where it all began

I grow up in a Christian home. As a child we attended the local Anglican Church. I loved the old building with its moss stained stone path, stained windows and hard wooden pews. But that is where it ended. I hated sitting still forever and the smell of incense the alter boys burnt. And after church, when we got home, we usually got a hiding for not sitting still, but next Sunday we would get up at 6 again, get dressed in the itchy grey dress with white knee high socks and sandals and go again. I don’t think I ever rebelled against going, its something you had to do. Like brushing your teeth at lest 4 times a week.

Then when I was about 12 my parents started going to another church. The Apostolic Faith Mission, all of a sudden everything changed. It’s like going from listening to classical music to listening to hard rock music. Out went the itchy grey dress and hard wooden pews and thankfully stinky incense. We could wear pants and clap hands and they even had a set of drums. While the pastor was preaching the people would shout stuff out like HALLALUJAH!! And GLORY!!! Wow! But something still remained; we still got in trouble for not sitting still and keeping quiet in church. How unfair I thought, the other people jump up and shout in church but I’m not allowed to whistle.

I thought I was going to heaven, I go to a Christian church and learn about Jesus and sit still and listen. I was wrong. Then one day my Sunday school teacher came to visit me at home, I think I was sick or it was my birthday, which I can’t remember. She asked me if I knew who Jesus was; I said yes, I learned about Him in school and at church. She asked if I’ve invited Him to live in my heart. What? He would never fit in there. But she explained that I must invite Him to be in control of my life, and she explained how He prayed for my sins by dying on the cross. So I asked Jesus into my life and I asked Him to forgive my sins and help me to do the right thing. A couple of months I got baptized and that is where it all began.