Kellie (new_birth):

Hmmm,this thread's getting a lil dusty,just want to keep it going!As for the newbies,I was previously known as ''mom04byst'' and "fruitfullvine5"

Since I post here pretty much daily what I am about to post is nothing new to you(the regulars)but maybe someone who hasn't kept up can be encouraged,even if it's just over something little!The day I found out I was pg(2 days after Spring ) I was riding home after dropping off dc at school and i heard the voice of the Lord say ''this is your Jessica''!Even though God had given me a prohetic dream that I was gonna have a daughter and that she is gonna have a special calling,I still in my flesh had a little doubt that I was carrying a girl!

I immediately began to pray for a healthy child and a healthy uncomplicated pgy,labor, and delievery!My last pgy, labor, and delivery left a bad taste in my mouth and I felt like I had been cheated!I had complete placenta previa which led to an emergency c/s at 32 weeks!I was put under and my dh was not there to see him be born!I wanted this time to be totally different!At my 15wk u/s there was no sign of previa,but a fibroid did appear(no biggie,I had no worries about it they are common but can pose problems) I do remeber praying that it would shrink away!I HAD ANOTHER u/s about a month later only to find that I had a marginal previa,and the dr's were concerned I may have an accreta(scar tissue attaches to other organs requiring a hysterectctomy,excessive blood loss e.t.c.!In my flesh I was scared,but in my spirit I had peace!

I was told I had a 25% chance of accreta/previa,BUT God spoke and said,''You have a 75% chance of not having it,which is greater'?'!He always gave me a word when I was facing ''dr's statistics''!At each u/s there was not another sign of the fibroid!I mentioned to the tech's that it probably shrunk and they said they usually don't shrink,bc during pgy they get bigger(bc of excess estrogen)but they didn't know what I did...that God had answered prayer!Then at my 34wk u/s to make sure the placenta had moved we found out jessica was oblique breech/diagonal!I thought to myself what next as I was determined to have a vaginal,natural delivery!During the next few weeks she'd flip flop keeping me on the edge!The perinatologist suggested the name of another ob in my clinic that had more experience and who had practiced ob longer than the one I was seeing!I changed dr's bc I wanted to have a version(turn baby manually)done and my ob was a doll but didn't have much experience!Looking back I see how God orchestrated everything!I ended up not needing a version,as she was head down,just not centered(altough on the u/s she appeared to be)

Make a long story short,after laboring for nine hr's(w/ virtually NO PAIN!) stalling at 4cm, we made the decision to go w/ a c/s!I broke down and cried,it was the weakest moment in my pgy!I blamed myself for being induced two weeks early(dr's orders to catch baby head down)instead of waiting and trusting God!Thank God I had the most experienced dr do my c/s as my uterus was rotated to the right,which made it impossible for her to come down the birth canal,I also lost a litre of blood which they got under control!I had these complications bc of much scarring from my last c/s,the scarring caused my uterus to shift!

About a week later I had 2-3 dreams in a row that I was still pg and went into labor and had to have an emergency c/s!I feel this was God's way of telling me had I went in on my own that would have been the outcome(similar to #4)I beleive God had me face my worse fear to show me I could overcome!

Even tho she didn't come the way I wanted her,I still have fond memories of the c/s(somethin i never expected)
When she cried for the first time,it was music to my ears,and whEn dh brought her to me and put her face against mine it felt like heaven!God can teach us many things thru ONE experience,and he did just that!!My faith and trust will always remain,even when *my* plans don't!


