my testimony

Here's a copy of my testimony. I read this when I joined the church on March 9th. It's all truth-enjoy!
My name is Kristen Shuey, I’m 20 years old. I’ve lived in Ephrata my whole life and was raised in a Christian family. I am the youngest of three children. I grew up knowing Christian doctrine because I was raised in a United Methodist church. Although I was baptized at age 12, I never understood the personal relationship aspect of being a Christian until I was older.

At a young age, I was exposed to some tough family issues, including both my father’s cancer and my parent’s divorce. I began a real prayer life at age 12, when I started praying every night for my Dad while he was at Johns Hopkins University for cancer treatment. God proved his awesome power to me by healing my Dad of his lymphoma, and he has been in remission for 8 years. Later, my parents ended up getting divorced and I felt distant from God. I began attending Lancaster County Bible Church and realized that the circumstances I had been facing were not curses from God, but a result of our own human choices that God allows us because he loves us so much. Eventually, I also learned that these tough times were blessings in disguise, shaping me into who God wanted me to be. I’ve been coming to Ephrata Mennonite since my senior year of high school, and I’m now a sophomore English major at Lebanon Valley College.

I love it here because this is truly a welcoming and thriving church. I’m particularly pleased to see that Ephrata Mennonite has the Gen-X class for post-youth-group –aged people. I’ve grown so much through Gen-X and have made lots of awesome friends who push me to really utilize my leadership and teaching skills. I look forward to being a part of Ephrata Mennonite because your church has their priorities in perspective. This congregation is all about Jesus and is willing to step-out of their comfort zone to share God’s love. Most importantly, this church is not about manmade religion, but about relationship with God.