Taking The Plunge Testimonies

On Sunday night Sam Butler and Rachel Turner gave their testimonies and took the plunge to get baptised. Today we tell their stories...

So as a kid I grew up going to church with my family every Sunday. I think that growing up I did believe in God and accepted Him into my life. However, I didn't really give it too much thought past that and usually just carried on with primary and high school activities. Throughout university I still attended church on Sundays and slowly grew my faith in God, but I was still 'luke warm' about Christianity and didn't really give God the time or effort that He deserves. I would go to parties on the weekend and on many an occasion drink excess amounts of alcohol. I think that this gave me an outlet to forget about reality and my problems. At this time I was looking for more worldly outlets such as drinking, getting a cool car, doing well at competitions. I wasn't really putting God first in my life.

After graduating and being employed as an engineer, I wasn't enjoying where I was in life; life wasn't going the way I wanted it to go. I didn't enjoy my job, and was bored. I felt I wasn't going anywhere with my life, I had no real purpose. So I decided that I would travel overseas to Canada, and perhaps stay there for good. Canada was an awesome experience: skiing, snowboarding, partying and the adventure lifestyle of working on a ski resort. It was a great adventure to go on. I spent a good seven months at the ski resort and a further two months downhill riding in the summer time. During my time in Canada I realised that although I was having a great time, my life was still not fulfilled. I tried to ignore it but I couldn't. At this time I was running out of money and was missing family and friends at home.

When I came back to Brisbane, I did not know why I was there; I was unemployed and had no car. Aside with catching up with my family and friends, I felt like coming back was a mistake. I didn't really have anything planned either. What I did do was go to church for the first time in quite a while. I cannot remember what the message was or who was speaking, but I think that God was really speaking to me and He wanted me in His life. Even though I wasn't employed at this stage I was feeling better about coming home because of church. Not much longer after attending church again, I joined a life group and started to really grow in my faith. A couple of months after this, I got to go on the Red Frogs mission at Surfers Paradise. Seeing God transform lives there was amazing and although the lack of sleep was tough but through this I learned to trust God in everything in my life. During the Christmas holidays I went to the Rainbow Beach mission which was also a great experience fellowshipping and telling everyone why we were there so I think God has really transformed my life so far and got me back on the right path. Pretty stoked to be finally baptised...Yiew! - Sam

I went through a stage in my life where I was trying to fix all my problems on my own. I was putting my trust in other things in order to be content in life and using other things to fill the gaps. And this never worked... I was never content. I was holding onto things which led me nowhere and that only got me down because I was never getting what I wanted. It wasn't until I let go of all that stuff and really started relying on God that I realised that He was and is the only way that I can really be content and happy in life.

God is good news for me -He gives me life and freedom from my sins. I guess without Him I would be living with a constant disappointment in myself because no matter how hard I try, I can never fix things on my own. He gives me a purpose to live. Because of the love and grace that I have been shown by God, I try to live my life in the same way... Showing the people around me the same love and grace. Another big thing that He gives me is hope. That in the tough times I know that God is in control of my life and in the end it going to be ok which is something that is really comforting.

The people in my life mean a lot to me and I thank God that I'm able to live life with them and hopefully learn something from each other along the way. I think that a big part of the way in which I relate with God has a lot to do with the relationships I have. I really try to show the people in my life the same love and acceptance that God has shown me. Whether these people be my friends from church, my youth girls, soccer friends.  I see God working in my life in the way I react in tougher situations... I use to get really worried and down in hard situations but now I know that it's all in God's hands and that gives me hope. - Rachel