Personal Testimony – Raichel Ann C.

GCF-Halton Website, with consent (05.04.2019)

The Bible says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” That was what my parents did when they became born-again Christians. They brought me to church where I got to attend Sunday school and I also joined vacation Bible school with my cousins. I learned a lot about Jesus Christ in kids’ church and I enjoyed our song and dance presentations during Sunday services.

I believe the turning point in my Christian life was in my elementary years. I studied in a Christian school and was taught by Christian teachers about the Bible and how God loves us so much that He sent his Son, Jesus, to save us from our sins. Beyond the parables and Bible stories that I had learned in Sunday school, I came to know that accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior is the only way for me to have eternal life after physical death.

December 9, 1998 started routinely. I left for school in the morning then went straight home after. As usual, I was happily spending the night with my family when all of a sudden, I felt a strong desire to pray alone. I didn’t know what consumed me at that moment, but I strongly believe it was the Holy Spirit who urged me to go upstairs to my room, lock the door, and pray to God. I didn’t know what I was going to pray for, but I went ahead and prayed, and it was as if someone was telling me what I should say to God. I poured my heart out to God and cried for His forgiveness, I can’t even remember what I was asking forgiveness for. But I vividly remember how I asked Him to cleanse my heart and make me pleasing to His eyes, then the most important event in my life happened. I asked Jesus to be my personal Lord and Savior and for Him to reside in my heart as long as I live. I can clearly recall how I was crying hard when I said that prayer, and I believe it was because of utmost joy, knowing I had been saved from the penalty of my sins and that I could officially declare I had been born again.

Being a child of God didn’t give me everything I was praying for. Yet, now I can see more of what He has been doing in my life throughout the years. I am gradually learning to worry less of my “what ifs” and to always trust Him and His perfect will even if it’s beyond my understanding. I know that God’s plans for me are bigger than what I have for myself, and I realized that the more I am in full surrender to His will, the more He manifests His sovereignty and His perfect love for me. He has always been faithful to His promises despite the times when I am unfaithful to Him. Experiencing God’s goodness and faithfulness has taught me to place all my hope in Him and to commit to Him whatever I have planned in my life.

I don’t know what the future holds for me, but I do not worry because I have a faithful God who will never forsake me. As Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future,” I will always hold on to God’s promise when I made the decision to let Him into my life almost 20 years ago. I firmly believe that my hope is not in vain, for I am placing it on the one true God who is mighty enough to assure me of eternal life.

[Raichel obeyed the Lord in water baptism on January 20, 2019, at GCF-Halton, Oakville.)