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All, you will never believe what I received today. Hanna sent me a letter and included a four-point tract. She had her personal testimony printed inside! I immediately wrote to a friend in Hungary and asked him to translate it for me. He sent it to me today and I was almost in tears when I read it. I went through this whole process with her (I am the Christian girl that she mentions meeting at the camp) and was overjoyed to read it from her point it view. Please enjoy and let it warm you heart like it did mine.

I grew up in a Christian family. I have known of God since my youth, and I knew many Bible stories, thanks to my parents. Yet I still wasn’t a Christian myself. How is that possible? I simply didn’t have a personal relationship with God. I didn’t know Him.

When I became a high school student a new world opened up to me. New people. New relationships. I decided to change. I no longer wanted to be a quiet student. I wanted to be the center of attention. Within a month I knew the entire school and everyone came to me if they wanted to know someone’s name. I enjoyed this position…for awhile.

There was only one problem. I didn’t have friends. What I mean is, I didn’t have real friends. I was a very surface-y person and didn’t try to get to know anyone.
Anyone I called a friend was really just an acquaintance. I didn’t have a true friend to whom I could tell anything. From whom I could ask for advice. I didn’t think of Christianity as a solution until the summer of 2006.

At the end of my freshman year I attended a Christian English camp. There something changed within me: I began to inquire after God. Because this was a Christian camp they talked a lot about Jesus and faith. Yet the biggest impact was the positive, radiating, easy attitude of my the camp leaders. I could see that they really loved one another and they loved the campers too.

I was sure that this kind of love only came from above and I wanted to experience it. I decided that I wanted to be a Christian. I wanted to belong to God’s family.
I still didn’t actually trust Christ in the camp, however. How is this possible? Why did I hesitate? The main reason was that I somehow didn’t feel that it was the right timing…I didn’t feel anything unique yet.

I began to meet from the fall onward with a Christian girl who I met at the camp. I began to talk about much with her regarding a relationship with Jesus and Christianity began to become more clear to me. Yet I still waited. I didn’t know why. I was waiting for something unique to happen to prove to me what should happen.

On a February afternoon we sat down to talk and I learned something that was an important goal in my life: there is no particular unique sign to look for when making this decision. It’s not an emotional reaction. I needn’t experience any unique feeling to accept Christ. I just needed to believe. Therefore, as all of my doubts had been erased, on that Saturday afternoon I prayed a prayer to God and He came into my life. I didn’t feel different, but I knew that that decision was the biggest and best of my life.

Since then I have much changed and many have noticed. I notice ever more frequently God’s change in my life, as he is changing me. Thanks to his endless love and grace that surrounds me, I am capable of deep, sincere love. I am no longer so surface-y.

Of course there are many things to still change, but what Jesus has already done…to that I can only say: I am truly grateful and I can’t wait to get to know Him more.

Hanna

posted by Lauren @ 10:30 AM