This is the first installment of Wednesday Witness. I thought I would start with me so that you can get to know me a little better. Next week we'll start with guest submissions, so be sure to email me at kirraantrobus@gmail.com if you want to have your testimony featured for Wednesday Witness.
I grew up attending church. My grandma would come pick up my sister and I on Sunday mornings, and we would go to Sunday School and church with her. Here, I began learning the stories they teach in Sunday School. I memorized the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the books of the Bible, and Psalm 23. I began learning the hymns of the church. I think this time in my life was instrumental in building a foundation for my faith. I regularly prayed before going to sleep, but my prayers were mostly the grocery-list version. I liked to read the Bible, and one of my favorite books to read was Revelation, until I realized that it was a time to come. I wasn’t sure how to handle that, so I stuck to the Gospels and a bit of Old Testament history for a while.
During junior high, I quit going to church with my grandma, though looking back, I’m not really sure why I made that decision. I do feel that those two or so years of irregular church attendance (I occasionally attended other churches during those two years) brought me back around to where I was able to make church attendance my own. As a freshman in high school, I chose my own church, and I attended completely of my own volition. I was not going with my family, so if at some point I decided I no longer wanted to go, there would be very little anyone could do about it.
In high school, I began to learn about loving God and trying to follow Him.
All through high school, I attended the same church. I was baptized by my youth minister on March 8, 1998. I eventually found myself as a leader in the youth group, at church on Sunday mornings, Sunday nights and Wednesday nights. I often chose the music for youth group worship, and occasionally I got to teach, usually at retreats and lockins. I began to read the Bible more consistently, and by the time I finished high school, I had read the Bible through twice. When I started planning for college, I realized there was nothing that interested me more than the Word of God, so, with some prodding from my youth minister and a generous scholarship, I applied and was accepted at Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri, a school that focused on preparing people for ministry and taught mostly Bible and Bible-related classes.
In college, I learned about the Word of God and the fellowship of the church.
When I got to Bible college, before classes even started, we took a Bible knowledge entrance exam. I went into the exam feeling confident, since I had read through the Bible, and I figured I would do really well. I don’t know what my score was, because that wasn’t the point of the test, but I walked out of that test feeling very differently than when I walked in. I remember being so surprised at just how much there was to know about the Bible! So began five years of concentrated learning about the beauty of the Word of God. So many times I found myself amazed at this book that God gave us.
I studied the book of Revelation along with everything else. I don’t read it much these days, mostly because it confuses me, but I’ve learned that the book is part of God’s plan, and I trust Him with the future of the world, and my future in specific.
I also began to build friendships that I felt were a different caliber than the friends I had thus far in my life. I didn't see my old friendships in a negative light; I just realized how amazing it was to have connections with people who had similar goals and interests. A discussion about the book of John or about what God has been up to in someone’s life was not unusual. In high school, I listened to sermons for fun; I only knew one other person who did that. In college, that was sometimes a Tuesday night event in the dorm. I also enjoyed many impromptu worship sessions outside in the cool night air. Bible college is an experience which, I believe, is hard to duplicate at any other time or situation in life. I enjoyed nearly every minute of it.
After college, I began learning to actually live as the church and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.
It took me a while to reach this point, but I’m learning about what the church should look like, people connected in sincere relationships, living life together, and following the Holy Spirit together. This has so far been one of the most exciting and trying times in my life. The friendships I’m building leave me feeling the same way I did in college, but differently. Even though my friends don’t have goals of working in the church as ministers and teachers, they seek to serve God in their various occupations. They listen to the Holy Spirit and let Him guide their steps.
Learning about the role of the Holy Spirit has been an amazing trip. I’ve learned so much more about the character of God by getting familiar with the Holy Spirit. Really realizing that He wants to hear us and communicate with us is something that just knocks me over. The God of the universe wants to have a conversation, not just listen to me talk. Those grocery-list prayers I used to pray are less common, and I try to actually talk to a Person rather than recite from a list.
I’ve still got a ways to go.
It’s scary looking to the future, but this ride I’ve been on has been pretty great when I look back on it, and I’m excited to see where God wants to take me in the future. Sometimes I struggle to follow God’s will, but I hope that I will be strong enough and faithful enough to follow Him.
Something to offer.
I feel like I have learned a lot so far, and even though I am still relatively young, I have a lot to offer to my readers. I want to use what I have learned and the experiences I have had to bring a little bit of God to the people that read my words.
