Katie Woodburn

All those years that I went to church, I never really understood why we were going. It was just something that I thought we had to do...it was a routine.

"I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly"  Jesus Christ  (John 10:10).

I grew up going to a Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.  My parents always took my brother, sister, and me to church each Sunday when we were younger.  All those years that I went to church, I never really understood why we were going.  It was just something that I thought we had to do...it was a routine. 

It is clear to me now that I had no understanding of the Christian faith either.  I knew that there was a God and that we prayed to him to give thanks and to ask for forgiveness and blessings, but I had no idea who He was.  I went to Sunday school and occasionally sat in on the pastor's sermons, but nothing ever really registered to me. I remember being frustrated and discouraged because I didn't know any of the Biblical stories.  I knew that I was supposed to believe that Jesus died for us and that, because of him we are saved, but I didn't know why and it wasn't something I found or discovered on my own.  It is just what I was told. 

My family stopped going to church around the time that I was in the sixth grade.  Our schedules got busy and going to church became less and less important.  I think my parents just went because they wanted to take us kids, but when we all got involved with other things, those activities took priority...for me it was dance.

In the six years between the time that my family stopped going to church, and the time that I found God, He kept me close to Him even though I didn't know it.  I always prayed even though I had no clue who I was praying to.  I tried several times opening my Bible on my own to try and read scripture to gain knowledge, but I always got frustrated.  I began to just accept the fact that I didn't understand religion or God.  My family didn't have any sort of foundation belief-wise and I didn't really have people around me to guide me, but at the same time, I didn't go out of my way to search to know who God was. I devoted all of my time to my schoolwork and my dancing.

The summer between my sophomore and junior years, I had planned to go to a dance program in Chautauqua, New York that I had been at for the two summers before.  I loved it there and made it my plan to go back for a third summer.   It was that summer that I really began to feel like somebody else was in control of my life.  I ended up getting put on the waiting list there and didn't get in.  My only other option was to go to the North Carolina School of the Arts.  They had auditioned in Cincinnati and I just happened to go because I knew they had a year round school and thought I would see what the class was like.  So, I ended up going there that summer, and at the end of the summer, the dean of the program invited me to stay there and attend the year-round program. 

When I found myself leaving my family and home in Cincinnati at the age of 16, I think it was only natural for me to question who was in control of my life.  It was clear to me that I was going to North Carolina for a reason that I did not know.  It was not what I had planned to do, but I was so excited to be going.  When I was packing my things to leave home, I found my Bible stowed away in a drawer in my desk.  I remember opening it, seeing all the little stickers in it from my Sunday school classes as a child, and I just flipped through the pages and decided to bring it along with me.

Throughout my first year there, my junior year, I picked up my Bible every now and again, but still got a little discouraged.  I was so busy with all the dancing I was doing and focused on that more than ever.  I wanted to find a church to go to and to find a Bible study group to become involved with, but I found myself not wanting to go because I was embarrassed that I didn't know anything. 

My senior year of high school in NC, God decided it was my time to find Him!!!  He blessed me with Josh, a very special person in my life for whom I will forever thank Him.  It is through Josh that God revealed Himself to me and in a sense, opened my eyes.  I remember one day when Josh was sharing his faith with me and telling me about all the incredible things God had done in his life.  I was just amazed and wanted more than anything to have a relationship with God.  I was so eager to search and search and search and finally I was able to read and make sense of God's word.  I was also no longer afraid to admit that I knew nothing. 

Along with Josh, God brought to me his family, and also their church family.  The love that they had for God and their desire to help me in reading the Bible and to understand and find truth was just so amazing to me.  By seeking to know God, He showed me the truth that Jesus truly was the Son of God and that he died on the cross for our sins so that we may have eternal life. 

In coming to faith, I realized that there was a lot in my life that I was going to have to change. Suddenly I found something that was so much more important than everything in my life and I had to rearrange my priorities.  It was hard for me at first because there were a lot of things in my life that I didn't want to surrender to God.  I was afraid of giving up the control...at the same time though, I found such peace in surrendering and giving my life to God.  He wants us to give up our lives for Him, and by trusting Him with all our heart, he promises us that he will give us the desires of our heart in return.  It is through his Son that we have life.  Without him, we are nothing.

God ended up bringing me to SUNY Purchase college last year as a dance major, and since then I have been praying that God would bless me with a good group of Christian friends and a church family that I could become a part of so that I might serve Him more.  I went to several churches last year, but never felt like it was where God wanted me to be.  Out of frustration, I thought maybe Purchase wasn't where I was supposed to be and so I tried transferring schools. 

When things weren't working out and I realized that I was going to be back here again this year, I prayed even more so.  Within the first two weeks of school, I found a Christian Fellowship group on campus, and within the next couple of weeks after that, God led me to First Baptist.  I couldn't be more thankful and blessed that God has brought me here.  After coming here for one week, I felt like God was telling me that it was right for me now to get baptized.  I had been wanting to be baptized for about a year and a half, but never felt the timing was right.  I talked to Pastor Torrey about it the second week I visited the church and told him that I really wanted to be baptized and publicly express my inward commitment to Christ.  So I did.  I took the plunge.  I was baptized last fall.  And I pray that God will always keep me close to Him and that he will use me and my life to glorify Him, in all I do.