Hannah-Healed

I grew up in an atheist family and was taught from a young age that God was this made up thing to make people feel better about themselves. My parents never talked to me about God or religion but sent me to a private Christian school to get a better education.

In that school I was bullied a lot over any little thing that made me different from them, and that made me make the decision that if this is what Christians were like, then I never wanted to be one. In an attempt to fit in at my school I went to a summer camp that most of my classmates would go to and there I met Christians who were kind and genuinely wanted to be my friend. I experienced the presence of Jesus for the first time and I knew that He wasn’t a made up thing, and that He desired a relationship with me.

After camp I went back to my school and family and I didn’t know how to continue walking with Jesus without community. Any growth that had started quickly died, but I always knew that Jesus was real and was calling me to Him. When I came to college, I always knew I wanted to try to find a church since I would be away from my parents for the first time and didn’t have to worry about what anyone would think. The second week of classes I walked past a table and was handed a flyer for a church on campus that same night. I went to my first Chi Alpha service by myself and purposefully sat in the back to avoid talking to anyone, but a little bit after the service began a girl sat next to me. I thought this girl was crazy because she sat next to me even though the entire row was empty, she took notes during the sermon, and raised her hands in worship and I had never seen anything like, but later I learned that she wasn’t crazy but that she was so hungry to know who Jesus is and loved Him so much that she walked in obedience to Him.

 After service she introduced me to my small group leader and in small group, I experienced for the first time what a loving community truly is like and how to walk with God daily. I never had friends who truly cared about me until I found my small group who were willing to love me through hard things, ask difficult questions, and constantly direct me to Jesus in everything I did. I learned that God meets you where you are but loves you enough to take you further into your relationship with him. God completely healed me of any past hurt and replaced all my pain and bitterness with joy and His love and I now get to walk in freedom because of who He is and what he did on the cross for us.