Testimonies

Regan and Mellie each take John Newton's words as their own:

 

‘I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great Savior.’

 

Regan: I grew up in a Christian home and heard the gospel from my earliest memory. At a young age, I began to call on the name of the Lord. I remember kneeling by my bed and asking Jesus to save me. I knew I was a sinner and needed a Savior, but I understood little of what a great Savior Christ is. I came to that knowledge “through many dangers, toils and snares,” through the wicked hypocrisy of my teenage years, through steps of repentance, through a car accident in college and the spiritual awakening that followed, through running after Christ, stumbling, and finding that all my righteousness is in Him, none of it my own, so that I gladly sing, “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.” During the awakening I mentioned, the Lord moved my heart toward missions. What began as raw zeal was deepened and developed through good missions preaching and theology.

 

Mellie: I, too, grew up in a Christian home. What I knew of the gospel and the Word of God I believed, but it was not until my eighth grade year that I repented of my sins and trusted Christ. I was going through a time of rebellion against my parents and making a series of foolish decisions, so they took me out of public school and enrolled me in the Christian school run by the new church we were attending. Through this, I became friends with kids who really loved the Lord and wanted to do right. I was convicted of my sin and, on a winter youth retreat, hearing the gospel preached, I began to understand how my sin was an offense to the Holy God and cried out to the Lord for forgiveness and salvation. He gave me a new heart and began to lead me in His way. Through the testimonies of missionaries who shared their ministries at our church, the preaching of the Word of God and the conviction of the Holy Spirit, the Lord burdened my heart for missions soon after. He has been preparing me in surprising ways for this missions step, and I am excited for His continued work in and through me in South Africa.