Jessica’s Testimony

I grew up in a Christmas-and-Easter family. That is, we only attended church for Christmas and Easter services. My mom grew up Catholic and later became a Christian, and my dad grew up non-believing, so it was a compromise. I knew the bible stories, could recite John 3:16, but knew nothing of the truth of the gospel. In 2004, my mom decided to send me to a church junior high camp, and while there I felt the Lord moving on my heart. One thing I will always remember that touched me was the pastor talking about living life as a chameleon, changing colors to fit church vs. world. I gave my life to God. But a few months later, after coming home from church and hanging out with all my old friends, ironically I slipped right into the chameleon roll. Eventually, I told God to wait for me; I said “no more” to Him and promised Him I would come back after college, when I’d had all my fun. So I went about my ways, got into some bad stuff, and tried to push away the conscience whispering in my ear. The one most profound thing I recall from those four, desperately lost years, is being plagued with the idea of eternity. All the time the idea would come to mind and I can’t put into words how it made me feel. It was so terrible because I knew with all of my heart that if I died at that moment, living in sin, I would be spending eternity (do you know how long that is?!) in torment and punishment, without God. [Side note: I have the worst pain tolerance of anyone I know, so the thought of spending forever in more pain than I could ever imagine just hurts to think about.] In the meantime, I went to church with my parents on Sundays and ended up hardening my heart towards God and His word.

After years of extreme fear of death and hardening my heart towards the things of the Lord, my best friend’s brother got saved. He finally convinced us to come to Monday Nights with him, and I remember hearing Romans 6:23- “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” The verse stuck with me but didn’t make any immediate changes in my life. On September 5, 2008, I went to the House with my best friend for the first time and gave my life to God and told Him to take it on His terms, not mine. At this point, after four years of sitting through church and trying to ignore it, I felt so hardened to spiritual things that I knew I needed to ask God to help me keep my commitment. I could say the words as many times as I wanted, but without Him, I could never keep that promise. But Philippians 1:6 says “…being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

God changed my heart inside and out. The week before I went to the House, I had a burden on my heart about the people I was spending time with and had already started to distance myself from them. Simultaneously, my phone crashed and I lost all my old contacts. Looking back, I know this was God working in my life before I even realized it. He pushed me forward and kept me from looking back. When I started seeing the Awakening ’08 advertised, I felt a strong desire to go, but didn’t understand why because I couldn’t picture myself sharing my faith- I was too scared. But after that day, everywhere I went I would see people and wonder where they were going to spend eternity- the lady at the vet, the guys outside Home Depot, the person behind me at Starbucks. All the people I encountered, the faces I saw, I felt something screaming, burning inside of me to share with them. And every time I didn’t, the burden grew. Then one night at the House, I turned around to leave and saw Karl’s table in the back for the first time. I signed up and almost instantly the burden I’d had was lifted. Soon after, I fell in love with Romans 10:14-15- “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feel of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!’” I feel that God has called me to evangelism and I personally feel street witnessing is the second best decision I’ve ever made- the first being the obvious.

-Jessica Whipple