God was not a huge part of my life growing up. Granted, I did believe He was out there, but I didn't believe that I needed a specific religion to be loved by Him. I grew up in a Jewish family with a Christian mom. I celebrated every holiday: Christmas, Hanukkah, Easter, Passover. You name it; I celebrated it. But I never had any meaning behind any of the holidays, only that it meant I got presents. Once high school started, however, everything changed.
I started feeling like there was a giant hole in my heart during my freshman year. I felt like I was missing something important in my life, and I quickly realized it was faith in God. In order to fulfill that hole, I started asking my Christian friends if they could help me. I went to a Catholic bible study with one friend and a non-denominational church with another. But neither of those felt right to me; I still wasn't understanding the Bible and I sure wasn't believing that Jesus was the Savior. For most of my sophomore year, I gave up on finding a church. I thought I'd never find a church I'd fit into. It wasn't until my junior year that I finally found the church I'd been praying for.
I felt so at home in this church. After a little bout of awkwardness with the youth group, I soon found a wonderful group of friends who brought me closer to Christ. And on October 25, 2015, I was baptized with all my church friends surrounding me. It was an amazing experience that I'll never forget.
After I got baptized, I felt that God was telling me to help other people in the church become closer to Him. I helped plan a senior retreat last spring, where I got to talk to some of the younger members of the youth group about God and what His plans were for them. But during the summer mission trip to Nashville, I was able to help a girl, now a junior, to grow in her faith more and be more involved in the church. She became one of my closest friends and to this day, we still hold each other accountable for going to church and staying close to Him.
Ever since I became a Christian, I have been so much happier. He has provided me with wonderful mentors and Christian friends who have helped me along the way. They have talked me through many difficult times and have given me advice on how to pray and read my Bible. I'm still learning to trust Him more everyday with their help.
It's been a real struggle to get to where I am today, but He has guided me through all of it. Here at college, I've found a wonderful ministry called Purdue Collegiate Ministry. I felt accepted there from the very first day I walked in there and I've gotten close with many of the members already. Because of PCM, I've been getting back into reading the Bible in order to become closer to Him. God has provided me with so many wonderful opportunities since I've been at Purdue. I'm so excited to see where God is leading me!
