 special condition. It just left me with a desire to seek for more and seek for the truth as to why I had to do worship to Mary, use rosary for my prayer and just pray through saints. And I went to the same college with Elias and as soon as we completed our nursing education we soon got married and it was allowed this time that I thought just with so much thought in my mind of what goodness was all about and why I had to believe in some areas that I wasn't really sure about. I left the Catholic Church and my knowledge was initially informed by a sermon I heard and opened a teaching by Seventh Day Adventist Church who talked so much about the Catholic faith being of Antichrist. They mentioned scary items like Antichrist, the beast and condemned it comes to church on Sunday and say that we were actually worshiping the mark of the beast. So in my mind then I thought this must be the true church because I always decided to go to a church that worshiped in spirit and truth. So but my response to gospel as I can tell was allowed the year 2005 to 2006 and this was just from the many many charges and pain that I experienced within the marriage relationship and I had we had a serious problem and we were in such a position that one day we fought physically which was the first fight and hopefully the last and I resorted to firearms because I was weak physically so I couldn't really fight back and I was subdued so I started destroying everything on my way. So I just proved my point and then later I just left the home and I took my two kids with me, rented another apartment of course I was working and just it was allowed that time that was also prayer when reading the Bible at some point. So I knew that at some point I had also done something wrong and I was deeply deeply convicted of my sin and that was the sin of pride. We wouldn't have resorted to fighting if I was just calm and submissive but my pride actually is the one that just triggered the whole situation. It was so deep that I just feared losing them or breaking the marriage relationship. I still love allies and I prayed to God and just grieved my situation and I asked him to please provide another chance and I promised that if he provided me another chance I'm going to be respectful and I'm going to change. It took a lot of time, a lot of people coming in to try to betray us but it was during this time that my Christian friend offered me a book in marriage by a Christian writer. As I read the book I realized that we hadn't really had a goal, we hadn't really had a goal in Christian counseling and I learned so much truth and it was the will of God, it is still the will of God for marriage to happen and how he used it to work well and to bring up Godry offspring but what actually caught my attention was the story of Hosea that was over at the end of the chapters and the story of Hosea as it was told and reading it from my African background was so strong to me that I was just so incredibly overwhelmed. This story of this wife who kept running away from her husband and her husband who actually kept running after her just to seek to provide the items that she needed and there was of it being that after she got the first baby and the second baby who was not Hosea's and that baby such things if I did them myself in my African background it would be such an abominable act that I would be thrown out as an outcast so for me to see to hear this story and to understand this love of God and eventually this woman was ended up being like a cult prostitute and she did what she did and eventually she was being so does a slave and then the spirit of God himself with Hosea to purchase her and then to bring her back to her to his home set and actually bring her back to his love that was just really incredible for me and I said if this is the love of God then it is this God that I want but at that time I thought maybe this will save my mother this God who loves me so much I thought to myself I didn't want to follow him but I was probably just looking for his goodness and mercy in my life anyway um we came back together you know went through um you know uh Hosea's and and you know just reconciled and as he has went by of course I responded better you know I learned to be a little submissive but um I kept sinning in many ways in my heart I knew that I was uh I was probably better than him and I kept in my attitude thinking I was better than him and I think this kept me just thinking and looking down on him sometimes he didn't really have any idea of what I was thinking but being convicted at times listening to sermons and reading the Bible sometimes just being encouraged but seems like this marriage especially is the one that has a big impact or a huge impact in in my Christian or spiritual growth but um you know as years went by and eventually God provided a way for us to come to the US our life um we had a fairly good relationship but coming to us was one that we invested in and just really hoped and prayed that we would fight a Bible-believing church and by God's providence we ended up coming to CBC and that is where we met a God fearing family by God's grace and they invited us to their home for a fellowship and then it's just by observation that I saw how they related to each other how they uh they brought up their family and kids and even by attending the meetings um the fellowships and the um to the meetings I realized that women don't go say they just go straight to prayers and then they give testimonies they um they identify each other in the Word of God and this to me just made me think it seems as though I didn't really appreciate um the sins I was living in and I then kept thinking and thinking that I have been gossiping so much it was like uh I really liked it and yet I kept thinking I was a good person I looked down on my