Sharing

Are you shy or afraid of sharing your tesimony about coming to Jesus? It sometimes makes us feel uncomfortable and afraid of others mocking us. I've found the best way to share is to just tell my story of how I came to Him. It doesn't have to be an elaborate presentation with graphs and pie charts, just a heart felt sharing. It may seem that the other person gets absolutely nothing out of your chat but you never know what will happen down the road. If we plant the seed God will grow it. God bless! Karen

Hey Karen,
I am back finally.  I will gladly share my testimony. 

I was raised Catholic, and out of four kids, I was the only one of my brothers, sister, and me, to attend three years of Catholic school.  They all go to go to public school all 13 years of school.  In high school, I taught CCD classes for a while.  I was also in the church choir in high school.  I was constantly searching to be closer to God.  I rode my bike to confessions on Saturdays, and if I had a Bible, I would have read it.

In 7th grade, I made friends with Robin, a Christian who sometimes shared things in scriptures. I vividly remember sitting in lunch with her, and her sharing that she read in the Bible how when we die, our lives are reviewed, as if on a giant movie screen, for everyone to see.  She would invite me to her house after school, and her older siblings would drive me home.  My mother always refused to help me out in situations like that.

Then, in 11th grade, she invited me to go with her to spend a night at her sister's college.  It was a Christian school, and we slept on her dorm room floor.  That night, her sister shared the Gospel with me.  She told me that she believed that when she dies, it will be something like Jesus stands in front of us, draping us in His cloak, and Him telling God the Father that she is one of His, and her sins are covered in His blood.  This occurred in 1974.

Then, the following summer, my sister started going to a Baptist church, and the visitation team came to our home and witnessed to Mom and me.  I prayed the prayer of salvation, but refused to go to their church to "confess" I accepted the Lord in front of the entire congregation. 

I stayed attending the Catholic church, and also got involved in the 70s stuff of sex, drugs and rock-and-roll.  I also was molested by a man I babysat for, and had many problems with my parents, especially my Mother, to the point of being sent to live with relatives out of town. 

Finally, in my senior year of high school, my friend Robin, did not give up.  She kept inviting me to her church to hear the new pastor, and meet friends.  Since I sang in the Catholic church choir, I could not make the morning service, so I started to attend the Sunday evening services.  My last attendance at the Catholic church was Easter Sunday 1975. 

I met my ex that year, and we were married the following January.  We attended Bible teaching chapels during his four years of military service, and evengelical churches during the rest of our marriage.  My spiritual growth was limited by my mental health issues combined with my alcoholism.  After my husband left in 2001, I hit a turning point where I was ready to chuck God and Christians, but a dear friend gave me Jeremiah 29:11. 

In the past ten years, my commitment to the Lord, and growing in Him has helped me tremendously.  I got my graduate degree in Social Work, plus retired from my teaching job.

Hope this helps.

Hugs,
Trish

So glad you are back, I was starting to think I was talking to myself. I haven't posted the lasst few days, just waiting to see if anybody missed it. We've had a fairly similar back ground, I too got side tracked with the sex, drugs and rock n roll. I even got interested in Eastern religions like Budhism etc., sadly I learned more about Christianity from them than I did all the years I went to Sunday school. However God had other plans for me, He justed waited for me to catch up. I hope some others will chime in too.

I cannot tell you how happy I am to find a Christian Group!  I come before all of you after much thought and prayer in deciding to seek Lap Band surgery.
I was blessed and was raised in a Chrisitan home.  I accepted Jesus Christ as my Personal Lord and Savior when I was seven years old.  I am so thaqnkful for the foundation that small church gave me.
When I was in Jr. High I was in G.A's (Girl's Auxillary).  Wou church had a late start as we made our "steps" and because we were older, we got made fun of.  I dropped out of the group.  We did not attend church for a while and I am so happy that I had a strong foundation.  As a child of the 60's, I saw friends get in trouble with drugs, illecit sex and so on.  I cannot explain any of it except to say I had a STRONG conviction from the Holy Spirit and did not get into any trouble (Raise them up in the way they should go and when they are old, they shall not depart from it  Prov 22:6). 
I am 60 years old and God has been my guide and teacher.  His word is law.  I am thankful to each one of you, and thoughts and prayers are with you!!  I also ask for your prayers.  I see my surgeon for the first time 8/9.  I meet all of the criteria as far as BMI and co-morbidities go, but Tricare requires you to be 100 pounds over your ideal body weight.  As of today I am about 10 pounds shy of that.  My prayer is that if I do not make the weight requirement that the person *****views my case will have a soft heart and see that I am not seeking this for personal gain, but for future health.  Thank you all, humbly with all of my heart. 

Welcome Jeanne so good to have you join us. I have to give you a little warning about the lapband, it's so not what it's cracked up to be! I've had one for 3 years and honestly I wouldn't advise anyone to get one. It usually goes like this, great weight loss the first year, second year start having a few issues and finally around year 3 tightening starts and continues until many have to have it removed or like myself live with it unfilled for indefinately until I can hopefully figure out a way to get a revision to a different surgery. I wish I had known before how much scarring damage there is associated with the band. I would advise you to hang out on the band forum and to check out the failed band forum, the revision forum and the sleeve forum. It's surprising how many bandsters have revised to the sleeve. My own surgeon does all she can to discourage her patients from the band now and to go for the sleeve. She told me that about 1/4 of people never get a good restriction level and more than that have constant problems like mine where the band just tightens up for no apparent reason. I'm not trying to scare you but just letting you know things I wish I'd known before hand. I wish you the best on whatever surgery you have. Hope to see you here often!

Thank you so much for the information.  I am not sure if my insurance covers the sleeve.  I will ask when I see the surgeon.
Please keep me in your prayers as I start the journey God choses for me.  I am so happy that you all ar here and like I said, ever so happy to find a Christian Group out there or help and guidance. 
Love in Christ

I am 53 years old and got saved when I turned 50. I went to church briefly to an Assembly of God church when I was a kid. I got saved young, but I don't think I was really saved.

I lived life believing in God, knowing that I would go to hell had I died during those years, but it took me a LONG time to make the choice that I needed to come back to God.

I lived a very secular lifestyle and I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of. We have all sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. I sure have!

Jesus is my Lord and Saviour and without Him, I'd be nothing. His mercy and grace and forgiveness keep me going.

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