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I can remember going to church as a little kid. I remember being taught about God and what he did for me, how he died for my sins and was raised from the dead 3 days later. My parents continually talked to me about Jesus and taught me as much as they could as I was growing up. We stopped going to church for a long time. Fast forward a few years later and I found myself visiting Great Commission Church on Sunday and Wednesday nights when they met at Olive Branch High School. I loved it from the beginning. I loved how I was welcomed as if I had been coming to this church for years. Over the next few years, I would visit every now and then eventually I stopped coming all together. Fast forward a few MORE years. I am now married with 2 children and struggling. Struggling mentally, physically, financially, I was a lost soul begging to be found but did not know where to start...my life and marriage were falling apart. My husband and I did some soul searching for a while and in January of 2022, my husband and I were blessed with good jobs. Jobs we were able to pay down dept, and eventually we were able to get an apartment of our own. Blessings we did not deserve were being poured over us. I remember looking at my husband and felt guilty and I said, “this is all from God. We do not deserve any of this. We have not been living our lives for the lord for him to bless us like this. Maybe It is time to give our life over to him and serve him the way we should have been a long time ago.” We started the year 2022 at GCC on the first Wednesday of the month. At the time we did not know it was a member meeting, but we ended up coming with my mom that night for a reason. I remember Trevor saying we needed to find a focus word for the year and at that very moment my word was TRUST. From that moment on I stopped stressing and having anxiety and just gave it all to God. I trusted he would get me through this dark time. I trusted him more than I ever have. And then I remember hearing a sermon from Trevor about what it means to be a member of a church and how and why it is important. I knew it was important, but I did not know the details and after that service was over it really opened mine and my husband's, eyes, ears, and heart. my husband and I both marked “membership” on our ministry cards that Sunday morning. I have never felt the sense of peace I feel now since the moment I gave myself completely to him. I could not imagine my life without going back to the way it was before I accepted Christ to save my soul. -  Shelby Allen

 

 My testimony is similar to my wife's. I grew up in and out of church and was taught the word as a child but never officially joined one. I have always known that Jesus was sent to earth, was killed in the cross and rose 3 days later. I have always known about God and what he has done for me, and he continues to do for me, but I never knew what it meant to really open my heart and accept Christ. The moment I realized I needed God in my life was when I was working at a job that was draining me and I could not do it by myself anymore. I decided to ask and pray to God for help, I opened my heart and prayed harder than I ever have and gave him all my stress and worries and from that moment on I was blessed with a better job, a home for my family, less stress. A life without God is not a life I want anymore.  - Jonathan Allen