My Testimony to faith: Pursuing Christ Through It All

           I was raised in a Christian household. Both my parents were Christians and they dragged us to church every week. I have three other brothers, two older and one younger. Despite being raised in a Christian household, one of my older brothers became involved in gang activity and drugs. I was young when he started doing these different activities, too young to understand how wrong the actions were. I looked up to my older brother despite the unwise actions.

            I was attending church every week and even going to youth group on Wednesday night. Even though I was doing all these different bad activities, I was in church. I had listened to the gospel presentation more times than I could count. Being homeschooled, and my father being a former youth pastor, my parents had studying the Bible as part of our education. Having God as part of my education and being forced to attend church twice a week was very annoying. Despite my annoyance for church and Bible while I was young, I put on a good face for my parents and church friends.

            All this changed when I hit the age of ten. My older brother was my role model but when I hit the age of ten, my parents sent him off to Teen Challenge. Teen Challenge is a Christian boot camp designed to help troubled kids get back on track. My brother was my role model so when they took him, I felt empty. I was not allowed to talk to my brother, even on the phone, for over a year. This left me feeling sad and empty as my parents decided to tighten their grip on us. Therefore, I was not allowed to hang out around the neighbors like I did before. This left me with only one place to find community, the church.

            After my brother was taken to Teen Challenge, I started taking the church seriously. At eleven years old, I had friends that led me to Christ and asked the youth pastor to pray the sinner’s prayer with me. Through my brother leaving, I felt alone and empty. I felt this deep sense of guilt because I saw the consequences that my life would have had if I continued down the path I was going. This caused me to meet the God of the universe and repent. When I repented, I changed my friends and many of my life habits. I actually started serving the church and helping out with different ministries. Even though I accepted Christ, I was serving out of guilt instead of love.