A missed christening, a friend’s wedding, and my baptism: guest blog by Holly Graham

[This is the 4th in a series of posts celebration the 13th birthday and groundbreaking for Celebration Church. This post is by CCNI Team member Holly Graham]

The 28th of August was a LIFE changing day for me.. it was a day I thought would NEVER come. I got BAPTISED!

A missed christening and struggles…

For years I had went through life having no faith, no foundation, when I hit rock bottom..I just kept going down. I struggled through my teens confusing the idea of right and wrong. I saw people who had faith and I was jealous of them but I couldnt connect with them on that level, dispite them being close friends of mine in school. I always had questions but wasnt willing to accept the answers. Which I think is a hang-up of most non-believers.

I had always asked my mum and dad what they thought, they told me that God is inside you and you dont have to go to church if you dont want to, you just need to be a good person. I dont think this was bad advice from parents who didnt go to church themselves. The encouraged me to be a better person. It was around then I found out I was the only sibling not christened as a child. This stuck with me for years! Why wasnt I christened?! My mum and dad told me I could always be baptised if I wanted to, but to me this wasnt possible as I didnt go to church and found the idea of church hard to warm to.

A friend’s  wedding that changed me forever…

I cleaned up my act over the next while, determined to be a better person with or without church. It was during this part of my life I was at a wedding (earlier this year) and met on old friend, Ashleigh Ballentine, Ashleigh planted the celebration seed and I was going to church for the first time the next week! I loved it! Its young, current and real! I never knew church could be so fun and friendly!

I still had many questions. I asked a few here and there and was always encouraged to seek God through prayer and devos. I started attending group devos and couldnt get enough of them, reading God’s word and applying it to my life, LIVING it, gave me more strength than I had imagined possible. I was hooked, I AM hooked. The questions I had in the past I realised, werent questions but problems and voices trying to stop me leading a God first life. When I was saved these went away and now… I simply have faith.. and it is enough.

And then a baptism I’ll never forget…

I serve in the church, I love to serve God and getting baptised was a MASSIVE and exhilerating step for me- and chance to make it public! With my family, friends and God as my witnesses I got baptised. That will be the day that I will always remember.

I want to give everyone the opportunity I had and I want to encourage anyone who is finding it difficult to keep at it, it doesnt come overnight to everybody, it took time with me but I got there… I’m here right now so come and join me!

Groundbreaking: Guest blog by Katie Forker

As part of groundbreaking month, here’s a guest blog from Katie Forker, one of our key team members on the service production team…

For me, Celebration Church has meant….a complete life change. Before I never thought of even having God in my life and that I could just face each day as it came. I depended on my family and friends to correct my mistakes. Celebration Church opened my heart to who our amazing God was and it wasn’t for people who just wanted to “be good living”.  Pastor Stovall Weems spoke on God’s plan for us, why he gave us a plan and about trusting in God, this spoke volumes.

God has taken ground in my life….by providing more than I could ever wish for. God has shown me a career direction that I never thought was for me but now working with 16-17 year olds makes me excited that I am providing them with learning that could be the foundation for their future career.  With everything else I can wait for the right time for God to supply everything and everyone else for my life.

God is taking ground here (in N.Ireland) too….Massively!!! Celebration Church is a wonderful thing for Northern Ireland’s society, youth and communities. God is taking ground here to reach out to the lost, for us to reach to the lost. Celebration Church is so exciting as it grows, it allows people to come and worship  God in a fun way, to hear God’s amazing word through energetic and real/relevant pastors so that we can shine God through our lives.