Hello everyone! Many of you may know me, but what I want to tell you is my short life story and how I came to God.

I was born in a little town of Pavlodar, Kazakhstan, and grew up in a loving family, with one older brother and two older sisters. I moved to the United States in 1999 and became a member of Second Slavic Baptist Church on December 14, 2008.

Before I completely came to Christ, I repented in front of the church a few times but continued living a life that was not Christian. I was not drinking or smoking or anything else out of the extreme, but my life was not fully devoted to Christ. In fact, I constantly went to church and was even one of those “good girls.” The real truth was, I had a big fat emptiness inside me that nothing could fill. I was a sinner who needed repentance.

I finally got to the point of depression. I was constantly crying, isolating myself from others, and not willing to talk to anyone. I completely lost my appetite and all desire to enjoy life. That is when I went to my first youth camp (SSBC camp in 2006).

Throughout the camp, God was softly preparing me for repentance. On the last night, when Ion Keptone finished preaching, I came out and repented. To be honest, there were no extreme feelings or anything else that a lot of people expect to feel when they repent. It was simply an act of asking God for the forgiveness of my sins and a firm decision to follow Christ and be His faithful servant.

After that, I started to grow spiritually in Christ by going to bible studies, reading the Bible, and becoming involved in church. God miraculously changed my life by creating a happy and life-loving person out of a self-conscious, unsure teenager. God is now my main source of joy, peace, and love. He is the only one to whom I can come with any of my problems, fears, and joys, and know that He is ALWAYS there for me. He is my father who takes care of me and a best friend who saved me from eternal suffering in hell.

If you still don’t know Jesus as your personal Savior and God, There is still time to change that. He was the one who died on the cross for YOUR sins and the sins of all mankind and is waiting patiently for you to come to Him. He is the only one who can fill the emptiness inside your soul and the only one who will give true peace to your heart. All it takes is for you to ask Him to come into your heart, clean it of all the sins, and start living for Him the rest of your life. You will never regret it!

Thanks for your time and God Bless

P.S.- my objective with CALinChrist is to post some of the information from the youth newsletter to our web site. I will also post something interesting in the Spiritual section once a week. . . I hope you will now visit the spiritual section more often