LISA'S STORY

ere's my Christian story. When I was younger I never really had friends or anything at school. I was the slightly larger girl who sat in the back of the class and got made fun of and called fat and everything. The other kids would always laugh at me and call me names like "fatty" and the teacher wouldn't do anything about it. Ever... Well this obviously crushed my self-esteem.

My parents never really said anything to make me feel any better so I had no choice but to believe them. I wanted friends so bad... I just wanted somebody to talk to. This continued until I was 9.

I had been going to this church with my parents since I was 3 or so, when we moved to the town. It bored me to death. We had this really old preacher. Come to think of it, I never listened to any of his sermons so I don't know anything he preached about. I always got my mom to scratch my back until I went to sleep and I’d sleep the entire service. Every Sunday. And if I got to sit with my friends we'd get together and decide which toys we were going to bring to the service and we played with them during the service.

Several years later the old guy retired and we got a new preacher. He was much younger and actually talked to the younger kids in the church, something the old guy never did. He was always trying to make me laugh and if he'd see me by myself, he'd do something stupid like "accidentally" run into something to make me laugh.

I started sitting closer to the front because I wanted to hear what he had to say and one Sunday night. We were having the Lord's supper and he was talking about how we are all sinners and how Christ died for our sins so we could be together forever with Him in heaven...

I was convicted right then and there of my sins and need for a Savior. At the end, during invitation time, I prayed and asked Him to come into my life and be my Savior and Lord...

It hasn't been all up-hill from there, as I would like to say, but asking Him to come into my heart and direct my life from then on gave me so much joy...

I finally had a friend. And I knew I could count on Him.

I remember just talking to Him hours on end.

When I’d pass by the people that usually made fun of me I’d be like "Daddy. Please help me cross the room. Protect me from them." and He did. The people who always made fun of me never stopped. Actually, later on it got worse. I was spit on and slapped around. But during those situations, I talked to my Dad and asked Him to help me, and He's been faithful to do it every time and I love Him for it.

- Lisa