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My Testimony by John Polson  I was brought up in a Christian Environment and was taught the basics of the bible throughout my young life. I believe God’s hand has been upon me from a very young age and my faith in Christ has developed and evolved through a series of key events in my life. When I was 6 I knelt by the stairs knowing very little about life and the Lord but that I needed help. When I was 9 I heard a sermon from my Pastor that made me realise that Hell was a reality but Jesus died for me. This helped me to give to the Lord more of my life in terms of Sunday School Attendance and wanting to learn more about my Faith. During my later teenage years I wanted to experience the World and break free from some of the empty rituals that the Christian Religion has. I felt that the Christians around me were doing Sunday Christianity and not following through during the week. At the age of 18 my best friend, a Christian, persuaded me to get involved in a singing group and it was through the music and the messages within the songs that I realised afresh the real message of the Gospel. I also realised the blessing and the gift that God has given us in music. It has the power to lift us up and build our faith in real joy. I’ve been singing now for the Lord for 15 years and my life has moved from one of religious bondage, trying to work up to being good enough for God, to realising that my sins are washed away and that I should be thankful everyday for the freedom I have to express myself and my faith as an individual. The Lord has also shown me that any gifts received should be enjoyed and used openly and that I have a real value to the Lord because of my Faith in him. Jesus has given me life and it is my job to show every day by the example of my life, not just on Sundays, that there is a joy and a peace that others can have that softens the tests of this life.
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My Testimony by Elspeth Polson  I was delighted recently, to share in a morning service my testimony of the Lord’s saving grace towards me. My mother and father were saved when I was about 3 or 4 so I have always felt that I was brought up in a Christian home. I understood from an early age about what Jesus had done for me on the cross of Calvary but it wasn’t until I was 16 that I knelt down and asked the Lord Jesus into my heart to be my Saviour. I was on one of our church holidays at the time. We had ministry every day and at one of the meetings the preacher kept asking the question: Are you playing at Christianity? When I actually thought about it, I really felt that I was just going through the motions of living my life as well as I could and attending all church meetings. At this time, as a family, we were going through quite a stressful time. My father had been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease just 3 years earlier and was getting slowly more unable to do much without someone’s help. It was hard to see him get more and more dependent on us all, but he really was a shining light as to how a Christian should be. My father went to be with his Lord and Saviour in June 1990 when he was just 49 years old. I used to hear people say that being a Christian could and would be hard at times and with my father’s illness, and then my mother’s more recent fight with Breast Cancer, I can really say that relying on the Lord’s promises is the only thing that can get you through. The Lord certainly undertakes for you in every area of your life whether it is meeting someone, marrying someone, having children, moving job, moving house, finding new churches, making new friends, every day we have to thank the Lord for his constancy, for his complete and loving care over us if we are his children. When I left Sunday School, way back in 1989, I received a new bible with a verse underlined for me to read and remember as I grew in my faith. It was 1 Timothy 4 :12 “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.” I really believe that through the way we live our lives daily, in whatever we do, wherever we are, whoever we are with, we can show the love of the Lord Jesus to those around us. We live in a culture of visuals, people respond more to what they see than to what they hear. We need to be living our lives in the full view of Christ, only living the way that would please him. This is my challenge as I become a member of Rehoboth Baptist Church. With the Lord’s blessing, Elspeth
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