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I will when I am feeling less lazy. Its a long one.

Well...my testimony may not be grand or maginificent, but it is mine. All of this happened fairly recently...and I hope that maybe this will speak to someone in one way or another. Here goes...

I was born and raised in a traditional Catholic family. When I say traditional, of course, I mean by today's terms. We go to mass every weekend and on Holy Days of Obligation, recieve the sacrements, etc. But until a short time ago, it wasn't really anything that I wanted to do, just something I felt I had to do. They always told me that someday I'd come to appreciate all of the religious things they forced me to do, I just didn't realize that time would come before I even reached my confirmation.

Approximately a year ago, my freshman year of high school, I met a boy named Ben, who was a year above me, and I was amazed with everything he did. He was a devout Christian (I'm still not sure exactly what religion other than that...) and wasn't afraid to show it to anyone. I believe, and always will, that he made me the believer that I am today. Everything he did, everything he said struck a chord with me and made me thing Why can't I be like that? It was the most amazing feeling I've ever had. Ben and I went on to date for a short time, but the relationship didn't last more than a couple of months. During that time, however, he opened my eyes to just how wonderful it was and how lucky I was to have a family that would take me to church regularly and allowed me to worship God and Jesus the way I wanted to. After we broke up, I was heartbroken. I thought I had fallen in love with him, when, really (in hindsight) I've come to see that I fell in love with what he gave me, my faith and everything that goes along with it.

The night that Ben broke up with me, I was crushed. But when I went home, turning from religion because it was something Ben had showed me just didn't seem like an option. And at that moment, I did something I'd never done on my own before. I opened up my bible that I'd recieved in the second grade, and I sat in my bedroom and read it. I let the words of Genesis, Matthew, Saint Paul, the Psalms, and others carry me away. It was truly amazing to me that I'd never read that little book that sat at the very beginning of my bookshelf before...never even thought to glance through it. Every emotion that I concieve to be possible, I felt that night.

It astonishes me how many people in our church take what they have for granted. I try every day to become a better person in God's eyes, struggle to always try to do what he would want. I fail sometimes, but then, we all stumble. I now have a new mentor guiding me along the way, the one who succeeded Ben. He also has opened my mind to new ideas about God and my faith, and both of these people are the best role models I could have ever asked for. They say that in a relationship you shouldn't talk about religion or politics...yet the former of those two is one of our most discussed topics. We're closer because of it. And a relationship built around God is one that is everlasting.

I have one.

Last year when I got home from bible quizzing my sister told me my parents were in a bad accident. My parents had been walking to their car in a parking garage and someone hit the gas in stead of the break and hit my dad in the shoulder and my mom feel down and got ran over by front and back wheels. She was in the hospital for 4 months. All the doctors called her the miracle girl, because she survived.

When she got home she decided that her and my dad needed to come to church with me, and they have ever since. I am just so thankful to still have my mom and that my parents are now in church.

There is alot of different aspects to my testimony. This will be a long one.

I was born in to a christian family and had 2 older sisters and 2 older brothers. right after I turned 2 I had a little sister. When I was five years old, one of my older brtothers was hit by a car when on his bike and died. we never talked about it in youre family it just happen and the results were there. We went on like nothing happened at all. My last sibling was born a year and a half later, she came along because my mom wanted another child after her son had died. by this time I was seven. I never really had any close freinds when I was younger because I was shy and stayed home most of the time. I kept to myself and would rather do things by myself or with my family then with anyone else. I was teased all the way from kindergarden and was in speech threrapy till grade 7. I had alot of problems with pronouncation. so along come grade 8 (where i went we only had elementry school and high school which started grade 9) and I had gone to the same school since kindergarden and after the first month mom left dad and took the kids with her. New school last year in the middle it was very hard for mr to adjust. If I had any good friends I never had them from that time on till college. things happen agian and we never talked about it just saw the results. Everything just had to be kept inside. I ws then told I had to take care of my younger sisters and felt that I would have to keep the peace being the oldest kid home. My mom like to ignore us or yell at us but we did not have a choice for dad at the time was a trucker and gone alot. we move about 5 times in 5 years but I stayed in the same highschool all the way through. Nobody knew what went on inside of me at that time. I had no where to look, no where to go with my problems because I would not talk to my parent or my siblings because it was like an unwriten rule in the house that we do not talk about what happen just accept it. Through those time one thing remained the same the church I went to. Wait a minute it did nit about grade 10 or 11 our pastor left and so did most of our church. we had five families left and lasted until we got a new pastor. I spent time with both my parents and lived half and half at times. After my dad got a new job in town After mom or dad would tell us to go to bed I would hear either mom yelling at dad or dad takening it from mom because dad still really loved mom and would not yell at her (only once in a blue moon he would). It was very rare that he would yell even at us. I would cry myself to sleep at least 3 or 4 times a week but during the worst of those nights I would hear a voice telling me that everything would be ok and I felt arms around me protecting me from all harm. After grade 12 grad I went to Central Pentacostal College and the poeple there have help me deal with my past talk about it and help me through all that has come up since like 2 of my grandparents death. My parents have got back together after my first year of college, but i still do not think they are that happy. I have done my second year and am going back for my thirds this september. I am taken my Bchlors of Arts in Global Ministry for I have wanted to be a missionary since grade 8. This is my life so far I am now 20 and feel like I can move forward because I have dealt with the past but this feeling is new and hopely here to stay. I just want to bless all that read this and show that no matter wha tyou go through there is hope for the future for I was told during my second year of college (when I was not sure of anything) that my future was so bright that God had to wear sunglasses.

Manna