This is my story

 

Hi my name is Angela, I am the mother of two children Jess and Dave. I work at Little Stars Nursery in Caldicot and I have lived in Caldicot all my life. My journey with God started many years ago when I was a teenager. I had been in church all my life my parent’s and my surrounding family were all Christians. But I slowly realised that this wasn’t going to get me to heaven my relationship with Jesus was based around them and how they lived. So at the age of thirteen I gave my life to Jesus asking him to forgive all I had done wrong and I began to follow him and have a relationship with him for myself.
 
I attended the Elim church in Caldicot, we had a big youth group so I was surrounded by many like minded people of a similar age group. We had a lot of fun, we would go away on church holidays together, go on trips to see different Christian bands and generally spend most of our time together. This continued for many years and my relationship with Jesus grew and grew. 
 
Then things started to change, many of us got married, and slowly we drifted apart, going of to do our own things and raise our families. Jesus and church became less and less important and not only did we drift away from each other, but also I drifted away from God. For a good few years I lived my life pretty much as I wanted, sometimes I would talk and think about God but continued to do nothing about it. In the back of my mind I thought in the future I’d think about that but not now. 
 
Then several things started to happen. First my Dad died and then within eighteen months my Mum died. Then to follow that about a year later my marriage fell apart and I found myself alone with three of the people I had loved most in the world gone. My first reaction to this was where was God in all of this and dare I say it, I was angry with God. 
 
But slowly I began to realise that God was there I had turned my back on him not the other way round. I started to attend Bethany where my daughter was already attending what was then Sunday school.   And slowly and surely my relationship with Jesus was restored. During the first few years it was hard to cope but in all of it I knew that Jesus was right beside me all of the time, late at night, times of loneliness, times of grieving. The journey toward healing and restoration however was slow and hard.
 
Needless to say I didn’t value myself, believe in myself and at times felt very worthless. Seven years ago John and Jaci came to Bethany and in many ways picked me up and dusted me of, and for some crazy reason believed that I still had something to offer and that through it all I could still be a survivor and serve God here in Caldicot. John sent Jaci over one day to ask me if I would coordinate a Holiday club in the church. I thought they were round the bend, but that year we did have a holiday club in Bethany for 7-11 year olds for the first time, and seven years on we still run a holiday club every year.
 
My recovery from what had happened was a gradual process but God was always with me and surrounded my children and I with many great friends. I’m not saying that sometimes it isn’t still hard but I don’t go it alone. I heard a song once called ‘I Am a Friend of God’ and I feel privileged to be able to say that. 
 
My children and I still attend and love Bethany, it’s like our second home, we are very blessed and I thank God for that our lives are very busy and we have a ball following Jesus. I am part of the leadership team there now, if you had said this would have happen seven years ago I would have said you were mad. My relationship with Jesus grows and grows there’s nothing like it, through the good times and the bad he has always been there for me and my children, money can’t buy that, there’s nothing like it.
 
Thanks for letting me share this with you God Bless Ang