I was thinking yesterday how God really showed himself to me during this last pgy!My fourth pgy I had complete placenta previa(had to have emergency c/s at 32weeks)

Kellie

Kathryn (Kathryn2inIll )

here is mine since I never got around to doing it before


I grew up in an athiest home. I was told the only logical explaination for us being here was by aliens. : I always felt a longing for soomething more though. I tried astrrology, tarrot card, other worse things. It was never right though. I had a few people in my life show up & try to explain God but I never got it. Then I met my dh 9 years ago. Then I met his family, & more important his Aunt! (she is who I call mil) Anyway I thought she was a bible thumping nut when I met her.er But she was always open to questions I had & was always willing to start talking about Jesus. (I had never heard of him before) after a couple of years she lent me a bible & I started reading it. Then I got my own. When My dd was just a few motnhs old alone with my bible in my hand I ask Jesus to save me. ray I didn't do much growing as a Christian until another 2 years later when we moved to Il. Then I met wonderful people who invited me to church.er2 From there I joined a small group & got more involved & learned more & more. I have changed churches this year but am getting involved there too. A couple of weeks ago I made a public dedication to Jesus by being baptised. anana What an awesome experience. I still want to cry thinking about it!

Jessi (GeoJessi)

Kathryn. What a great testimony. I can't believe I haven't posted mine yet, so here it goes...

I grew up going to the Methodist and Lutheran church (when we actually did go to church), and I was baptized (sprinkled) as an infant. Just before I turned 15 I started going down the wrong path. I dated around a lot. I even did drugs for a short period of time. I fell into a deep depression, I was way too serious with my boyfriend, and everything closed in on me one afternoon after school. I took 80 asprin and was seriously sick all night. I remember sitting in my bathtub thinking that I was going to die. Thanks be to God a friend of mine called and I told her what I did. She made me promise that I would tell my mom, which I didn't do. Thanks be to God again, this friend realized that I wasn't at school the next morning and she called her mom and called the police. I was admitted to the hospital for a couple days and that was the end of it. To this day nobody in my family even talks about it. So, anyway, I stopped doing drugs, but I turned to drinking and partying. I started hanging out with new friends and we were obsessed with finding a party and guys. That was the path my life was going down when I graduated high school.

While my friends stayed home to go to community college or the university in town I left to go to the University of Nebraska in Lincoln (a hour away). I met John the day after I moved to Lincoln, and it was pretty much love at first sight. He had some issues of his own, but we both agreed that we wanted better things for our lives. We both believed in God and believed Jesus was our Savior, we just weren't living our lives for Him. In Oct '99 (2 months after we met) we were engaged. On Christmas day '99 I found out I was pregnant with Christian. While it was unplanned we were both very excited about the pregnancy. We got married a month after Christian was born by the Justice of the Peace. (I still plan on having a big wedding one day ) The first few months were pretty bad. We fought a lot, were strapped financially, lots of things. Things weren't always bad though.

When Christian was 2 months old we moved to Omaha (where I was from in the first place) and John got a new job. At this job he met a guy named Chris who was a Christian. John and I were still wanting to get our lives on the right track at this point so he asked Chris if he wanted to start a bible study. We did a bible study with him and his wife and another couple for a year or so. Soon after we started the study we visited their church and have been there ever since. I LOVE our church and the people there! In May of 2000 John committed his life to the Lord and was baptized. I was still struggeling with the fact that I believed I hade already been baptized when I was a baby. I studied it, prayed about it, was hasseled about it by dh (I love you, hon), but still couldn't decide. I finally prayed "God make it very obvious to me whether you want me to be baptized again or not." and He did. The next Sunday at church a friend of mine came up to me crying. She asked if I had been baptized yet. I told her no and she kept crying. She said she felt like she had failed God, because the week before He started telling her to tell me that He loves me and wants me to commit my life to Him, but she didn't tell me right away. I figured it couldn't get much more obvious than that, so I was baptized, by dh, that Wednesday (a few weeks after he was baptized).
That leads me to now. I am trying to live my life for God, and I am finding it to be easier and easier all the time. At first it was so hard to give certian things up, but now it doesn't seem so hard all the time.

That is my novel, I mean testimony.

Crissi (Crissi2)

I have called myself a Christian all my life. I was baptized into the Catholic religion, and my parents used to drag us to this church where we would sit there and be bored while the priest dragged on about who knows what. I was only a child, and found it hard to listen. I just know there were times to stand, times to sit, times to kneel. The priest would say something, and we would reply something in unison. We all said the same prayer outloud, and sang the same hymns, many of them not making sense to me as they weren't in english. At any rate, they were just words in a book, not words from the heart. I believed that by knowing who Jesus was, and believing he was God, there was a space for me in Heaven. I did not know it was possible to have a personal relationship with God, or actually feel him in my life. God was hardly metioned outside of the house, so I grew up ashamed of religion and believing in God.