husband although he probably didn't realize but I kept thinking that maybe I'm the one to blame because he's such a good man like he's he's really spontaneous I should be doing better because I read the Bible more and then I kept thinking about um bouts of anger towards my children that sorry usually I would provoke them to write and to to me it wasn't something that I really thought of as seen and those um those things just disturbed me and I kept coming to CBC and of course I learned new doctrines especially um the doctrine of divine election and then of course wondering whether this is really true and just struggling with it but didn't add add there because as I kept reading the Bible as I kept listening to someone you know just God taught me the truth that I came to accept um all to understand a lot of truth and this doctrine one day as I was just thinking about it and just learning about it I thought why should God choose me among many at one point I was both at why should he choose other people and not others but this was like why me why me and then I started just seeing him his incredible love in my life and then um uh started um being introduced to um to ever receive and then I just happened to have this desire a very very strong desire to talk to the people at work which I I started by God's grace but then um I was whichever method I used I was really prayerful and trusting God and the the members of my group uh sent me and kept encouraging me and praying for me but this um seems to me like that was one turning point because it seems that whatever I was telling them also came back in a way like to test me uh God dealt with me in very incredible ways that I can never really forget because this was during the time that I was heart deeper by the issues that by the response of the people but then at the same time God would teach me to don't say in my heart that God is going to affect don't have that attitude pray for their salvation and then he brought to my mind that that you have been forgiven in tolerance multitude of sins you must forgive other people and then at some point it was who is going to um um who is going to condemn the gladness God who justifies so those truths came to me in in ways that I knew for sure they were being addressed to me and uh I went through hearts and pains as I I considered how some people just uh I would say like uh came down on me others would believe that um I'm truly um I'm like genuine uh and they were my friends by the way I wasn't just talking to anybody they were my friends who just turned to be my enemies just because um I was telling them what I'm learning and some of them I had known them to be gossipers and at work usually I would probably keep a low profile try to do the right thing even before before this whole um experience but then they became my enemies they talked about me and it wasn't really a good thing I even fear to go to work I even fear to go um to a group of people but but by God's grace he protected me and he taught me so much that I learned my own weaknesses my own sins I was convicted but I could tell his gentle voice just encouraging me uh since then I started running so much I saw my sinfulness I I actually um saw my desire but to to to to to be saved at some point I as I was begging God to please show me the specific sin because there's um sinfulness in probably evangelizing I couldn't point out what was my specific sin and I kept saying uh I kept praying and even asking the members of the group to um just help me and then I read um Romans 3 10 and then um this whole um description was me at at some point I knew that this is me this is me who never see to God who who who is deprived from uh from my my tongue from my throat from my from my toes everything was sinful and I cried to God and I asked him please stay with me please uh change my heart it was then that I kept listening and the the the teaching from the attitudes to when Jesus says where do you look at the aspect in your brother's eye and you know the log in your own eye it a little meant I was uh initially like hating it and then I kept saying if I really love Jesus Christ then I must love his teaching and then I read I kept reading his word read Psalm 19 the law of God is perfect by God's grace I I started um just embracing the law of God just um just the spirit of God just causing me to love him and if if I was convicted of any sin I wouldn't just uh justify myself but I would seek to ask God to please help me love you because um you love me first so it has been a walk and I can tell that there's a difference because I have um hated I have no hated sin and my my desire uh is to love God not just wanting to keep my marriage just to be um pleasing to him just to be a Godly example to my family to my to whoever um that um can just observe me would know that I'm a Godly woman and that's that's my desire so that uh the name of God may not be defiled because that was a big deal when I was talking to before I kept thinking maybe my character is is wanting and maybe I'm the one causing the name to be defiled and that really meant a lot I didn't want that to happen today um I know there are times that I fear sometimes I I sometimes doubt um my salvation but I'm reminded that it's really not about me uh he reminds me that I am actually cared by the power of God and my faith um my salvation is in his heart and he is able to save me forever since uh his son always leaves to make intercessions uh for me I believe that he who began the good work in me will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ amen no no no Regina based on your profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and your commitment to follow the Lord in the context of Cornerstone Baptist Church I baptize you in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit