Modeling Christ: Rachel Lee Carter, Class of 1996.

When Rachel Lee (Adcock) Carter, Class of 1996, applied to Word of Life Bible Institute, she didn't expect to be accepted by the staff and students. After all, she wasn’t a seasoned Sunday schooler with a shining recommendation from her pastor. She was a professional model coming off two years in the thick of the fashion industry in New York City.

“Word of Life was very gracious, because I was coming from a really horrible place,” she recalls.

Although she’d grown up in a Christian family in North Carolina and was heavily involved in her youth group, summer camp, and missions trips, Rachel admits she didn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus. But when she met two Christian models on a photo shoot, they encouraged her to get honest with God, to call out to Him, and to ask Christ into her heart. She saw something different about them and wanted what they had. That night, alone on her apartment floor, she got honest with God and asked Him to save her.

“I felt God’s Spirit move,” Rachel says. “I couldn’t explain it, but I knew God heard me and saved me.”

When she woke up the next morning, Rachel was changed. Everything that didn’t glorify God had to go –  her music collection, her use of profanity, her side job at a bar, and the toxic relationships in her life.

“I wanted God, and that was all I wanted,” Rachel says.

She didn’t know much about the Bible Institute or anyone who had attended, but she says she knew God was leading her to go.
Once Rachel got to the school, God used an unexpected tool to push her to be more like Christ: modesty. Presenting her body in a godly way would become her mission as a model, and, years later, her platform when she was crowned Mrs. North Carolina in 2009.

“I remember reading the guidelines (at Word of Life) and thinking ‘Knee-length skirts? Really? Why?’” she says. “I hadn’t thought about modesty before. And I didn’t understand its implications or consequences on me, my testimony, or the opposite sex.”

While at the Bible Institute, Rachel began asking God about His will and direction for her. She says she began feeling an urgency to return to the modeling industry, something she resisted at first.

“I thought, ‘That’s the devil! God wouldn’t send me back into that psycho industry!’” she laughs.

But God began impressing on her heart that “those people needed Jesus, too,” and “How will they hear without someone to tell them?” Around that time, a professor, Marshall Wicks, said during class, “God calls a light into every industry.” That was the last confirmation of what Rachel suspected — God wanted her industry to become her ministry.

After Word of Life, Rachel returned to London, England to continue in her modeling career, but on her own terms. She refused to model lingerie or revealing clothing and said “no” to ads for alcohol and tobacco products. Rachel knew this would cost her jobs and create conflict with designers and agencies, but she refused to compromise her integrity.

“I had to walk off sets, I got fired a few times, and I argued with designers if I felt I needed to wear more clothes or layer a see-through shirt,” Rachel says.

“God is my booker,” she adds, and even though many thought her career would dry up, it flourished — and continues to do so.

With her modesty standards in place, Rachel has landed jobs with Cover Girl, Tommy Hilfiger, Jones New York, Wrangler, Nicole Miller, Reebok, Macy’s, and many others. She’s traveled to more than 30 countries.
In 1999, Rachel began leading a Bible study for models. As the group grew and she began receiving invitations to speak publicly, her ministry, Modeling Christ, was born. It soon grew to include those influenced by the modeling industry.

Now, as a professional speaker and author, Rachel shares her testimony at schools, churches, and women’s and youth conferences nationwide. She teaches identity in Christ, modeling modesty, purity, and embracing one’s past — all lessons God taught her through His Word and her experiences in the world of fashion.

Last May, Rachel released her book, Fashioned by Faith: An International Model Uncovers the Truth about Modesty and Style (Thomas Nelson, 2011). Rachel says the reaction to the book from teenage girls has been a blessing.

“Girls tend to listen because of my fashion background. It’s a hook,” she says. “Never mind it’s the same modesty message that comes from the mouths of their parents — it just comes in a different package. It’s amazing how God uses it.”

Rachel has also developed a successful speaking ministry while continuing to maintain her career as a professional model. Most of all, she loves spending time with her husband, Daryl, and their two sons, Jack, 11, and Jude, 4.

As she prepares for the future of Modeling Christ, which she hopes will include a modest clothing line someday, Rachel says she looks back at the Bible Institute as “handpicked by God” to prepare her for her ministry.
“Word of Life gave me the tools I needed to bring me to the place I am today,” she says. “I am deeply indebted.”

For more information about Rachel’s ministry, please visit ModelingChrist.com.