When I met my future husband, he was very Christian, and was fortunate enough to have experienced churches outside of the catholic faith. He insisted I should go with him sometime, but I always resisted. I had never known any non-catholic church, and just assumed that all churches were boring and unfeeling, full of people who you would never say hello to in any other setting. I was still going to church at this time because of my parents. But once I moved out, I stopped going altogether. Dh also had been distancing himself from being a practicing Christian. Throughout the years, I spradically prayed to God, though I hardly felt him, and DH explored new religions and becamse multi-religious. He stopped believing Jesus was the son of God. He insisted Jesus was merely a prophet, no more than men like Muhammad or Ghandi. I worried, but not so much since I was barely religious myself. We got married in a very nonreligious ceremony with a non-denominational pastor, with no mention of God in our ceremony.

When my daughter was 2, I started feeling something pulling me to find a church and find God. I did find a great church, but because I knew no one at all, as I was new to the area, I didn't give it a fair chance. It wasn't until my son was born that I returned to church. By now I was living again in my hometown, and an old friend introduced me to her foursquare gospel church. I started going regularly, bawling at each service. I never knew such emotions could evolve. I went every Saturday night with my two children while DH stayed home. He was very negative about the church, and was not shy to say so. Still I pressed on, never voicing my wishes for him, but praying silently to God. I began getting more involved, and learned so much about God, and how to have a personal relationship with him. After our unborn son died last year at 32 weeks, I had God and the church to turn to, while DH had no one. For 6 months he went through hell. I had a hard time too, but he was alone in his pain because he did not have Jesus in his heart. Finally, I talked him into going with me. For weeks he promised, but he kept putting it off. I remained calm, and never pressured him, only prayed. I made it clear to him that his decision to come to church would be his own. I didn't hide that I would be thrilled if he came, but I didn't pressure him at all. He finally promised our daughter, and knew he couldn't break a promise to her. He came, but only after telling me that I shouldn't expect anything, and to never expect him to come again. Well, he cried at that service, especially when the pastor himself told him in the middle of his sermon that he had been praying for him. He began going regularly, and is now commited to the church family. And he is a devoted Christian.

I am hoping this testimony will give hope to those of you who are praying for your husbands, or other family members. The power of prayer does work!

Thank you for reading, and giving me this space to tell my story!

Dawn (DawnDylan)

Hi! It's me again. I figure if I want to get to know you all better, I better start here with me!!

I was brought up in a broken home. My parents divorced when I was 7 years old. At that time my Dad turned to the church for help and guidance. My mom had left us (my 3 sisters and I) to be raised by him. We actually started going to church when I was 5 but Dad wasn't too involved then, I think it had alot to do with the relationship he was in with my mom. Anyway I remember going to church at that young age. it was so much fun. The older ladies in the church kinda took my sisters and I in and really had an impact with our lives. I accepted Jesus as my Savior when I was about 9 years old.

It was a good thing to have a church to look for guidance. As a young child things were kinda hard outside of church. My sisters and I were being raised by my dad only and so we weren't the most well kept kids. We often wore clothes that were tattered and our house wasn't very clean. Other children often teased us and that was hard to deal with. But the people at church were very nice. Some of the ladies would pull us aside and ask if they could fix our hair. Some of them gave us clothes from their own children. Once a girl a couple of years older than me asked if I thought that was embarassing and I remember telling her that it was nice for someone to show me how to fix my hair and give me nice clothes. It kept some of the kids at school quiet for a day or two.

As I grew up, I learned to take care of myself better. We moved to a new school district so I was able to get away from the kids that teased alot. But unfortunately, my new friends weren't the kind of people I should have been around. I knew better at the time but I was just happy to have friends that I didn't care what they were doing. I started experimenting with drugs, drinking, partying and sex.

