Testimony

As a young child, I was very blessed to have God open my eyes to the need for Christ in my life. I remember a Vacation Bible School leader sitting down with me and discussing the Cross and what it meant for me as a sinful person and what it meant to be SAVED. That day, I asked God to forgive me of my sins and to teach me to live a Christ-like life, not that I could work my way to salvation, but that He would teach me to be more like His Son who had already paid my price. From that day on, I have never questioned my salvation, but over time, God has significantly increased my heart’s desire to know Him more and live like Christ. It was also while I was still very young, when God also created a stirring in my heart to follow His Word and His command to make a public profession of faith through baptism. God did this great work in my life in-spite of the fact that I was growing up in what would be considered a very moral, yet non-Christian home. My mom would occasionally take us kids to church, but dad would very rarely, if ever, step foot in a church. Most of the time, my sister and I ended up going to church with our grandparents.

I spent my junior high and high school years trying to live the life I thought God would have for me and making attempts to serve Him, but I was very much without a spiritual mentor to shepherd and disciple me. When I got to Purdue in the fall of 2001, I realized how short I was falling of my goal to serve and honor God. For many years, I had begged and drug my mother into church with me on Sunday morning. I wasn’t always certain the “feel good” messages I was hearing were exactly what I was looking for, and it was beginning to get somewhat discouraging, but going to church, was at least an opportunity to hear something from God’s Word. I am still today amazed at the way God worked in my life during my first few months at Purdue. He brought a friend into my life during my first week of classes. My friend and I discussed one afternoon how we were both looking for churches near campus where we might be able to get involved in. I had always been involved at my church at home, but was eager to find a church where I could really learn more about God and had more attendees in my stage of life. My friend said she had a good lead on a church off campus, and her sister had a car to take us there. My friend invited me to attend a hayride the college group in the church was having at a farm near Lafayette. Being a farm kid, I definitely could not say no to good old farm fun! Little did I know at the time, God was working in my life and answering my prayers by bringing me into a group of people, my own age, who loved God and had the kind of relationships with Him I had been longing to have for the last 12 years of my life. God used the hayride as a huge turning point for me. That night, I met Jen Fernane, an intern from the church at the time, who later was able to plug me into my first, of many Bible Studies.

Two weeks after the hayride I found myself at Kossuth Street Baptist Church for the first time. My first visit to Kossuth was somewhat of a culture-shock experience, to say the least. I had never been exposed to a true evangelical atmosphere before. In the church I grew up in, I was often taught to live by example, but you are not actively sharing your faith with non-believers. I also knew it was good to read the Bible, but was somewhat under the impression it was the preacher’s job to know God’s Word and he just told the rest of us about it. By bringing me to Kossuth, God changed my attitude in my mind and in my heart. I began to read my Bible more and more on my own and to gain a greater understanding of how great and powerful God is, the same God, who I had trusted my salvation to so many years before. I then realized God had not called me to a saving knowledge of His Son at such a young age just to escape the punishments of Hell, but to bring glory, honor, and praise to Himself. I also realized, as a child of the one true God, it was my responsibility to share the work He had done and the sacrifice He had made, with others.

In the five years since I arrived at KSBC, I feel like God has done a great work in my life in bringing me from the immature Christian I had been for so many years, who was content to sit back and soak in the ministry of others, to someone who now has a burden for challenging others to grow in their relationship with Him. God has continued to grow my desire to serve Him and to know Him. I spend many days eager to know what God has in store for me and what things are in His Word for me to improve upon in my life. I now know, while I am far from perfection in my earthly body, Christ has paid the price for my perfection in God’s kingdom.