My Testimony

This is my testimony of how I came to a time in my life, in my mid twenties, when I decided to surrender my way of doing life and make Jesus Lord of my life. It is the best decision I ever made.

First, here is a bit about my up-bringing. I was born in beautiful Auckland, New Zealand. My wonderful mother took my sister and I to church most Sundays. We received solid biblical teaching. I even played the pipe organ for some services! 

In my teens I started developing a prayer life. I remember relaxing in the hammock at my parent's home, chatting away to God. Sometimes I attended Youth Group events with various friends.

After finishing school I went to University and studied the interesting combination of Computer Science and Sociology.  Sociology exposed me to a whole new world view. A world view with an extremely Marxist feminist perspective. Somehow I got "lost" in this teaching and I let it strongly influence me.

In hindsight, in this time of confusion I should have gone to see my pastor and sought his wisdom on what I was hearing and thinking. Unfortunately, being a "prideful early twenties" I always thought I knew best so I did not go to see my pastor. Rather I came to the conclusion that God was not real. I stopped talking to God and stopped going to church.

Little did I know the truth of these scriptures ....

Proverbs 22v6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Isaiah 55v11 So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth; God's word does not return void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

After working in Auckland for a couple of years, I moved to Sydney to further my career. My first job in Sydney was working on a computer helpdesk, at Telstra Payphones. I worked for a wonderful lady who looked after me like a daughter.

At that time in my life I set myself the goal of buying an apartment. I worked hard, saved hard, and eventually bought a lovely art deco apartment in Sydney's Elizabeth Bay. I couldn't wait to move in and know what it felt like to be 'home owner'.

Well what a shock I got! As I lay in bed in my apartment on the first night I realised I didn't feel any different to the night before in the rental accommodation. In fact, I thought, "I don't feel any different, there must be more to life than this."

Soon after getting this realisation, I was at a corporate retreat. We were doing an activity that involved us assessing each area of our life. For example, Physical activity, Work, Social life. On a scale of 1 to 10 I rated myself a 10 in every area of my life, except Spirituality. To be completely honest, I had to put zero in the Spirituality section.

So, being a task focused person, I thought I had better fix this part of my life, so I could rate it a 10 too. But little did I know that God was already on the case! That wonderful lady that had given me the job in Sydney, three years prior, had been diligently praying for me from the first day I commenced working for her.

God bought another person into my life to 'help' me along the path. Every time I saw this man, he would talk to me about God and how God could help me make my life better. I would listen politely and then walk away thinking, "my life is just fine thank you very much!"

Eventually I realised that my life was not fine, as I had no direction, no vision, no purpose. I wanted to understand what was my purpose in life.

So one day when I was walking to work, I listened to the small still voice that was knocking at my heart. I yelled out to God, "OK, I give up doing life my way, I'll do it your way."

Immediately I felt the peace that I had thought buying the apartment would bring me. It was a true moment of revelation. I now knew I was on the right path. The path that would show me my purpose in life.

Later that day I phoned up the man that God had used so effectively and asked if I could go to church with him. Three weeks later we were dating. Eighteen months later we got married, and we still happily married today!

Even though I made the choice to walk away from God in my early twenties, and do things my way, God never left me nor forsook me. God faithfully pursued me, as one of His lost sheep, through the prayers of many people and the words of my now husband. I thank God with all of my heart that He didn't give up on me.