Abby Peña

Abby was born in Riverside, California, in the middle of the Landers earthquake. Clocking in at 7.3 on the Richter scale, it was the largest earthquake to hit the U.S. in forty years. Unfortunately, Abby’s childhood was just as shaky. With an alcoholic father in and out of the home and a mother struggling to raise five children, there was much chaos and very little stability. Their family never stayed in the same place long and moved to a different state every couple of years. 

Through it all, her mother always brought Abby and her siblings to church on Sunday. Though she spent most of her life hearing God’s teachings, Abby never truly understood the love of Christ or what it meant to submit her life to Him. Her mother was able to find small church schools for Abby to attend wherever they were living, but when she turned fifteen she had to go to public school for her junior and senior year of high school. She fell in with a bad crowd and started to drift even further away from the faith. When she graduated high school, she enlisted in the Marine Corps. After her enlistment ended, she settled down in North Carolina and attended college. She graduated college in 2019 and worked in both finance and management.

Despite her outward success in life, inwardly she was in turmoil. In an effort to numb the pain, she took a deep dive into the world and spent the next three years lost, hurting, and sinning. She tried everything the world had to offer, but none of it could fill the void or heal the pain she felt inside. Each day, each month, each year, she felt herself slipping further into a hole that seemed inescapable. She got involved in an abusive relationship and ended up pregnant with her daughter in May 2022. It was at this time she started feeling a tug she had not felt in years; she woke up one Sunday morning and went to church. God started speaking to her through the messages, and a few weeks later on the way to a Sunday morning service, Abby finally came to the end of herself. She felt the Holy Spirit’s presence so tangibly she was overcome and had to immediately pull over at a gas station. She parked, put her head down on the steering wheel, lifted her hands, and surrendered completely. She remembers telling God, “I get it now, God. I’m yours. Whatever you want for my life—I want THAT. If it’s not for me, remove it from my life. Just lead me. I will follow. Just show me the way.” And God did just that. He started moving in her life, closing doors and opening others, and in September of 2022 she relocated to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. 

She started to feel the call to serve God through ministry about a year later but thought to herself, “I must be imagining it.” Despite her hesitation, God kept putting the call to serve Him on her heart, and after a bit of wrestling, she obeyed. She heard about Collision through her niece, a high school student in Sioux Falls, and joined the team not long after. Because of her past struggles, Abby feels impassioned to help every student have the opportunity to hear and experience the healing love God has for them.  

Today, Abby and her daughter, Ruby Mae, enjoy the peace that comes from fully trusting God. They love to go on walks with their dog, Pru, and have picnics in the backyard. Abby is excited for what the future holds and to help further Collision’s mission and the kingdom of God.