I remember when I first stepped on stage to do public speaking. I was only 14. I wasn’t alone. In fact I was hidden among my peers who also were going to take part in the talk. And I wasn’t in front of an unknown crowd, but in front of my church family in my own town. Yet none of that made a difference. My heart was going to come out of my chest. My fear of speaking was greater than the fear of being discovered that I go to church by the communist government scouts who could have been in the audience.