Ok, i know i haven't written for aaaaaages, but i'm just home after a few days in Liverpool, where, last night, i gave my testimony at the YPF in the Free P church there... I'm now fully recovered, and will post an update asap :) hope everyone is well, and that you haven't abandoned my blog without any hope of anymore posts within the next millenium... Hehehe :)
So as i have typed out my testimony, i thought i would put it up here for you to read, if you're interested at all :D
"Before I begin I would like to share with you a few verses of Scripture:
Ephesians 2:8-10 – For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created into Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
1 John 4:9-10 – In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
My name is Menekse Inan; I’m a 16 year old, home-educated, born again believer seeking God’s will for my life. I have had the blessing of a sound, reformed, Gospel preaching, Bible teaching church in my home town, also known as **** Free Presbyterian Church!
My parents… My father is a Turkish Muslim (hence the funny name!), and although not a practicing Muslim, he is very Islamic in his world view. He knows that I am a Christian, I’m not sure if he takes it in as my own choice or he thinks it’s because my Mum has “brainwashed” me, and thankfully doesn’t have a problem with it, although I know a few people who’s fathers would disown them over it.
My mum… Was saved about 14 years ago through the witness of a lady in the local charismatic church, they promptly left that church after a lot of studying and praying, and shortly after that the Free Presbyterian’s came to ****. So I have attended that church since a very young age! My mum is such an amazing person, I don’t know what I would do without her wisdom and guidance in matters, even if I don’t listen to her the first, second, third or fourth time of telling me!
I was saved at the age of 7, in my grandma’s house in Turkey. I realized that I was a sinner, and that without Christ I was doomed to an eternity in Hell. And so my mother led me to the Lord on the end of her sofa bed in the upstairs living room. I can quite safely say that it was the best, most life changing, important decision of my life, and I cannot comprehend how God could love a sinner like me, but I’m so glad that He does!
I have a younger brother, Meric, who is almost 15, is also saved, although backslidden. We have been home-schooled together for 8 or so years now.
I went to a Roman Catholic school for the first year of my official education, but then transferred to a small village school a couple of miles away from home when that year finished. My brother came to that school with me, and we continued there for 20 months, until one day, my grandma came storming through the corridors, grabbed us both by the hand and said “We are leaving and not coming back, so hurry up.” – My family thrives on drama. We then discovered that my mum and dad had been looking into home schooling for quite a while, intending on beginning at secondary school age but then, due to various reasons and a lot of prayer from my mum, believed that we would be better off at home and away from the influence of our peers.
Although people argue that you lose out on vital socialization when you are isolated from those around you, that is not an issue for us, we are perfectly able to socialize with people from babies to pensioners, unlike our peers that we see now in our home town, who look to the ground as soon as anyone speaks to them and are unable to maintain eye contact and a decent conversation for more than 10 seconds! We have been grounded in our faith, and taught our education from a Biblical perspective - it is one of the most precious things in the world. I don’t judge anyone who is at school or who sends their kids to school, I just know that it was the best possible thing my parents could have done for me to home-educate me!
Although I was getting a good education from my mum, being taught about the Bible within my curriculum as well, when I got to about 11 I became backslidden. Part of this, I believe, was my lack of trust in God, and the fact that I was worried about being alone.
I soon became obsessed with having friends, to the point where it took over my life. Until I was 14, it was friends, friends, friends. My mum would often tell me that the Bible did not put any emphasis on having friends, but I did not listen. I felt really lonely, because we are in such an isolated place, and there are no young people in our church other than my brother and me, and that became all I focused on. I thought that if I had friends, the feeling of loneliness would go. I did not realize that I was filling that loneliness with the wrong things, instead of leaning and trusting in the Lord, I was trying to trust in myself and the people around me.
In the end, I became so reliant on friendship from those around me, that the Lord removed those people, in a way which was very painful at the time, but it brought me to my senses and made me see what an unhealthy attitude it was to have, and that I should be trusting in the Lord, and walking with Him, and serving Him first and foremost in His life. At High Leigh, August 2005, there was a series of messages that seemed aimed at me, about Joseph and his brothers, and how we should apply it to our relationships around us, since then I have an ongoing mission to get along with my brother!
Although I was so revived after High Leigh, I seemed to soon forget what I felt the Lord was teaching me. Too often do I know that I am in the wrong, yet ignore God and carry on in my own sweet way, and always regret it! But I fell away from the Lord, and 2006 was a year filled with sorrows and regrets, as I look back now, my life was a wasteland through that time, I was of no use to the Lord, and that saddens me greatly. But December 2006 I came back to the Lord, through His grace and mercy I am trying to grow and become a Godly young woman, an encouragement to those around me, and on fire for the Lord, willing to serve Him in whatever small way I can.
Over the past 5 years, it seems the Lord has been teaching me a lesson when it comes to being alone, we may be alone with what seems like no friends around us, but we always have with us the friend who sticketh closer than a brother. And yes, I have friends now, but they come way down the list that has my God and Saviour at the very top of it! I don’t know what the Lord has in store for my life, I know He has His hand on me, and I just trust and pray that if I am walking with Him as I should be, then He will open and close doors according to His will. I still have difficulties with different things, I am not by any means perfect… I’m a work in progress! I would ask you to remember my family, and the church and work that is going on in **** in prayer, It would be much appreciated thank you and amen."
