This is a long post but worth reading.... thanks if you choose to do so, you will be blessed!!!!
My family moved to our current home two and a half years ago. We left SC and moved back to Ga for my husbands job. We were not thrilled to move back but put our trust in God that he had a reason. These last two and a half years have been the hardest years of my life. We were miserable, we missed our friends, old neighborhood, church and just the old town itself. We had lived there for 16 years and had our babies there. There was a lot of good memories made there.
We were very involved in our church in our old town and loved it so much. Finding a church home has been the hardest thing to do since moving. To be fair, up until recently, we have not really given it a fair chance. We visited a few churches but never felt "welcome". We knew we should be in Church but never tried that hard.
Recently, things have been getting progressively worse in our family as a whole. We could tell that the kids attitudes and our attitudes where changing....not for the better. We knew what we needed to do but had no idea what church to visit. We had hear about a little church called Bethany Baptist Church but it was about 20 minutes from our home. Our old church was 2 minutes from our home so we were spoiled. My husband has a friend that lives near Bethany and decided to call to see if that is where his family goes and sure enough it was. We met his friend the next Sunday at church. From the moment I walked into that church, I could feel the presence of God. It was amazing. And...... people were actually glad we were there! We had so many come up to us and welcome us and invite us back. We have been going for a month now and even go on Wednesday night. It is awesome!
Last night the preacher and youth director came by for a visit. It was a wonderful visit! My kids had asked Jesus into their heart several years ago but when the preacher asked them both it they knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that if they died tonight that they would go to heaven~ they both said " NO, sir" . He told them both to sit next to him and he began to share with them how they could know. It was the sweetest, most beautiful thing I had ever seen.... besides them being born....but know they were being born again! To see my babies sitting with that preacher on our sofa talking with them about Jesus. Priceless!
My husband and I both were a blubbering mess.... the preacher and the youth minister were the sweetest things. They have such compassion and love for people. We were a changed family when the left!
This Sunday, my kids are going to go down in front of the church and will be baptised in a few weeks. My husband and I are going down with them and are going to going the church as a family. I could hardly sleep last night! Praise God! We have found a church home and most importantly, my children have accepted the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ!!!!
2 comments:
What an incredible blessing! Praise the Lord! I look forward to the day when my children ask Jesus into their hearts and choose to live their lives for Him...that will be the most precious thing!
Oh what a blessing! There is just such peace and joy knowing that your children know the Lord!
Before my hubby became a pastor we visited this one church and stayed for three months but never really felt connected or at home there. The people just didn't seem very friendly. Oh, they were friendly enough on Sunday but we weren't making any friends.
We left for a year and then tried it again, and this time determined to "stick it out."
We stayed and stuck it out and got to know some of the people and discovered that they were very nice and loving. And we felt really at home there.
I think sometimes it just takes awhile to "warm" up. We were just used to our old church where we knew everyone, and people invited us out afterwards.
Once we got to know people, they invited us over or we invited them over and our families became friends.
What you learn, being the newcomer, is to be welcoming and open to new people who visit, wouldn't you say?
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