I'm Gareth; I am 17 and live in Clifton. I have been brought up in
a Christian household and so sometimes I think there isn't really much to
share because I've known what it is to love God all my life. But,
there is a lot to share, being a Christian is no way easy and God regularly
tests our faith in different ways. When I was in Junior school I used
to get bullied a lot because of many of different things, Because I was black,
because I have a lazy eye etc. but that only went on for a few years and,
Praise God!, he worked in that situation and for a few years I was relatively
free of being bullied because people knew what sort of person I really
was.
Until I got to Secondary school. I used to go to Bluecoat Secondary
school and a lot of people thought and still think it is all rosy and sweet
because it was a Christian school. But it wasn't, it was a great school
but it wasn't much different to any other. Again in the first 2 years I
was bullied and it was a very hard time for me. Then again God sorted
everything out for me. But then when I was 14/15 I was starting to
get bullied by students younger than me in the school and this really was
hard. I thought I'd seen it all but this really was bad. I was
too ashamed to tell anyone about it I didn't want to tell my friends, my
teachers, I didn't even tell my mum for a long time because I was embarrassed.
Although I wasn't a Christian, I was taught a lot of Christian ethics and
one of those from the bible is:
If
a man slaps you on one cheek let him slap you on the other
In other words don't fight back because that wouldn't have been what Jesus
did. One-day I was so worked up that I couldn't face going into school
and I told my mum. And eventually that all got sorted out.
In 1998 I was at a Christian conference called spring harvest. There
I realised that just because my mum was a Christian, or just because you
read the bible, or just because you go to church, doesn't make you a Christian.
So I made I decision to follow God and do what he wanted me to do.
Since then God has really improved my life and most the time it has been
exciting to be a Christian. In November I went to Bogota in Columbia
to a Youth Conference and they have to hold their church in a coliseum, it
is so big! They have a Youth Group of 60,000 people who follow Jesus
and that was an amazing trip that I will never forget.
Going to church, praying, reading the Bible, having a Christian friend
or relative won't get you to church. The only trying that can get
you into heaven is if YOU believe in him and to do that all you have to do
is say to him your sorry and ask him to come into your life.