Richard Dawson, 20 August 2015

So I continued to attend church into my teens largely because my family went and there was no arguing about my involvement. My very non-Christian friends would tell me that their parents had very nicely given them a choice about God and that this was the right thing to do. I often wondered why they could be that liberal over God and not so liberal over school? Church attendance was not a choice for me until Year 11. At that point and in that year I needed a place I could simply be myself and not be competing in a very aggressive peer group. I held my own at school but at the expense of my relationship with the teachers and, indeed, with myself. I ended Year 10 very unhappily though I should imagine that for my teachers, the year’s end couldn’t come soon enough! In Year 11 I discovered a small ‘cell group’ populated largely with people younger than I, though a certain young woman by the name of Fran went as well. I went to find shelter and acceptance. I went to simply forget the nightmare that was school and I went because I really appreciated the wholesomeness of the young married couple who led the group. Funnily enough I didn’t go to find Jesus but I did! In the fellowship and shelter of that group I discovered that God had been on my case from the beginning and that God wanted a relationship with me. So I began to listen for the whispers of God and though that year was also quite rough, I knew I had found a home that could be trusted. I hung in there and gave more of myself to church than I ever had before. This time, however, I was there because I was finally interested in Jesus.