The Statement

@AnneteRevlis

PW: Thanks AnnetteRevlis! Sorry for taking so long on getting this!

AnnetteRevlis:

I was raised in a Christian home, with a Christian family, and I've been pretty sheltered. When I went to high school, I got in with a group of friends who were self-harmer, drug users and all of them hated Christians. I never mentioned my faith, and one of my friends committed suicide, never knowing that I was  "Christian". I began to close myself in, until there was nothing left to me. I was a wall. If people tried to befriend me I would threaten them. I was in a spiral of depression. Each night, I would see my friend, M, dead. I was traumatised. I lost part of my life and there was no getting it back.
Eventually, it got to the stage where my parents swapped what school I went to. I was having to see a psychologist, but didn't want help. So I quickly made friends and began acting as normal as I could so that my parents would drop it. It worked.
I kept going through that year, suffering in silence. There were several times that I wanted to end my life, but I couldn't bring up the courage.

At the end of the year I went on a mission trip to Burma. I wasn't sure what to expect, having have been living a fake life, but things felt different. each morning in our training, we would spend half an hour in our personal devotions. For the first week's worth I would end up broken in tears, because I could feel God's love for me, but somehow I couldn't take it. But one of these times as I was reading my Bible, I read this; "And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." - Luke 9:23-24 I realised that I had to deny myself. I couldn't keep dwelling on what had happened, my past fears. The past that had been tormenting me. I had let God take my burden. I begged Him for forgiveness, and He forgave me. I was finally free.
During the time on the mission trip, I was able to help other people who had suffered from anxiety, depression, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. God gave me the pain so that He could heal me, and I could be His instrument of healing.
I still have nightmares, seeing M as he was when he killed himself, but I can be open. I now have genuine friends, and I live a life of evangelism. I have realised that I wasted part of my life by not telling others about CHrist, and now I tell everyone who I can see about His love and awesome power. I'm a fifteen year old youth evangelism co-ordinator and have spoken a different Churches in the area about the importance of youth evangelism, By Youth and For Youth. I am not who I was a year ago.
God has transformed me.
Matthew 11:28-29