Sally Lowery's story

  My story begins when I was 13 years old. Having attended Sunday School as a child and later the Church Youth Group as a
  teenager, I had a good understanding about becoming a true Christian. On the last day of one of the Baptist Church Youth Camps that I attended, I confessed all my sins to Jesus, I prayed for forgiveness, I asked the Holy Spirit to come into my heart and I gave my life to Jesus.

I couldn’t hide my joy and enthusiasm, so as soon as I returned home I told everyone that would listen that I had been ‘saved’. Unfortunately my news wasn’t met with the same enthusiasm. In fact, my parents and friends, who were not believers at the time, seemed embarrassed by my new life. I continued to attend the youth group and Sunday services for a few years, but I began to keep my Christian beliefs to myself, outside church, so as not to make other people uncomfortable.

Gradually I found it too difficult trying to live two separate lives and I stopped attending Sunday services and eventually I avoided going to the youth group as well. I still read my Bible and prayed each day, but after a while even that stopped and I only spoke to God when things went wrong. I was surprised that my prayers were not being answered any more. I began to drift further and further away from Jesus and the more I sinned the harder it was for me to come back.

After many years of trying to live without Jesus in my life, I decided that I needed to find a way to my Lord. I was weary of all the evil in my life and I wanted to clean-up my life before returning to the church. I see now that I had it the wrong way around, no-one is ever too bad to be forgiven by Jesus. Once I took that step to return to the church the change in my life was miraculous. Suddenly everything became clear again, my Bible made sense and became even more interesting, I became more patient and caring and I felt an inner peace knowing that I was back with my Lord and Saviour again. My prayers are being answered again and problems are easier to deal with because I can pass them over to God. I feel now that I have come back ‘home’ after being on a long and tiring journey, but this time I have no intention of drifting away from Jesus again.

The words in Jeremiah 31:19 explain my feelings, “After I strayed, I repented; after I came to understand I beat my breast. I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth.” My story has a happy ending because on the 13th May 2007 I was baptised at Staincliffe Baptist Church, I can't describe what a wonderful spiritual experience that was, I feel truly blessed.