I met a man during my senior year, he was 10 year older than me. He bought a business in So Dak and I moved with him. My life went down the dumps again. I was very unhappy and getting pretty depressed. I lived with him for 4 years and one night I thought to myself that the devil was working wonders in my life and I needed a change. I told my boyfriend what I needed to change and that We would have to get married to make those changes. He refused so I moved back to MN to claser to family. I met my husband, Kevin, through my youngest sister. He husband and Kevin were best friends. Kevin and I started dating and even though it wasn't the best christian relationship we seemed to be meant for each other. We got married and had our first 2 children. We both started talking about having the boys babtized and went to the church that I grew up in. We talked with the pastor one Wednesday night and that conversation really changed our lives. Kevin accepted Jesus as his savior and we started attending church on a regular basis. Instead of having the boys babtized, we had them dedicated as is the custom in our church. Kevin was happy with this church and because I knew so many people already, we really felt liked we fit in and we were very welcomed.

We have grown alot since then but we have alot of growing to do still. We do deal with the reprocussions of having a siful relationship before we got married. I was pregnant when we got married. We believe that we are living a better life now and are very active in the Church. Our children love church and it is great to see so many of the people that I grew up with still attending the same church. Alot of them have children of their own and my children are growing in Christ with them. I am the Sparks director for our Awana program. Kevin is a Sunday school teacher and a game leader for Awana.

God has belssed us with 4 beautiful and healthy children and we praise Him for that everyday! God is Love. It fills my heart to hear our 2 year old say (try to say) the Lord's Prayer!!


Well this is pretty long, Thanks for reading this far!!

Sharon (Raysnroof)

Living a life for Jesus creates not just one testimony, but many. I will start with the story of how I came to live for His truth daily. There was never a day I remember that I did not know Jesus was real. He was Who He said he was. He was victor, king, son of God, the slain and risen sacrifice for our sins. I was raised in a Lutheran family and was faithfully taught that God's word was true. When I was 14, I was "confirmed" in the Lutheran church. It was more than a ceremony for me. I asked God to show me HIS ways, not just the beliefs of a denomination. I asked Him to lead me and cause me to grow in Him. I asked Him to forgive my friends who all told me that was just something they did to please their parents. It was a real promise for me. I even asked that if I was wrong in any of my beliefs, He would lead me to the truth in His bible. I became unfaithful but he remained faithful. I had lots of trust but very little understanding. I was taught bible stories and bible truths but I did not learn much straight scripture. I never attempted to learn on my own what I was not taught by others, either. This allowed me to beleive lots of what friends were telling me. I incorporated lots of garbage into my beliefs, including the strange notion that premarital sex was OK if I was commited to that person. The more I allowed nonscriptural ideas to run my life, the more it spiraled. Years passed and at the young age of 21, I finally found myself miles away from my family and living with an atheist I had met in college. I decided I needed to be as far away from God and my family as I could be. (Thankfully, you can't run from God!) I was borrowing his truck to go to two different churches and out of kindness, he let me, but he wasn't about to come with me. That was a waste of time to him but he never said that to me. One of the churches was a Lutheran church that felt comfortable because it was what I knew. The other church taught scripture which was what I was hungry for. I continued that lie until it was so heart-wrenchingly uncomfortable that I had to agree that I had made a mess of the life Christ had given me and He alone could straighten it out if I lived in the kind confines of His law. People at the other church cared for my spiritual well-being so deeply that they asked peircing questions. Finally, out of nowhere, Mike said these words to me: "Sharon, you are siting on the fence." That woke me up! I had only heard that phrase in churches and Mike had never set foot in the doorway of any church! He said I should wake up and start living one way or the other: for him and his friends or for "church" and all that stuff. It was as if I found myself flat on my back looking up. I mustered up all the strength I could find and told Mike I had to leave him because I had to choose to live for Christ. I loved Mike dearly and, to this day, I still pray for him but this was what I knew I had to do. Christ could only be one of three things. He was a liar, a lunatic, or He was Lord. If He was Lord, why was I not living for Him by the Word of God left for me? The question gripped my heart tighter than any other love I could have. I was hundreds of miles from my family and anyone I knew and yet I was leaving the man I came to that city to be with. I did not even have a car. I knew nobody except his friends, folks at work, and the few people I barely knew from the churches I went to. God gave me an apartment just within walking distance of my teaching job and a ride to the Lutheran church. I did not know anyone at the other church well enough to ask for a ride so I agreed when the first offer was extended. I loved to roller skate and needed some sort of recreation. I was amazed to find that the skating rink just down a block further from the school I taught at had a "Christian" skate night. The other nights left me with a terrible ache because the music and the lifestyles I saw reminded me too much of what I had left to follow Christ for real. Suddenly, I had Christian friends my age to support me and encourage me to live by His word. It seems I had always known Who Christ is but not always known what living for Him means. God gave me more than I could have known to ask for. Later, I appologised to Mike for giving him such a terrible example of a Chistian and I told him how his words had impacted me. Get this: He said he never said that! Could I have been given a dream so vivid that I thought it was real? Did God simply use Mike to say those words (Hey, if he can cause a donkey to talk...) and then strike it from his memory? I will never know. I do know this, though, God loves me an awful lot to take what was unholy and, by His grace through Jesus, make me holy.

