Tuesday, March 11, 2008

New Harvest Church Student Ministry WIN

This is a post I found on Facebook today from one of our students that is about to graduate from high school. She has only been coming to New Harvest Church less than a year. But real life-change has occurred in her life and heart. Read her "note" from her Facebook.

Title: "I'm Not Who I Was" - Emily Silveira

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The title of this post is the name of a song by Brandon Heath that is
very fitting at this time in my life. I am definitely not who I was. I
have an amazing new family of friends that I would be lost without.
Some old relationships have been rekindled and some new loves have
sparked my heart. Jesus has opened my eyes to an amazing world. It
hurts sometimes, there are hurdles and distractions, but the ultimate
prize of eternal life with my Savior makes it well worth the effort.
"No one said it would be easy" and trust me this radical life change
hasn't been. Shannon, my mentor and quickly becoming one of my closest
friends, asked all of us in her small group to write out our testimony
and email it to here. That's what I'm sitting here thinking about: my
life before Jesus, the moment when he came into my life, and how my
life has changed. Wow! Just look at how much my life has changed! I
spent my days in a self-induced blur, most memories fading into the
next unable to seperate. Then Jesus found me in the deepest and darkest
of holes and reached out His hand. I've held on with every fiber of my
being. Now, the sunlight tickling my skin doesn't remind me how fake my
happiness is, but rather how amazing our God is that created the stars
and the sun and still knows us all better than we know ourselves. He
truly is amazing, isn't he? With the changes inside me, I also had to
make changes outside me. I thought it would be hard to leave behind my
old life, but I honestly don't miss it. Sure there are times when I
just want to say, "Okay God, I'm just going to go out tonight, relive
the good times and then I'll go back to following you." But as Shannon
has said so perfectly, you can't just pick and choose when you want to
be a Christ-follower. He is always there tugging at your heart,
reminding you that He is there. I left behind all of the boys I used to
mess around with and have found the most amazing boyfriend.


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Kyle is sweet, caring, funny, smart, nerdy, and (best of all)
Christian! We met at church in the youth group where I have beat-boxed,
won burping contests, and conquered my fear of heights. He's been by my
side through every moment, well, I think he missed the burping contest.
I am making an album of all my friends there that I will continue to
fill up. I will also keep you all updated with my LTI progress. I met
with Greg and Donna today. We're all very excited. I can't wait! I am
so glad that God brought me to New Harvest and reopened my heart to the
joy I find working with children.

And that's why we do what we do.

1 comment:

Erica Foster said...

Hey, you stole my line at the end. : ) Cool blog.