wvmtnkid's testimony

I have always gone to church. My mother and father took me to church from the moment I was born. We went to a small country church where you were either family or close enough to be family. Then my dad was transferred and we moved. We went back to this church for several years, until my grandmother died, and it seemed like my family quit making the effort to go. There were several years in my life that we didn't attend church. We would go in spurts, but nothing continuous. One Sunday, my mother decided we were going back to church. We finally settled on a United Methodist Church in the city we were living in. It was much larger than the one we had come from and it took a lot of getting used to. Plus, we knew no one when we started, all except the one person that had invited my mother.

So, through my teen age years, I was in church. I loved my youth group and all the good things we did. It helped build a strong foundation in me that down the road I was going to need. When I was 18, my father passed away. He never did make the transition of attending church with us again in the "big city". I had a crisis of faith during this time. My father was not a bad person and I just couldn't understand why God would allow him to die but allow the drug dealer down the street to live. But through the love and strength of this church, me and my family got through this time in our lives.

Seven years later, I went through another faith crisis. In a six month period, I was betrayed by several key people in my life. The man I had planned to marry left me for someone else, and my boss and several co-worker's put me in a bad situation and when the going got rough, ended up saving their own hides and betraying the truth of the situation and me. My world had turned upside down. I was so angry at God for letting these things happen. Instead of running to Him, I ran from Him. I went into a depression and stayed there for several years.

The amazing thing is that while I had given up on God, He had certainly not given up on me. He kept putting people into my life that ministered to me. He lead me back to my church and into a bible study that literally saved my life. Through this study, I found His love again and I shudder to think where I would be today if that hadn't happened. He has renewed and refreshed my Spirit. Even though I grew up in church, I had to learn the hard way what it meant to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Sitting in a pew every Sunday doesn't make you a Christian.

I am so thankful for His presence in my life and where He is leading me. I have gotten to do some pretty neat things and I just hope I will have the courage to go and do what He continues to call me for.