Draino is a great product but if you do not follow the directions, you can get badly hurt. Life is that way, too. God has the answers for how Christians (you need to be right with God through Christ, first) can live life without getting harmed by it (This doesn't mean life is free from hurt, but that is for another testimony.) and He provided the guidance through His Holy Bible and Holy Spirit and He provided a way to His Holy presence through the sacrificial death and conquering resurection of His Son, Jesus. That is the true definition of "Awesome!" My life is an awesome testimony of what God desires for every person. He has already set forth His will in His word and now He desires us to live that will and share the Gospel of peace with others. How radical and yet how simple!
Amen!
In His Grip,
Sharon in KS

Amanda (Mamma2Miriam)

I have so many testimonies of the way God has worked in my life. It would be a book to tell them all, so I will tell just a little of where I am now.
I asked Jesus to be my Savior at 7 years old, after that he has worked so much in my life. I have had wonderful times, trying times and even times when I just down right rebelled, however I always come back to the same thing. Jesus is the the only way to go!!!
My husband and I lost a baby in November 2002. It was one of the most trying times in my life. I tried turning away, I tried anger, then I just listened. I learned that worry had become a way of life for me and even more so after the loss of my baby. I worried about money, our future and every thing inbetween. After the loss of the baby I worried that I would never get pregnant again or that I would never have a living baby. I just knew everyone in my life would eventually leave or die. I was terrified everyday to let my husband go to work I just knew he would die and never come home. God dealt with my worry and I now have much better control over it (at least as long as I pray about it!). It turned out that I needed that control because my husband decided that God was calling him to become a Police Officer. The old me would have worried all the time about his safety and brought strain into our marriage. Yet, because of all God has shown me I don't worry. I know Rob's future and his day to day life are in God's hands. All I can do is pray and watch God work in his life.
God has blessed us with a beautiful little girl. The Devil tries to get me worried about her a lot. God and I are working on that now, but I am much better than I would have been if all of this happened 2 years ago!

So, that is my testimony. I wrote a book anyway!! I know I am really going to enjoy this board!!

Emily (em4more)

I grew up in a Christian home with parents who lived by what they believed. . . They weren't judgmental, encouraged us to love everyone, but they also taught us that we didn't have to tolerate every behaviour in the world in order to show that we loved all people. Basically, they modelled God's unconditional love for all of humanity. (I'll get back to my parents' example in a moment. . . )

I made my own decision to be baptized at the age of 8 years. I grew up heeding God's word from the Bible, and it served me well. I was able to avoid peer pressure from all sorts of things, retained my virginity till marriage, put God instead of substance first in my life, and I believed in helping others before helping myself. My faith in Christ encouraged me to work hard, but it also gave me contentment in knowing that everyone is important and has a purpose, no matter where he or she is coming from, no matter what they've been through, no matter what has happened to them in their life. . .

