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