Mia's Testimony

Like many Christians, I did not grow up in a very big Christian household. My family went to church occasionally but we never really made it a priority. This made me think at a young age that God and all of that stuff didn’t really matter at all. My grandparents were big believers but I just thought they sounded crazy.

We eventually stopped going to church all together and I didn’t think a thing of it. I never thought about anything Christ related, never prayed or anything. I didn’t not believe in it completely, I just was very skeptical; ‘cause how can all of that stuff about a man walking on water and healing people actually be true, is what I thought. My family went through a lot when I was growing up. My parents got divorced, my uncle became addicted to drugs, my grandfather had two heart attacks, my mom was crying almost every night. I worried some nights that my brother and I wouldn’t be able to eat all three meals or do anything because my mom didn’t have much money.

So I thought well if there is a God he’s not doing a very good job with me and my family. I was on the verge of not even believing in God at all. That was until seventh grade when I met this new girl at my school who I knew nothing about except that she was very involved with church and people thought she was kind of weird. She ended up being on my basketball team and we became friends. Our friendship got very strong and we became best friends. Faith had never really came up between us at first, I mean she would talk about hers sometimes but I’d just listen. Eventually, she invited me to her youth group. I just thought why not go and have fun with some friends. So I end up going to her church’s youth group and having a fun time but still not sure about the whole thing.

I continued to come to this youth group and then my friend invited me to Sunday church service. I was actually very nervous about attending this at first since I hadn’t been to church in a longggggg time. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to dress or act. I ended up going and actually enjoying it. After a few more times I started to consider myself a Christian, but I didn’t truly encounter God until my friend invited me to a summer camp that our church goes to. I was super nervous to be away from home and I couldn’t even have my phone with me! Which seemed absolutely insane at the time haha. I felt super nauseous the entire week leading up to camp, even for the first, like, two days I was there.

On the third night though, during worship, I felt a way I’d never felt before. Every single person in the room was singing worship songs and having their hands in the air and hugging each other and crying and I just felt something come over me and I began to cry and then I hugged my best friend who had invited me and I started praying to God. I knew then that God had touched my heart and changed me completely. I left that room a completely different person. I loved people harder, cared more, and gave more in everything I did. Also right after I left that room all my worries and troubles seemed to go away because I gave them over to the Lord. Ever since then I haven’t stopped loving Jesus and praying and worshiping. I became super involved with the church and made an amazing church family full of people I know will always be there for me. I instantly went from not really believing to a devout Christian and my life has been 10x better.