As I look back on my experience as a Christian, I realize that even though I’m not very old, I’ve experienced something unique and rare that too few other people have. As a 17-year-old headed for my first year of college, I’m thankful that the Lord chose to save me and place me where I could be exposed to the truth in His Word through the ministry of Witness Lee. My parents were saved and came into the practice of the local churches before I was born, so I grew up attending meetings on the Lord’s day every week. Like most children, I just followed my parents and did what they wanted me to, without any conscious decision of my own. I remember praying with my parents and receiving the Lord when I was about seven, but it didn’t have much significance to me at the time.
I continued in much the same way until my family moved to Frederick, Maryland, when I was in fifth grade. There, since we were an hour away from the church meetings, I fell out of touch with the Lord and with the other young people with whom I had previously associated. I quickly became involved with school, new friends, and the traveling soccer team I was playing on. Then, one Saturday in seventh grade, my mom drove me to a young people’s meeting about an hour away. There I saw kids my own age, who I had grown up with, enjoying the Lord and exercising their spirits. This was such an inspiration to me! I continued going to the young people’s meetings all through high school. When we moved back to Virginia it was great because we were so much closer to believers that I knew. When it came time to choose a college, however, the Lord was not really my top priority. The Lord is sovereign, though, and He arranged things so that I received a scholarship to the University of Texas at Austin. This was definitely not my first choice, but of the colleges I looked at, it has the largest local church. I can see the Lord’s hand in every circumstance and situation in my life. I pray that the Lord would keep me loving and seeking Him throughout my whole life.
A.G.