Sunday, February 15, 2009

Church Testimony

Recently we stood at church and gave a testimony for our church's annual victory celebration in January. Here's the speech we gave about our experience with the birth of Julia.

In August of 2007 Jon and I came to Rockwood for the first time. We were invited, and immediately found open arms. Neither one of us had attended church full time in quite some time, me not at all and Jon only for a short time during his childhood. Both of us found a home at Rockwood right away. Hearing such strong teachings from Pastor Val always made us feel as if were meant to be there each Sunday.
After marrying in November we immediately became pregnant with our first child. A difficult pregnancy was brought on, and after 5 months I was admitted to the hospital about to give birth 3 months early. We were terrified, hearing that we were going to loose our child and there was nothing we could do. While in the ambulance all I could do was pray. I laid there praying, “God, I may not know you closely right now, but please give me the chance to have this baby and raise her with all the love and care I have for her.” That first night Pastor Val sat with us all night, praying with us, and praying for us. A wave of peace came over us once the first 24 hours came and went and I was no longer in labor, but still at risk of loosing our baby. I knew, after talks with Pastor Val, that that peace was God at our side in that hospital. All of you visited, prayed, and sent your thoughts to us over the next 3 weeks that I laid in bed to save our baby. I could feel the warmth of all the prayers during this time, and never before felt so close to God. After Julia was born I continued to feel a remarkable closeness to Him. I began to read about the bible more and played several times a day for the health of our little girl. After this experience, I knew in my heart that God gave me Julia and the led us through the process of receiving her just the way he planed it. We’ve made a commitment to raise Julia is a Christian home, not just because of what he has done for us, but because he led us though these trails to show us how a relationship with him will be. Thank you to everyone who prayed and visited and most of all thank you God for coming into our lives.

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