When I was younger I would go to camp every summer. That's where I met some wonderful women, including Bre. My first year at camp was Explorer week at Joy Bible Camp. I remember one of the speakers talking to us near the end of the week about how much God loves us, and how he loves us so much that He sent His son to die for us. Back in our cabin, I couldn't sleep, so I woke my counsellors up and asked them what the speaker meant. It was that night that I accepted that I am a sinner and need salvation and forgiveness. I was 7.
As I got older I started making more decisions myself and relying less and less on God, including decisions on who I dated. I put myself in a lot of compromising positions, including one where I was almost raped by a boy I thought loved me and who claimed he was a christian. When I was 17 years old I realized what I was doing, and at my last year of camp I rededicated my life to Christ and was baptized for a second time (the first time I was 8 and it was at Bethany Gospel Chapel, the church I attended at the time). Afterwards I dated a boy I thought was the right one for me. We were both christians, and I even went so far as to think that he loved me for me. It wasn't until I spent one week at his place and camped out in his front yard with his sisters that I realized how wrong I was. I woke up to him making out with me, which completely freaked me out. I ended up breaking up with him shortly afterwards.
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| Jenn and her husband Bryan |
God helped me realize a few months later that I was doing all the decision making again, so I prayed for God to bring into my life the man that He wanted me to be with. Until that man came around I made a commitment to date God. 6 Months later I met Bryan. Our dads knew each other from previous work-related situations, and when his son was baptized at the church I was going to/still go to (West 5th Bible Chapel), I definitely took notice of him. He was shy, laid back, and CUTE! We started talking at church functions, including a family BBQ of a friend of ours. After a few months we started dating (officially). I knew a few weeks into our relationship that God had chosen this man for me, and that He had chosen a wonderful, caring, respectful man for me to spend my life with. On our 1 year anniversary, Bryan took me down to Long Island New York where his grandparents live and asked for my hand in marriage on the beach. Because he knew that New York is my favorite place, and that I love the beach. He is such a godly man, and I am the luckiest woman in the world.
I trusted God and it paid off. We are preparing to celebrate 2 wonderful years of marriage together in a few weeks, and looking forward to expanding our family by one in the next little while, just waiting on God's timing. In the 15 years that I've been a Christian, I've never felt closer to God than when I read my Bible with my husband before we go to bed, knowing that this marriage is a match made in Heaven, crafted by God's own hands, and that we have no fear that we'll come up against something we can't handle. God will be with us every day of our marriage. The good days and the bad days, and the days that we just can't wait to end. My advice to anyone who is still reading is to trust God and leave all the consequences to Him. He knows what He's doing, and He can see our pasts, presents and futures in the same glance. Nothing throws God off guard, and we can take that to the bank.
[Thank you so much for the few testimonies we have recieved up until now. I plan to continue to put a testimony up from now until the end of the summer (unless we get many more in which case I will go on into the fall)-- If you would like your testimony featured one week, please email breezy_218@hotmail.com and I would love to get you set up with a place to share your story!]
Thanks for sharing Jen.
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