I’ve been asked to share my Faith Story. Where does a Faith Story begin? Does it start when you finally receive Jesus Christ as your Forgiver? Does it begin when you first come to church? Or does it really start, even before you learn about God? I definitely believe that God began to work in my life long before I knew anything about him. So I will begin there.

Three years ago, at the start of 2003, I was a messed up kid. I didn’t do drugs or get drunk, but I was lost, and angry, and depressed. I was so alone, and I felt so ignored, that I would do anything to get noticed.

This was the mindset that led to the biggest mistake of my life. I was 13 years old, and I started dating an older guy. This wasn’t a smart move on my part. But at that time I thought this person was God-sent. I thought everything was going to be different because of him. For the first time, I had hope. But at the end of three months, when the relationship ended, I was far worse off than before I started. I was broken. I cried every day. I literally made myself sick.

It was then that a true friend came into my life. One time I was talking to this friend, and we started talking about church. That’s when this friend invited me to come to Faith Covenant one Sunday.

I decided to go since I had nothing else to do at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday. My family didn’t care one way or the other, and so I came. I walked into the building with little hope of change.

I found people here saying that God could change your life. At first I fought the change. I wanted my life to stay “normal,” even though I had no idea what “normal” really was.

It took me almost a year to figure out that my fighting was useless. I broke again. But this time it was a good break, a comforting break. Within a week, I had accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. He became my Forgiver and Leader, and I gained a sort of emotional peace.

My life is far from perfect, and at times I slip, but there is no way I could go through this world without God here around me. For me, life without God was empty. I had tried clinging to this physical world, but I ended up beaten and broken.

Nothing has been the same since either of those two events in my life. But I must say, from the second event—receiving Jesus Christ as my Savior—my life has been more peaceful.