On 23 April 2023, Lina and her husband David were baptised at Caringbah Baptist Church. This is her story.
In this uncertain world, there are some things that never change: the perfect love that our Heavenly Father has for each of us; the assurance that He is there and will always see and hear us; the existence of absolute, unchanging truths; and the fact that there is a plan for my life, even though sometimes I don’t understand what and why something is happening.
I was raised in a nominal Catholic family. I remember learning a lot about Mary and I had a view of God as a punitive father. I was baptised as a baby. As a young adult, I didn’t have any Christian friends. I met a few at university and when travelling overseas, but thought they were a bit weird. 36 years ago, when I was 30, I was at a crisis point in my life. I felt utterly lost and that something huge was missing from my heart, soul and life. I felt a strong impulse to seek God and to know more about Him.… One day I just walked into a local church office near where I lived and asked to speak to someone. I later found out that church was in the middle of a Mission week. God is amazing how He works! A few weeks later I became a Christian and my life started to transform. In that church they didn’t do adult baptisms and I didn’t know much about it. Since coming to Caringbah Baptist, I’ve heard about adult baptism and felt that this was something I wanted and needed to do as a symbol of faith.
Since becoming a Christian, I have felt that trusting God, trusting in prayer, and sharing with close Christian friends that I’ve made here, has brought me comfort, direction, strength and peace. This gives me the capacity to cope, accept, or sometimes overcome, the struggles that are beyond my control. And pain and struggle draw me closer to God.
I recognise that the Lord gives me the capacity to understand and prove through personal experience the truthfulness of His teachings. Many times He has revealed things, He has opened my eyes and opened doors to many truths.
God can see the person I’m becoming and I’m changing every time I turn to Him and try to give up my old unhelpful ways of thinking or doing things. He’s still growing me up. Often, I just want certainty, but that’s not what I get. God wants me to continue to take steps of faith and trust even when I can’t see the outcome.
I testify that that God is my Hope, my Mediator, and my Redeemer; I’m so thankful for His Grace and blessings.
People responding to the game changing news of Jesus is at the heart of the Gen1K vision and our ‘why’ as Baptists, which is to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ in word, sign and deed, together. As we head towards National Baptism Week on the 15-22nd October, there are a few things we want to share with you! Visit https://nswactbaptists.org.au/national-baptism-week-2023/ to find out more.
