Automatically Generated Transcript

Hi everyone. Thank you all for coming along and witnessing this moment in my life. I’m very excited and a bit nervous to share my story of how I came to God and how He has been working in my life. I hope that my testimony can be an encouragement to you and a witness to how good God is, His faithfulness, and unconditional love.

Before I made the decision to come to Christ, I was in a very difficult space. In the early years of my life, I lived in a household with my mother and my sister, but my house was not a place where I’d ever heard positive things about God. The only time I heard God mentioned was in a negative or hateful way towards people who were religious, and other than that I didn’t really know or think about God.

The people who were setting the example in my life, my parents, both struggled with drug and alcohol abuse as well as other addictions, and my home environment was one where I was subject to abuse. From a young age, I struggled with mental health issues and self-harm, finding refuge in alcohol and other substances, and I felt a sense that I was missing something.

During these years, I didn’t have many thoughts or feelings about God. I would question how He could let these things happen to me if I did think about Him, and to find somewhere to place my anger. I placed a lot of misguided blame on God for my losses and difficulties before truly understanding my situation.

When I moved into high school years, I did have some interactions with Christianity as I attended a youth group with a friend and attended a different church for a little bit. Looking back, I can’t identify any reason why I would have gone to these things and kept coming back unless God had been involved. I had only ever rejected God and been angry at Him and yet He drew me to people and places where I would learn more. Places like this became a refuge for me despite rejecting God and not believing in Him.

Throughout high school, I experienced a lot of struggles but despite this, I can see how God placed others in my life. At 15, I left an abusive household, moved schools, and lost a friend to suicide. A lot was happening in a short time and I found myself turning to things I shouldn’t have to try and forget the pain that I was experiencing instead of turning to God. During this time, God worked through the people around me to draw me closer to Him and to show Christlike love to me in my time of need.

In this new school I moved to, I found a few Christian friends and eventually I started coming to Salisbury at one of their invites. I started coming to youth nights and church services in 2018 which introduced me to really strong biblical foundations and every time I attended church, I learnt something new. I found that at Salisbury I experienced love I had never experienced before and found a community of friends and chosen family.

At the start of 2019, there was an opportunity to attend the Franklin Graham Tour with some people from this church. There was a time during the night where there was a call or an invite for people to come to the front to speak and pray with available counsellors. At the time of this call, I had not intended to get up despite being moved by the message. I was self-conscious, shy and socially anxious much more than I am at this stage in my life now. So I sat on the hill watching the rivers of people make their way down to the front of the stage. But the longer I sat the more I felt God calling me to join them. And I knew that Jesus was knocking on the door.

I was overcome with waves of emotion and eventually I made my way down to the front with the rest of the people. On that night I prayed with a counsellor to accept Jesus into my heart and to repent of my sins. From that night I knew and felt deeply how loved I was unconditionally by God, and that I have a relationship with someone who will not fail even when I might fall short.

I’ve had some ups and downs in the years since becoming a Christian, and a period of backsliding. During the time that I was backsliding a few years ago, I was not attending church for quite some time, and had turned my back to God and found my mental health deteriorating. I had reverted to alcohol and self-harm to cope with my feelings, and eventually this escalated and I attempted to end my life.

I don’t remember a lot about that night but I do clearly remember crying out to God. I begged for forgiveness and asked God to help me, and He gave me the strength to seek help from a friend. I don’t know what would have happened if I hadn’t called out to God. If I may have still survived or if I would not be here today. Either way, that night opened my eyes and I knew that I needed to get on the right track with God.

I know that, while I was saved, I’d still been rejecting God in many aspects of my life and falling into behaviours and vices I shouldn’t have. Despite my failings, God has continued to offer me grace, love and kindness. He has faithfully healed my pain in my life from my childhood and has been a never-ending refuge and strength in my life.

Since accepting Jesus in my heart, many things have changed in me and there are still things that I am changing and running towards God. Before I was a Christian, I was very defiant, disrespectful, dishonest, selfish and, in general, just not a very Christ-like person. I found that since coming to Christ, I have grown in becoming more like Him and I’ve seen the most change in how I treat others. I found that I now care deeply for others and I enjoy helping people.

Other people have noticed a change in me as well. Christians and non-Christians alike have mentioned this to me, so I know just how much God has changed my heart. I continue to see God work in me as I grow in Him and see His work in others in my life. And I continue to run towards Jesus, learning and growing in Him. And I’m so excited to see what He will continue to do in my life.

Although it’s been about five years since my originally coming to Christ, I still felt drawn to get baptised today to share my testimony and to publicly confess the truth in Jesus Christ, my Saviour and my belief in Him. So I’m here to share that all with you today And I hope that you found some encouragement in my journey as I’ve been able to.

Thank you all.