Brief Letter : A Letter

I have grown up in a Christian home but it wasn't until my junior year of high school when I was at Hume Lake with my youth group that I dedicated my life to being a disciple for Christ. That following summer I went on my first mission trip to Haiti to serve at an orphanage and shortly after returning home I decided to get baptized. My faith was put to the test when my family decided to move from Santa Barbara to Pennsylvania during my senior year. My dad moved there six months early while my mom, my brother and I stayed back and lived in my best friends small guest house so we could finish the school year. My world was completely flipped and nothing was going the way I planned but I knew that I could trust in God in whatever situation he put

I had been a “Christian” for years, being raised in a Christian home it was just the thing to do. However this meant nothing to me at the time I was a Christian because everyone else was. So after a long time and the struggles I went through, I was so far gone and away from what God had planned for my life that it looked like there was no hope. This is when something happened to me something incredible God restored my life and brought me home, out of my sin. Now this didn’t happen over night it was a process which took a matter of months, but it started the night I fell on my knees and realized I had been living a lie and that I was not a Christ follower, I knew the stuff but never applied it to my life and let it change my life.

I was a Follower of Christ and I didn’t even know it. I was the last of three boys to two faithful Christian parents. My parents attended St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Akron, OH. I was baptized and confirmed by the same Bishop. Some of my earliest memories are of me standing in the pews with my parents and stacking the prayer books as if it were my own pulpit and I would pretend to be the priest giving the Sunday sermon. I didn’t know what he was talking about but I always thought that I would be like him one day. I was an acolyte and attended the youth programs regularly with my friends. I completed my studies to earn my God and Country award with the Boy Scouts.

Born and raised in Marion, Iowa and into an evangelical church, my parents “Baby Dedicated” my life to christ. At age 5 my family moved to New Covenant Bible Church. When I was young I didn't think much of church, it was just something you did and was merely going through the motions. But when I hit middle school my parents made me go to church every Wednesday and Sunday. Key phrase, made me. At this point in my life I didn't like church, at all. As I grew older, I wanted to be at church less and less. And I dreaded going every time Sunday morning rolled around. I had the mindset that the world had more to offer me than Christ did. And so I made excuses and put up fights and soon I rarely went to church. My family went but I stayed

When I was about 12, I started to drift away from God. I had a whole new world of temptations to face. I always just figured if I sinned all I would have to do is tell God I was sorry and ask for forgiveness. The problem was I wasn’t being sorry in my heart, I just did it because that’s what church said to do. When I was 15, I renewed my faith in Christ and I have been going from there. Mere Christianity has really helped my walk with Christ over the summer. He showed me the wrong in the daily stuff I did. I started to change my life and fix what I did

What was the process of my conversion like? I’ll begin with this year, all the way back to my trip in Guatemala. I struggled to understand what belief was and what being a follower of Christ really was. I was trying to understand the faith with my own intelligence, which constantly failed me. On top of that I was living without morals, saying, doing, and thinking whatever I pleased. This all, plus sickness, made my trip to Guatemala very challenging. As the year went on I still tried to live in Christ on my own will, which isn’t living in Christ at all. I would read his word but only some days instead of every day. What I didn’t realize is that I need his word every day. Because this world is evil and unclear, but his word gives ultimate clarity.

I had lost a group of friends who I grew very close to seeing as they looked at me in a different aspect. "She's going to judge us" , "She's too good for us now", "I don't want to sit with someone who's going to preach to me" , these were all phrases that got passed around the tiny halls of my middle school after I had committed my life to Christ. My "social life" had digressed and people didn't want to be around me, but that's the moment I came to a realization. I was looking for love somewhere there wasn't any, I had put my foot in a path that was dry on appreciation where I had thought there was plenty, and the heartbreak I had taken from the loss of three great friends had got healed by one awesome Father. There are some worldy heartbreaks when accepting Christ, but they become heavenly appreciations after you realize why the Lord has detached you from

I accepted Christ at the age of 12 at Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church in Bells, TN. It was rural church and over the years, pastors would not stay long because it was a great place for young pastors to get experience and leave for a larger congregation. At the age of 17, I joined the military and my spiritual formation really began to blossom. After traveling over four continents, I had an experience to learn from different ministers who actually went to seminary as opposed to the ones who did not attend an actual school. Every chaplain in the military had a seminary degree and the ones who captured my attention put emphasis on learning Greek and Hebrew.

I said yes to Jesus in eighth grade. I was on a retreat with my youth group and during bible study, I realized how alone I was at that time, I felt the presences of God. I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. At the time I was at the biggest low in my life. I was bullied by my “best friend” at school and felt that I had no friends. Only recently did I realized these two events happened in the same year. While I may have lost a friend on earth, I gained my best friend in Heaven who has stuck with me through everything.

observed. An ISFP can appear very competitive and become difficult to lose (Joe Butt, n. d). An

I did not come to know Christ until December of 2003 at the age of 25 at First Baptist Church of Gordonsville Tennessee. As a young boy, I had a desire to know GOD, and had even made a profession of faith, but never had anyone

However, circumstances changed. A big move, a new community, and I didn’t know how to handle moving to a place where I felt uncomfortable talking to God in anywhere but my own home. (I wasn’t comfortable with the church my family was attending at that time.) By the age of fifteen, I

Throughout the years I would attend Church, because I truly believed there was a God, but he was mad at me. After many years of questioning God’s love for me, I met a man who would share the message of God’s grace with me. On April 4th, 1999, I accepted the invitation to enter into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord. That day changed my life forever.

On October 3, 2008, I accepted the Christ as my Lord and Savior. Since then, I have realized the need for service and do my best to help others.

I consider myself a writer more than a reader although you improve your grammar and complexity of words through reading. I believe I am a writer because I enjoy the thinking creatively and sometimes write on my own time to prevent me from being bored. I enjoy writing mostly about dystopian stories told in a perspective of a citizen that is not necessarily agreeing with rules of the society. Sometimes just writing short stories also pleasures me because instead of doing nothing, I am spending my time expanding my knowledge.