Hello everybody, I’m Nathan Richards, I am 18 years old and today I will be sharing my testimony with you. I grew up coming to church, my family has been coming to Cornerstone almost every Sunday for 11 years now. I was a quiet obedient little kid for the most part, so I always paid attention in Sunday school. Eventually, I started trying to apply what I was learning in Sunday school, especially because it helped me get in trouble less at home.

Eventually, I grew to think of myself as a Christian and I thought because I could remember what happened in the Bible well. This peaked in grade 6 when I told my mom that I wanted to get baptized. She said no, and she said that I wasn’t ready. At first, I was disappointed because I felt like I knew my stuff, and this was a step in my life that I wanted to take. As many of you have probably guessed, the sheltered grade 6 kid knew next to nothing. I’m really glad that I didn’t get baptized then, because now it means a lot more since I have a better understanding of what I’m doing. From that point on, I lived my life, following some of the values I learned in Sunday school, but I didn’t think about baptism too seriously until late 2021. Choosing the place I’d spend the next 4 years of my life made me think more about the person that I want to develop into. I realized that now was a better time than ever to place my identity in God. So I thought about it, I procrastinated as is customary for me, and then I decided to go for it. Now I’m here.

I’m extremely thankful that Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross for me and today I’m committing to try and live more as He did for the rest of my life. I’d like to thank everyone that’s supported me on my journey through life. Thanks to my parents, who did their best to raise me, with the values they thought would be best. Thanks to Coach Mike and Coach Siu-On for helping me grow as an athlete and as a person whether through coaching or teaching me to be a good teammate. Thank you to pastor Kevin for always tryna make Youth Group an exciting experience. Finally, thank you to my friends for being great, supportive people I can talk to and count on. Thanks for listening, they told me the baptism tank’s gonna be warm, hopefully, they remembered to heat it.