For the first time in years, I start the New Year with hope and peace. I have been in church all my life, active at every level. For years, though, I was living in pain attending church. I was so hurt that I became closed, hardened and just wanted to give up. I stopped going to church about a year. I would listen to ministers on the internet or watch a Christian program, but I separated myself from the "organization" of church.

I knew in my heart that not being apart of local church was not healthy and more importantly not something that I should be doing with my children. At the beginning of 2008, I started a prayer journal. One thing that I put on my list of goals for 2008 was to find a church home. In February of 2008 I had my third child, and I knew that the most important thing for her life was to be raised as a Christian. In April, my family attended Olde Towne for the first time. What a difference this church has made.

At Olde Towne, we were welcomed and celebrated before we could get out of the car. The people were loving in a way that I had never experienced. The services are so God-centered and worshipful that I have began to let go of my fears and hurt. I learn something at each service and I constantly let go and grow in the things of God. At Olde Towne, I feel safe.

One of the greatest things that has happened over the past year is that I attended the 12-week Becoming Like Christ class. It forever changed my life. My bible reading and studying increased, my prayer life changed and matured and I bonded with the people in my class on a level of openness that freed me from being people centered and not Christ centered. I look in the mirror of the Word and I am changing into something that I love seeing in a glass mirror.

Olde Towne has restored my life in Christ by freeing me from religion and laying the pathway back to the relationship I had with God when I was first born again. I live daily in Christ, filled with peace, hope and a knowing that it is well with my soul.

CP