Hi I’m Koen and this is my testimony.

Like a lot of you I was born and raised in a Christian family. My parents were a part of the church before I was born. And while growing up, I had a lot of pressure growing up to be a Christian. My dad played piano at the church, my mom was a small group leader and my older brother got baptised at 11. I always acted like I was a Christian but never really saw God.

When I finally decided to accept him into my life, I was 12 and I was eager to follow him. The fire shortly died down because of a lack of faith. I never touched my Bible by myself. I spent most of my life believing that God was a man who’d show up in human form or in my dreams and tell me what to do and the more I felt I couldn’t physically communicate with him, the more I stopped trying to talk to him. Plus, COVID stopped me from going to church and that was a rough time. In the summer of 2022 my mom sent me and a friend to a camp called Pioneer camp which was a Christian camp for kids. Whenever I would go I would always feel energized and willing to follow Christ but after a couple weeks returning home, I’d feel that same energy disappear.

But finally in my third year at Pioneer camp some of the counselors were doing Bible studies, and one of them shared a story about the Holy Spirit. He said that the Holy Spirit isn’t just in a human body but in everything around us and if I actually looked I would see it. I decided to actually try that. I looked at things more carefully now like the different experiences with people and how God works through them, his beauty in nature and I actually started to read my Bible again instead of just skimming through, I looked at verses with a purpose. The verse that helped me maintain my faith was: 2 Corinthians 5:7 – “For we live by faith, not by sight.” I started believing in God once again and saw how much my life changed when I look at the way he wants me to look and it, whether it’s the wonderful world he made for us or the different people I got to meet.

I really started thinking about baptism at a youth group (shout-out pursuit) retreat up to Muskoka, where I asked a couple of my friends who had been baptized already how they felt about it. They said it felt relieving and encouraged me if I wanted to do it. After I went to a Teen’s conference where I heard a couple of my counselors stories about how God changed them and decided I wanted to join God forever. Thank you to everyone who helped me on this journey whether you realized or not, you have helped my faith greatly.