Personal Narrative: The Pentecostal Church

I lived in Barriere most of my life since 1998 .. I lived in a family with three sisters and a brother named Shilo, Jessica, Moriah, and Thomas. Moved to a 5 bedroom house, my room was downstairs. I lived in a teachers subdivision in Barriere. Back then my home church is Pentacostal Christian Life Assembly I still attend there today. My family had been going there since was about 4 years old. At that time I had been going to youth run by a guy named Cliff Millar at the PCLA. I had lots of friends in Barriere and surrounding places. I hanged with my crew in that youth group. I was just hanging with them to feel like I belonged somewhere. But really I was empty inside I felt as if I needed to act out or showoff to become cooler and or better

One day, I heard about the concept of the Bible permitting homosexuality and that Scripture had been misinterpreted. I knew that I did not truly believe this, but it was what I wanted to hear so I clung to it. I claimed to come to this

I hold the question and all the wonders to myself, but I did not want to ask my teacher in front of the class because I felt that it was not the norm to say it during the class time. I went up to our class teacher, Mike, who was the most sincere Christian at the school to ask questions. For a moment, I almost thought Mike was going to pass out because his face turned white; he was shivering after listening to my doubts. After a while, he seemed to get himself back together; but instead of answering me, he closed his eyes, crossed his fingers, and prayed to himself. Mike prayed a long while that I nearly fell asleep, even though I was standing. He was finally done with his prayer, then he opened the drawer, took out the Bible, and turned to Leviticus 20:13, where it said, “If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their blood-guiltness is upon them.” I did not quite get the idea of what was it saying, yet I had the feeling that I should not have asked those questions. Mike refused to answer my questions, and waved me out of his

In my sexual health class, we talked about sexual orientation. We had two guest speakers, one was a lesbian that was engaged and a transgender from a man to female. The lesbian speaker talked to us about how her journey went when she came out to her family and friends that she was a lesbian. She said it was not easy, but over the years her family started to support her decision of being with the same sex. For the transgender male to female had a different story. He was the only child and only had one girl in his life which was somewhat not by choice. He was young and a little girl asked him if he was gay and at that time he was in denial so he said no and when she asked will you go out with he was like he did not care, but after one week he got his best friend to break them up. I found that funny because he got his best friend to break them up because he did like that fact that she was a girl. But to make a long story short, he found out that in his middle school years that he loves the same sex and that he saw himself as a woman and not a male. A year ago, he came out to his family and friends that he was gay and that he was going through the change of became a transgender. The person that was most hurt was his father because he was the only child and he was a boy. As he grew up, his father was a bishop and soon became a pastor and it was hard for him to support his new daughter when the Bible says otherwise. It was just interesting that his father has to decide what to do.

I was raised in religion. Catholicism. Its impact may not have meant much at the time but as my life transpired, I realized the great significance of these beginnings. My mother who was raised Episcopalian used to take us to mass on Sundays being the dutiful wife my father was creating her to be, including assimilating her to his Catholicism. But he never came to church. Surely

On March 26, I visited my friend’s church called New life Christian center, in Durham.NC. It was going to be my first time going to a black church. I was excited to see if all the things that is usually said about their type of worship. Coming from a Jehovah Witness background, I knew everything from music and worship would be a bit different than what I’m used to. Growing up I wasn’t the most religious person. So every experience is usually a first for me.

I am writing this on a very special occasion: I have just been ordained for ministry by the Presbyterian Church. I have been hired by the Female Missionary Society of the Western District to begin preaching in upper New York. I think it is first important to record how I got here where I am today.

