It was a time...

It was a time in my life when I was questioning my purpose. There had been a lot of pain in my life when my parents divorced and my mother left us.  I thought that it was my fault that my mom left and if she couldn't love me who could?  I wondered if there was a God and why we were here?  I told God one day "If you are there please reveal yourself to me."

One day I was at the stove cooking something when I heard a voice. The voice told me "Go down stairs."  I went downstairs not knowing why I was going there and wondered what that voice was that I heard.  As soon as my foot hit the carpet at the bottom the voice said "turn on the TV."  I went and turned it on and watched 100 Huntley street.  The man on the TV was talking about Jesus and how he healed people and raised them from the dead.  Somehow these stories of Jesus touched me and made sense to me for the first time.  At the end of the program I said the prayer to accept Jesus in my life.  On my knees I cried and cried.  I could feel the presence of the holy spirit in my life for the first time ever.

A while later I had a desire to go to church. I was afraid to ask my Dad because I thought he would laugh at me.  I took the chance and asked him if we could go to church.  He thought it was a good idea. We went to one that one of his colleagues went to.  Here I learned how to pray and how to live the walk with Jesus.  One day when I was saying my prayers in bed a strange jumble of words and sounds came out of my mouth.  It scared me so I stopped praying.  I learned afterwards this was the gift of tongues.

That was 27 years ago.  I haven't always been faithful to Christ.  I have slipped away many times but he has been committed to me.  Right now he is using my 4 year old autistic son to sanctify me (but that is another story).

Marlene Lawrence 

Burnaby