Post by Steph on Aug 27, 2009 17:25:18 GMT -5
Wow, I enjoy reading all the comments here
I grew up and was raised with Christianity. I don't know how it really is in all of the country's, but in The Netherlands there are sometimes very big diferrences between the christian groups and even within the groups or churches. When I was younger, my parents took me to the church where my grandfather was the pastor. I don't know how it's called in other country's, but here it's called "pinkstergemeente", wich can be translated to the Pentecost(church). There was a lot of talking about the holy spirit, Jesus, being reborn and getting baptised when you're reborn. As I grew up, my parents wanted more and felt that they were being held back at the church (wich basically just was literally our family) and went to look for other churches in the neighboorhood. That's how we've come to the church were we're in now, a baptistchurch. We finally found our religious home, because it's a warm community and I just basically grew up there and we have become family. But the church has now grown to about 1300 people, so it's really not that cosy as it used to be
When I was 12/13 years old, I really began to think about what I always believed, and began to doubt if it was true. We also learned about other religions at our school, so I was really interested in what others believed in. I also had a multi-religious group of friends around that periode so that was really a search for truth and peace for me at that moment.
But trough that search, I kept coming to the church every sunday, and I could not ignore the miracles that I saw happening. I also prayed alot during that time, to ask God to speak to me if he really did existed and wanted to talk to me. I've seen one major miracle happen, that had a great impact on my life. One of the best friends of my parents died because of braincancer, and he was in his 30's and left a wife and 4 children behind. We were very close with all of them, so it was a rough time for us too. At the day of the funeral his wife wrote in her diary that she begged God to help her raise her kids, because she couldn't do it alone. She specifically asked if she could get practical help, and if it must happen, meet another father for her children. And so it happend. She was filmed for a programm about families who lost familiemembers, and how they deal with that loss. After it has been aired, she recieved a letter from a man who lost his wife because she had cancer. And so they wrote, and talked with each other. First as friends because they had a lot of simmilarities. And later, the man was also filmed for the same programm, and so that's the first time she finally saw him (still on tv though). They eventually did meet in real life, fell in love and got married and now they have moved to the south of Holland and they do live together with 10 children (4 of the women, and 6 of the man's first marriage). I saw it all happen with my own eyes, and I could see how much faith they both had in God. I do believe that God lead them together, and that's the major thing why I started to believe that there must be a God.
Now, I am participating in a leadershipcourse at our church and I do a lot of work for evangelism in our city and I am going to intern for an organisation who prepares sportteams to tell about their faith all around the world.
I grew up and was raised with Christianity. I don't know how it really is in all of the country's, but in The Netherlands there are sometimes very big diferrences between the christian groups and even within the groups or churches. When I was younger, my parents took me to the church where my grandfather was the pastor. I don't know how it's called in other country's, but here it's called "pinkstergemeente", wich can be translated to the Pentecost(church). There was a lot of talking about the holy spirit, Jesus, being reborn and getting baptised when you're reborn. As I grew up, my parents wanted more and felt that they were being held back at the church (wich basically just was literally our family) and went to look for other churches in the neighboorhood. That's how we've come to the church were we're in now, a baptistchurch. We finally found our religious home, because it's a warm community and I just basically grew up there and we have become family. But the church has now grown to about 1300 people, so it's really not that cosy as it used to be
When I was 12/13 years old, I really began to think about what I always believed, and began to doubt if it was true. We also learned about other religions at our school, so I was really interested in what others believed in. I also had a multi-religious group of friends around that periode so that was really a search for truth and peace for me at that moment.
But trough that search, I kept coming to the church every sunday, and I could not ignore the miracles that I saw happening. I also prayed alot during that time, to ask God to speak to me if he really did existed and wanted to talk to me. I've seen one major miracle happen, that had a great impact on my life. One of the best friends of my parents died because of braincancer, and he was in his 30's and left a wife and 4 children behind. We were very close with all of them, so it was a rough time for us too. At the day of the funeral his wife wrote in her diary that she begged God to help her raise her kids, because she couldn't do it alone. She specifically asked if she could get practical help, and if it must happen, meet another father for her children. And so it happend. She was filmed for a programm about families who lost familiemembers, and how they deal with that loss. After it has been aired, she recieved a letter from a man who lost his wife because she had cancer. And so they wrote, and talked with each other. First as friends because they had a lot of simmilarities. And later, the man was also filmed for the same programm, and so that's the first time she finally saw him (still on tv though). They eventually did meet in real life, fell in love and got married and now they have moved to the south of Holland and they do live together with 10 children (4 of the women, and 6 of the man's first marriage). I saw it all happen with my own eyes, and I could see how much faith they both had in God. I do believe that God lead them together, and that's the major thing why I started to believe that there must be a God.
Now, I am participating in a leadershipcourse at our church and I do a lot of work for evangelism in our city and I am going to intern for an organisation who prepares sportteams to tell about their faith all around the world.