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"The love and support of my church family at Holy Cross has propelled me to be involved in all forms of ministry, including the wonderful prison ministry, Epiphany." -Carroll Payseur |
| I
have always been a person that has gone to church.
My parents brought me up that way.
Even during my teenage years when I thought church was
boring, I attended .
I can’t say I got a lot out of church during those years, but
then again I didn’t put a lot into church either. As
I grew and matured, I steadily began to realize how much going to church,
having the love and support of my church family, and my relationship with
God had been gaining in importance to me. I guess you could say
that I have matured in my faith. After Janice and I were married, I
did become more involved in church, teaching Sunday School, heading up the
Youth Group, serving on Church Council, and more. But it still seemed that
there were some things that didn’t quite seem fulfilled. Several
members of our church attended a 3-day spiritual retreat weekend called Via
de Cristo and kept insisting that I also attend.
I told them that I didn’t need to go, saying that I had always
gone to church and had always been involved in church functions.
The fact of the matter was that God wasn’t ready for me to attend
a weekend such as this until several years later.
I knew then that it was time to go.
Maybe I wanted them to get off of my back about it too! The
love and support of my church family at Holy Cross has propelled me to be
involved in all forms of ministry, including the wonderful prison
ministry, Epiphany.
Part of that love and support was in not pressuring me to attend this
spiritual weekend until God was ready for me to go. They have also
helped me to realize that I can evangelize to others through my words as
well as my actions. God has opened many doors for me and has made me
realize what the important things are in life. God had
definitely been revealed to me through the love, support, and prayers of
my family at Holy Cross Lutheran Church. |