I love to be outdoors, especially near the beach. Or just anywhere that is remote and quiet (bonus points if I don’t get cell coverage!)

6. Are you working on any projects you can share?

I just released my RENEWED devotional and workout plan which was a huge relief to finally check off my to-do list. I just started attending The King’s University so I have put some other, bigger projects on hold. I have dreams to some day write a book (or two), start a podcast and continue speaking as the Lord opens doors for me to do so.

7. How can we pray for you & Declare?

I am so honored to be a part of this team. The level of integrity and prayer that goes into planning Declare is unbelievable. Please just pray a covering over the entire team and that we would be spirit led in all decision-making.