- Feb 5, 2002
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I come from a Pentecostal background. Church of God, specifically. I come from a revival for weeks on end, every night until 10:30 pm or later if the Spirit’s moving background. I come from a slain in the Spirit background. I come from a potluck that fills 3 long tables for homecoming dinner background. I come from a pray until you speak in tongues or “are you even really praying?” background. I come from an emotionally charged spiritual background.
How did I come to find Catholicism, here, in the buckle of the Bible Belt? Honestly, it’s both a long story and a short story. The long story is just my testimony in general and how the Lord has had His hand on me, guiding me to this path long before I would ever realize it. Back when I was sitting in the pew in the local Church of God, hearing pastors speak about how Catholics believed deception…even then, I was somehow always headed here. It is remarkable how our God can see the parts and the whole and everything makes perfect sense to Him, and He meets us in our moments of doubt and confusion. I have had many of those moments, to be sure. And yet, He still works. I have found “I believe, help my unbelief” to be one of my most quoted scriptures while praying.
I guess one of biggest parts of my conversion story has to do with my husband, Nick. When I met Nick, he had broken away from the institutional church completely and was part of the organic house church movement. He gave me a copy of a book called Pagan Christianity?, which I consumed, and it wasn’t long that I was on my way out as well. I was already frustrated with things I was dealing with in the Protestant church I was a part of, but I didn’t want to just find another church. I wanted the Church. I wanted to get back to church and the way they did it in Acts. I wanted to see life shared and miracles happen. After Nick and I were married, we moved to Florida for a year to be part of the house church of which he had been a part of for several years. That was a year that caused me to grow in ways I never had before. Living in such a way that we were always at someone’s house or someone was at ours for a gathering, a dinner, or a prayer meeting. As someone who had gone through a period of life with debilitating social anxiety, having to constantly force myself to be a part of a group was exhausting, but transformative. I can honestly say that being in such an environment changed my life for the better, and I will never regret that time.
Continued below.
www.missiodeicatholic.org
How did I come to find Catholicism, here, in the buckle of the Bible Belt? Honestly, it’s both a long story and a short story. The long story is just my testimony in general and how the Lord has had His hand on me, guiding me to this path long before I would ever realize it. Back when I was sitting in the pew in the local Church of God, hearing pastors speak about how Catholics believed deception…even then, I was somehow always headed here. It is remarkable how our God can see the parts and the whole and everything makes perfect sense to Him, and He meets us in our moments of doubt and confusion. I have had many of those moments, to be sure. And yet, He still works. I have found “I believe, help my unbelief” to be one of my most quoted scriptures while praying.
I guess one of biggest parts of my conversion story has to do with my husband, Nick. When I met Nick, he had broken away from the institutional church completely and was part of the organic house church movement. He gave me a copy of a book called Pagan Christianity?, which I consumed, and it wasn’t long that I was on my way out as well. I was already frustrated with things I was dealing with in the Protestant church I was a part of, but I didn’t want to just find another church. I wanted the Church. I wanted to get back to church and the way they did it in Acts. I wanted to see life shared and miracles happen. After Nick and I were married, we moved to Florida for a year to be part of the house church of which he had been a part of for several years. That was a year that caused me to grow in ways I never had before. Living in such a way that we were always at someone’s house or someone was at ours for a gathering, a dinner, or a prayer meeting. As someone who had gone through a period of life with debilitating social anxiety, having to constantly force myself to be a part of a group was exhausting, but transformative. I can honestly say that being in such an environment changed my life for the better, and I will never regret that time.
Continued below.
"I Believe, Help My Unbelief!" The story of how I converted to Catholicism
I come from a Pentecostal background. Church of God, specifically. I come from a revival for weeks on end, every night until 10:30 pm or later if the Spirit’s moving background. I come from a slain in the Spirit background. I come from a potluck that fills 3 long tables for homecoming dinner...
www.missiodeicatholic.org
