Miss Canadian Universe an ambassador for God Beauty queen Juliana Thiessen isn't all fluff, good looks and makeup. She believes in helping others and using her title to tell others about God. by Jessie Schut     Calgarian Juliana Thiessen breaks the mould when it comes to your image of a beauty queen.     The reigning Miss Canadian Universe doesn't mind putting on evening gowns and heels to parade down a modeling runway, but she's equally at home in work gloves and muddy jeans, pushing a wheelbarrow under the hot Nicaraguan sun.     Recently she spent a week volunteering with Samaritan's Purse, a Christian organization that works for children in third world countries, building a children's playground in that country.     Big hair, gobs of makeup, and plastic surgery aren't part of her routine, either. "This morning, I got up, pulled my hair back in a pony tail, slapped on some lipstick, and went out the door to work," she confesses.     She insists she's not particularly beautiful. As a contestant in the Miss Universe Pageant in Hawaii this spring, she even felt ugly. Often members of the public would bypass her to get their pictures taken with more beautiful girls.     If outward beauty had been a criteria, Thiessen says she would not have entered the contest. "I saw the ad in the paper, and the requirements for entering the Miss Calgary Pageant were academic achievement, community involvement, and general personality," says the 18-year-old University of Calgary student. It looked like two weeks of fun, so she entered her name.     The fact that she won first the title of Miss Calgary, and then Miss Canadian Universe is evidence, she says, that God directed her win because He has a plan to use her in that position.     "I was just a normal average girl," she says. "Beauty is a sidebar to my life. Now I feel that God is opening doors for me, and I think of myself as an ambassador for God."     Canada's standards for beauty queens, she says, are higher than many other countries. "Canadians are not going to accept just outward beauty as the standard. We're looking for good role models. The speeches I'm asked to make far outweigh the modeling and fashion shows."     As an ambassador for God, she wants to tell young women that outward beauty is not worth a lot.     "Beauty is defined by what you are on the inside," she says. "Outward beauty can disappear in a second. But even when you feel ugly, you're always beautiful to God, because He doesn't even see your outward beauty."     Inward beauty is what God builds into you when you open the door to Him, she says. God will give you the gifts of inner joy, peace, wisdom and contentment when you let Him control your life.     This is something Thiessen has experienced herself. She grew up with three brothers in a Christian home, and committed her life to God as a child. But when she got to junior high and transferred to a different school, she went through a very rough time in her life.     "I didn't have any friends," she says. "I felt so forgotten. Those junior high years are the toughest, you're trying to define yourself, and other people's opinions of you make such a great impression on you."     But the lonely experience was something God used to help her become more empathetic and caring about other people. It's a quality of inner beauty that helps her relate to girls who are going through struggles themselves.     She also says that as an ambassador she will speak openly about her faith whenever she has the opportunity. As a finalist in the top five of the Miss Canadian Universe Pageant, she was asked to say who she thought was the most influential person in her life.     Her answer: "I believe that person is someone from the past. That person is Jesus Christ." She then told the 1,500 persons gathered for the pageant how a relationship with Jesus Christ had changed her life.     Although she didn't place in the top ten of the Miss Universe pageant in Hawaii, she did get picked to speak at the pageant's rehearsal, a dry run that attracts thousands of observers.     "They asked me: ‘What would you do if you were Miss Universe?' and I said I would show the world the love of Jesus," says Thiessen.     As Miss Canadian Universe, that's just what Thiessen is doing, whether it's as a volunteer in Nicaragua, as the Mistress of Ceremonies at the Morden Corn and Apple Festival on the Manitoba prairie, or in her every day life as a student at U of C.     "God's opening the doors to me," she says. "I'm willing to be used. I think He's raising me up for such a time as this." [LLN-Online] [Adopt-a-Block] [Newsbriefs][Event Calendar] [Lifestyles] [Juke Box] [Cover to Cover] [Movieguide][Casting the Net] [Viewpoints] [General Info] [Rates & Sizes][Marketplace/Classifieds] [Volunteer Ops] [Writing Guidelines] [Contact Us] [Subscribe][Archives][Good News] [About Us][Links]