Then I went to college, where I had my eyes opened to just how perverse the world can be and how being worldly can destroy a person, inside and outside, subtly and not so subtly. While I had been deeply convicted that being a Christian is what I ought to be and practice, I had retained something of the view that, "Hey, you do what you want! I won't say anything. . . "

But while in college, I saw things that really pushed me further into my Christian convictions. It was then that I realized just how different I was from others because of my Christian beliefs and practices. . . and yes, not to sound proud, but yes, following Christ had helped me avoid making very poor decisions that would have adversely affected my life and the lives of those around me. And when things did happen that weren't so happy and sinless in my life, Christ gave me the attitude and love I needed to get back to where I should be.

When I met my DH, he was not a Christian. I dated him anyway. While dating, he and I had many many discussions about politics and religion. . . He is extremely intelligent, mathematically and scientifically, and had a full scholarship to the university we attended (not bragging, but so you will understand my own test of faith). He was decidely liberal and agnostic. He was smart, hardworking, had some of the same social morals that I did (abstained from alcohol for different reasons than I did though, believed sex was only for marriage, etc.), but we did not see eye-to-eye on these religious and political issues. But we got along out of mutual respect, and thus, we ended up engaged!

My parents really loved him, but they admitted, in a very loving way, concern (esp. my father) that I was marrying a non-Christian. I admit that I had some reservations too, but I prayed and prayed about it. Despite my parents' feelings, I planned on marrying him anyway. And when I talked to my father about why, my father told me that he loved and accepted my future spouse, and he and my mother have NEVER EVER let me down in treating my spouse very well (better than they treat me at times ). My DH will tell you that they were not judgmental of him and that he has the best in-laws in the world.

Meanwhile, I had to contend with my own future in-laws. I became acquainted with my DH's family: "Good People", not practicing Christians although his folks will tell you they are because they were Christened at birth in a church, smart people, hardworking people, people who volunteer and work in their community, people who follow the rules of society and government. . . But I saw some very selfish discrepancies in their lifestyles that I had never seen in my parents' Christian lifestyle where it was taught that like Christ, we were supposed to put others before ourselves. For example, my FIL treats his wife with indifference, does what he wants (stays out late at bars and strip clubs with work colleagues), and yet she defends his actions even though she is obviously very insecure. . . Her insecurities have caused her to be very proud of herself and be very jealous and obnoxious to those she sees as a threat to her own self-esteem. I've seen my in-laws drunk. My FIL drives drunk. If they do something good for someone else, they are quick to tell you what they did instead of being humble. They are never to be held accountable or apologize for anything. My MIL has never been accepting of me, and often she openly puts me down.

In my life, I have observed the differences between practicing and believing Christians and those who say they are "good" but do not follow Christ. I've seen this in more than just in-laws and close friends, but there is a difference. And it just makes sense to me to follow Christ.

There is nothing scientific to prove the Truth. I really feel that it's something that one must try on in faith to find out for themselves. Certainly, there are individuals who have been jaded by their experience with "the Church", but being part of "the Church" and actually having a personal relationship with Christ are two totally different things. Any situation with another human being is bound to end up warped and not perfect because people are not perfect, but those who find themselves actually focusing on and having a believing and Biblical relationship with Christ will find that He doesn't fail them. You don't have to be perfect, you don't have to be smart, you don't have to be hopeless, you can be what you are, come to Christ, and find that you can stop seeking to fill the emptiness and hurt in your life because God will take care of it for you. You can get on with living instead of constantly questioning and seeking for those things that will never satisfy you.

By the way, my DH became a Christian a year and a half after we were married. I didn't force him to do so, and I never pushed it on him. He was able to distinguish a difference (some of which are very subtle) in the lives of Christians from the lives of those who were without Christ. Certainly, he still has questions about certain things, but he decided to try it for himself to see if it worked. And he found himself freed from a lot of things that had held him down for so long and that had affected his life (and our marriage) in negative ways. He feels that he is a better parent and citizen because he looks to God for answers instead of the world.

Of course, his own parents have really attacked us now. :dizzy So be it.