This is part of my testimony. And it is part of a letter I wrOTE back in December 2005--a month before we were invited to the Salvation Army Church for the first time by our friends Doris and Efrain. “Our church has been closed and we don’t have a church to congregate. Now I am depending on what the Holy Spirit wants for us. I am waiting for Him to tell us where we will be meeting and continue doing his work. Nelson and I know that we tried to do the best we could with the strength that the Lord gave us. It has been a very enjoyable experience and I know that the work in the Lord is not in vain. “While meditating in my years after accepting Jesus Christ as my lORD AND Savior, the following are my lessons learned: 1)I realized that I had been

31.50% of the world is Christian. 22.32% of the world is Islamic. 0.20% of the world is Judaic. 13.95% of the world is Hindu. 5.25% of the world is Buddhist. 15.35% of the world is secular, nonreligious, agnostic, or atheist. 10.58% of the world is made up of other religions. I am among the 15.35% of the world that is secular, nonreligious, agnostic, or atheist. However, I identify as a religion called LaVeyan Satanism, which sprung up into our world on Walpurgisnacht in 1966 and was birthed by Anton Szandor LaVey.

These tragic events may include: getting a divorce, losing a human being or even a dog. Soon, the person may ask why vigorous and faithful people suffer a lot and the bad people get away with everything in this cruel world we live in. However, in my personal life, doubt means a lot to me, which gives rise to my spirituality, mentality and emotion in life, especially growing up in a Christian home, which attended different Christian religious beliefs. My first curiosity as a child started when my parents were invited to a Christian religious church in my home country. Once, I arrived at the church, I was instructed by the usher that I could not enter because of my outfit. Although I am known to be taciturn by nature with few terse in any conversation that did not stop me to doubt my own faith and mature in knowledge by interacting with others about their own faith. After, hours of negotiation and questioning with my parents and the usher they allowed us enter the church. Shortly, I was traumatized by the notion that I could not enter the church and the doctrine from the pastor was not

Currently on our Earth, there are 6.6 billion human beings living everyday, and out of the 6.6 billion, 33% of the whole population (2.2 billion) are Christians. Let me put it this way. In a room with 3 people, 1 person is Christian. Christianity is a religion that has been picking people back up when they are down, comforting people when they are in doubt, and performing miracles everyday.

After tons of research i could no longer deny what i had discovered. A wall of bricks fell on top of me as i told myself it was time to stop hiding the truth. I was pansexual, meaning attracted to all genders. To clarify i am not attracted to everyone i meet and it is not the same thing as bisexual. Moreover, i have discovered that there was a sea of people who identified other than male and female. Yes their sex was male or female but gender is a total different thing which i now understand is a social construction. As i was processing all of this a thought bounced back and forth in my head. My breathing was no longer steady and tears began to roll down my horrified face as i also knew that many hate crimes were committed to people like me. As i walked through the crowded hallway with my hair hiding me and my head down, i had become a cowered turtle hiding in its

I'm terrified of it in all honesty, because even though I know I have the support of my younger sister and a couple of my friends, I don't think my parents and older sister can ever look at me the same way if I were to tell them. There's also a small part of me that is relieved though. I have spent years trying to ignore this, telling myself that i am straight and that what I'm feeling is just a way to seek attention. It's not real. Just like how anything that I feel isn't real. Not to get off track but that is something I've always had to deal with, my subconscious always making me second guess everything about myself to the point where I start to question if I'm really a person. In this case it helped though, because being straight was the only option, so of course it couldn't be real. It didn't matter that I found girls attractive just as much as i found guys attractive, it was just a "girl crush." But at least now I know

On February 28th, 2016 I decided to go to the immigrant assistance center that is located in the parish hall of Sacred Heart Church to complete my hours of community service. My class is a service learning class therefore I had to do a service to the community. My experience in the church was eye opening.

I was raised Pentecostal. So while other kids were learning dance, karate, and soccer, I was learning about Jesus. A typical week started with three services on Sunday, Tuesday was Bible Study, Friday was Young Women’s Christian Council, and Saturday was choir practice, cleaning the church, and preparing for Sunday. As a little black girl raised in Alabama, it was my mother's church that sheltered me from the winds of discrimination and prejudice.