When I started to go to church, I was 4 years old. It was a small Southern Baptist Church off of Hatcher and Central. It has since become a Spanish church but I don't know the religion. My mom, brother and I would attend Sunday mornings and Sunday night church. Sunday mornings you would dress in your Sunday best clothes. We would sometimes have pot-lucks and enjoy some delicious food while visiting with the church members. Sunday morning church was Sunday School and then Big Church. Big Church, as I called it, was sometimes long and boring. I mean who wouldn't have a hard time understanding when you were only 4 years old. I remember all of the stories in the Bible being taught to us but never knew there was so much more to the Bible then the stories. When in High school we attended Sunday morning, night and Wednesday night church. I started going to the youth group in High school.
We had a very small youth group, maybe 15 of us, more or less through out the years. I went to church camp and on one of those visits I accepted Christ into my heart. I was afraid to make this commitment because I had asked my parents if I could be baptised and my dad told me no. So going against my dad's wishes, when they had the alter call, I went to the front of the congregation and confessed I was a sinner and asked Jesus to live in my heart. Someone prayed with me and I had the most spiritual experience after making that choice.
What I didn't know, they sent the pastor of your church information on your commitment and then he sent a letter to your parents about that commitment and wanted to make arrangements for you to be baptised. I was so scared when my mom came in with that letter. You see I didn't go against my parents in most things so that was a huge thing when she came in with that letter. My mom talked to my dad and I was later baptized.
After making my commitment to Christ I was on fire and wanted everyone to know how much God loved them. Unfortunately, I had no guidance on reading my Bible, prayer and your walk with Christ. I went to church faithfully, sang in the choir and made church my whole life, until I turned 18. I thought the church was too small and not enough young people so I wanted to find a different church to hopefully bond with a group my age. I remember singing to the congregation, Friends by Michael W. Smith the last Sunday that I attended Central Heights.
When I left Central Heights, I started to church hop. I started to work at Berean Christian Bookstores around 20, it was at the time located off of 35th Ave. and Bethany Home. There was a church right by it called First Southern Baptist Church of Phoenix. It was a big church and lots of young people attended. I joined the choir and went to the services, but never really made connections with anyone. I also joined a church called Palmcroft Baptist Church. When attending there, I had a boyfriend who died and just couldn't attend Palmcroft anymore because of his not being there.
I stopped going to church when I married my first husband. He was Catholic and I being Southern Baptist, well let's say it was not a good mix. I remember our going to North Phoenix Baptist Church, but we didn't attend for that long nor were we praying together as a couple or trying to live the life as a Christian.
I had my daughter in 1992. My husband and I were not doing well in our marriage and started to do counseling with the Pastor who married us in 1989. We went to a couple of sessions together but after talking to the Pastor, he felt I needed counseling on my own. When our daughter turned 14 months old, my husband came home and told me he wanted a divorce. I continued to go to church on my own so I could still receive the counselling.
A year after my divorce I met a man at work. He seemed to be a Godly man and he introduced me to another church closer to my new home. It was a non-denominational church, I don't remember the name right now but it was off of 27th Ave. between Peoria and Cactus in a business center. I had Veronica dedicated to the Lord there. I stopped dating my friend and left that church to start attending Royal Palms Baptist Church. My daughter and I attended that church for awhile, she was even Baptised at that church.
I met my now husband at work. He never attended church but said he believed in God. I stopped going to church because of our dating and his not going to church, I put him first before God. When I quit my job at Ping and started to work at the school, one of my teachers invited me to Bible Study. I went to her Bible Study for a year and then started to attend CCV. I asked my husband to visit with me and he did! I've been attending for 9 years now. There has been some months that we didn't attend at all. It's hard when your husband isn't a Christian to keep dedicated in going every weekend.
Since attending CCV, I've grown in the Lord. It's sad to say I didn't really read my Bible until about 7 years ago. I did the read the Bible in a year and I have to say that was the best year of my life. I was dedicated to prayer and reading my Bible. I also read the Purpose Driven Life that challenged me to dig deeper in my relationship with Christ.
I've learned something in the church service a couple of weeks ago. God will not give you something big until you take care of the small thing that he has given you charge of. My call has been to pray and I hope that I'll be trusted to have something bigger to make a change in people's lives.
I'm at most peace with the Lord when I experience the outdoors. I love to pray when the sun is first rising and how calm and quite it is. I can feel a slight breeze and feel it's God joining me in our conversation together as I pray to him. The birds are singing and it's so calming.
I feel the Spirit of God when I'm around people. There is this feeling that comes over me and sometimes, I'm almost blown over by the Spirit. I've prayed that I would be sensitive to the Spirit but never new that what I was praying for would be so intense. My daughter V had a Bible Study in our home for a year. The group leader came in one night and I felt God's Spirit so strongly that I wanted to cry and I was shacking. When I'm in my small group and we are interpreting what we read and I feel that I need to say something, it's sometimes hard because I want to cry.
But there are also times I don't feel God. And at those times, it's so lonely. I have to dig deeper in my relationship with Him. I know that there are trials and during those times, I know there will be blessings. My heart wants everyone to know God's love. We are in the end times and Jesus' return is approaching.
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