When I was in Elementary school, a girl my age moved next door to me. Though from my early childhood I had attended church, God had never been personal to me. I soon became friends with her. She attended a Pentecostal church and always talked about God. She also introduced me to Christian TV, which I still watch to this day. I began to think about God more and more, until one summer day of 1991, while watching Christian TV, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior.

One day a guy that was older and bigger than me forced me to do something that I did not want to do. Because I was ashamed, I lied to my friends and told them that I had let him. They ended up ditching me. After that, an avalanche of problems came my way. I became very depressed. I would stay in my room for most of the day, and in school and out I would continually write poems dealing with sadness and death. One day I was given the choice of becoming a Satanist. The thought of getting revenge on the people who were causing me pain was very tempting to me. But I remembered, I rejected Satan, and turned to God. I still had problems, but slowly they disappeared, and slowly I recovered from my depression.

When eighth grade began, I once again became too concerned with popularity to care about God. I began hanging out with people who had lower moral values than me. But I had a Sunday School teacher that reminded me so much of Jesus that I longed to be like him. Towards the end of the school year I stopped living the lifestyle I had led and I started living completely for Jesus. The kids in my church hated our Sunday School teacher and were very unkind to him. When I found out that next year he would no longer be a Sunday School teacher, I became sad. So, when my mom offered me the chance to visit a Pentecostal church, I jumped at it. I liked it, and began attending. I've grown a lot in my Christian life through that church.

I am enclosing a picture of my boyfriend and me.