I was listening to the words "You give and take away" in a song and I realized God continuously does exactly that with all of us. Sometimes I picture God moving things, like a giant chess game, putting all in order one move at a time. I especially think of this when I ponder on how our lives were before we came to know Him, before we became involved in this community and with this church. The events that all lead together to get us to the spot where we could finally accept Him in our hearts and lives. We moved to Alberta from Ontario in 1985, trying to escape and start a new life away from the past with hopes of better future. The emptiness and unsettled feelings were still there though we continued to move every couple of years. We went back to Ontario, still searching, we went to B.C. for a while also, but circumstances always brought us back to Calgary. We went through two bankruptcies trying to fill the void that kept growing inside of us. We lived above our means and went shopping because we wanted things and thought, "we deserve to have that, don't we?" We work hard and maybe this thing or that would make us happy. We could look like we had it all on the outside while we shriveled away bit by bit inside. We thought about divorce, we couldn't be happy and thought that there was something wrong with our marriage. We should be able to draw happiness from each other but it just wasn't there. Our last move brought us back to Calgary yet again in 1996. In 2000 we decided to purchase a home in the hopes we would quit moving and settle down in one spot. We were drawn to this community. We developed friendships, finally after years of running and feeling alone, we were part of a community. We ended up coming to God through the friends we met and have never looked back. It isn't necessarily easier being a Christian but it is totally and completely satisfying. That void leaves your heart and is replaced by a love for yourself and others that is overwhelming at times. This church has been a home and a comfort in good and bad times. God has anointed this church with a healing power for the broken and hurting. That is who Jesus reached out to after all, isn't it? I shudder to think of where I would be today without His healing and without the friends I now have because of this church and community. I know I would be without my family if I had stayed on the path I was on; God healed my marriage and my relationship with my daughters. With God as the center of your life, nothing else matters. You have contentment with your circumstances and your life that only He can bring. If you are looking for a place where you will be welcomed and a place that will feel like you are home, Living Waters Victory Church Fellowship is for you.

Donna Hardman

MY TESTIMONY

My story is like that of the prodigal son

Twenty-two years ago I gave my heart to Christ, at the time I was five years old. I grew up in a loving Christian home. To my recollection one of my favorite verses was Romans 8:15 which states, "So you must not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave like God's very own children, adopted into His family - calling Him Father, dear Father." I like this verse because I was adopted naturally and supernaturally. Before I turned the age of seventeen I had a close walk with Jesus. I grew up not knowing my adopted dad, so Jesus became my dad. I always felt like the odd ball in the crowd but I later realized that when someone has a call on their life they know it because it's God. Anyway, when I turned seventeen I made wrong decisions and things started to turn bad for me. I started looking for acceptance because I felt that I didn't have enough friends. I hung around with the wrong crowd and did all the wrong things - like alcohol, drugs and more than my fair share of girlfriends. I lived this sort of life for ten years. Everyday was the same routine. My life became cold and empty and I was heading down a road that had a brick wall at the end. Eventually I ended up moving to Calgary and this is where God started to do His work. I me this girl at a party and we got into talking about God. I ended up asking her if I could go to church with her. That was a difficult thing for me to do. If you ask my mom she would say it was like pulling teeth to get me to go to church. Anyway, during the service, the preacher was speaking on sacrifice and what would you be willing to give up for Christ. Right then the Holy Spirit started to minister to me and brought me back to when I was five years old, running to my mom saying that I wanted to be a youth pastor. It was like in the movie "Forest Gump". I was running from God all this time and then, just like Forest, I stopped and started running the other way, the right way. Well it turned out that the girl, who I thought was a Christian, drank, smoked, smoked pot and liked to have sex. She professed the title but was not living the life. I was too blind to see the path she was on because somehow I thought this relationship was from God. The Holy Spirit opened my eyes once again, and she ended the relationship with me. I am glad that we met because the Lord used her to bring me back to Him. I thank God that I am not on that path, heading for that brick wall anymore. Since then God has done so many things in my life. It is like I never wandered off in the first place and He is still working in me. I received a vision of a man walking down a path and then falling into quicksand. The man struggled to get out but the more he tried the more he sank. When he stopped fighting to get out he saw a hand reaching out for him to grab. Finally, the man decided to grab the hand and he was rescued. I believe that person in the quicksand was me and it just as well could have been you. If you are here tonight and you are feeling empty or searching for something to fill the void - maybe acceptance, love or attention - let me tell you now you won't find it in drugs, booze or even a boyfriend or girlfriend. Believe me I have tried. I've lived in this town for five years and I have gone through what a lot of you are going through. I know the pain and hurt but there is a way out of it all. You have to surrender and stop trying to do it all yourself. God is there waiting for you to make the decision to take a hold of His hand, so that He can rescue you from that place and give you everything you'll ever need in life and save your soul for eternity.

Julius Whitlock