My name is San, and I am a 17-year-old Junior and I’ve been going to New Life with my family since 2023. I grew up in a Christian household. However, despite growing up as a Christian and going to church every Sunday, I would worship and sing praise songs but never felt a deep personal connection with Christ. During middle school, I began to drift away from God entirely. I stopped praying, stopped turning towards God for help, and began to live a life separated from Him. I struggled with making friends and fitting into my environment, and I fell into an unhealthy period of sadness and poor social life. I began to believe God was not there to help me through what I was facing. Over time, sin became more prominent in my life and I did not have a connection strong enough with God to turn from my sins.

In the spring of 2023, I attended my first church retreat at New Life Youth in search of peers and a healthy environment. While looking around the room and watching my peers pour out their hearts in praise and prayer, for the first time in a long time, I felt connected with Christ. This experience made me realize that the God that I believed was not present in my life was watching over me and supporting me all along. 

I began to see that if God had given up on me, I would not have been this far in life to find new opportunities and new people. For so long, I focused on all the negative aspects of my life and focused on what I lacked. After experiencing the bonding, connecting, and growth with my friends from this retreat, I began to open my eyes to every positive part of my life, the gifts God has given me and how far He has carried me. Since then, despite the new challenges in my life I always turn back to God for guidance and support to help me turn away from sin and become closer to Him. 

Today, I see Jesus as my Lord and Savior that always supports and believes in me despite challenges and imperfection. For most of my life I lacked a true connection with Him. But, after my experience at New Life Youth with my brothers and sisters in Christ, I have been getting closer to Him every day. Despite my failures and falling short of expectations, I always turn back to God for guidance to improve myself, grow alongside my friends, and turn away from sin. Today, I see Him as my loving Father that has cared so much about my journey and potential to bring me this far in life. As of today, I want to commit to living a Christ-centered life through baptism.

During this journey, I want to truly get to know Him, to turn to Him during times of challenge and trials, to live life to His standards, and always involve Him in all that I do in my life until my last breath. I know that living a Christ-centered life will come with many challenges such as worldly temptation and sinful desires, but during times of trial and hardship, I want to turn back to God for guidance and support in all that I do. I know I will not be perfect during this journey, but after every failure, I want to get back up and seek improvement and forgiveness through God.  

I ask that you pray for my journey to becoming closer to God despite challenges and temptations. Thank you!

-San