Hello my name is Liv, I am a junior at Jenison High School and I am here to tell my testimony of what God has done in my life. My life before Jesus was pretty dark, sad, and depressing. I didn’t know who I was or who I needed in my life either. I would sit in my bedroom completely black with nothing but sad music on bawling my eyes out. Looking back I’m not sure why I did that, but I know that I was lonely and didn’t feel like I could fit in with any groups at school.
Then as my sophomore season of basketball started I met Shelby because she was my coach. She invited me to Winter Camp and since then I’ve been going to any and every Youth For Christ event. I found out at Winter Camp that YFC was where I felt most myself and was bringing joy into my dark life. I was invited to YFC summer camp in Maryland and on the 4th night, they talked about the gospel. At that moment I realized I wanted to give my whole heart to the Lord because I realized that he died on the cross for us and has put things in my life with a purpose. At camp they have us go out and sit alone with God and talk to him ourselves. At that moment I was sitting by myself and thinking about how significant it is that God gave his one and only son to die for us so that we can live. It made me realize that because he died for me that he wants me to live and gave me purpose in my life so that I can live through his life!
The next day we were in worship and one of my favorite songs was being sung, Reckless Love. During the song I heard someone say my name, I honestly thought that I was in trouble so I turned to my leader Emma and said “What” but she was confused and so I turned to Shelby and asked “what do you want” Shelby had no idea what I was talking about. Turning back to Emma I explained that I heard someone call my name and she said
“What if that was God?”
The next thing that I heard was the song Glorious Day and the lyrics to the song were, “and you called my name, and I ran out of that grave”. I believe that at that moment God called my name to remind me that he is right next to me and I don’t have to be alone! I also believe that it was a reminder to live the life Jesus died for. After camp, I went with Shelby to get a bible and have been reading it ever since then. Honestly since saying yes to God how I see everything changed. We’ve gone through a book called Now that you are Born Again and it talks a lot about forgetting the old and living in the new. I think what has been the biggest change in my life is now I see everything through the lens of what God has done in my life and not what I have done. He has continued to show me that I can get through tough things because he is with me and continues to bring AMAZING people into my life to lead me to know God more.
Something that I am looking forward to is getting baptized and continuing to grow my relationship with God.