Hello Brothers and Sisters,

I wanted to share my testimony with you, in the hopes that it might encourage at least one other believer reading this. I was recently introduced to the Message, about six months ago.

Growing up, I was in a good home, but not a faith-based one. While my mother took me to church on Sundays in the early years, and I knew about God, I stopped attending and stopped paying attention to God as I grew up.

I was living a typical American teenage life, and content with that. After graduating college, I had an experience with the Holy Spirit where I knew God was calling me back into a life of faith, but I stubbornly refused to listen. I had a plan for my life: I was going to become a doctor, and I had already taken my MCAT (an exam required for entry into Medical School) and applied to schools.

One night before bed I had the sudden urge come over me to pursue an internship that I had initially not been interested in, at a hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. Following that stirring, I packed up from California and left for the five-month trip. While working, I was introduced to the Message and over time, I could feel God beginning to move in my life again.

On my travels, I visited the VGR office, met Brother Keith Herne, and walked out with a copy of "The Seven Church Ages." Shortly after, I was introduced to the tapes. I took in Brother Branham's distinctly American voice speaking about a young man, his mother, and a dinner set in ancient Babylon.

I had never heard the Bible story to accompany "Handwriting on the Wall," and finished the message extremely confused and with lots of questions.

I kept listening, and before long was listening to tape after tape! I loved the values and principles that Brother Branham was speaking about and wanted to be a part of a life with God.

Arriving back home in the US, I emailed the VGR office in Jeffersonville to find a church near me. Arriving at the address one Sunday morning, I wasn't sure what to expect. Nervous, I was welcomed with smiles, handshakes and a lovely introduction.

I continued attending church and listening to tapes. However, at that time, the Message was still a set of rules to me. They were rules I liked, and was happy to follow, but I hadn't yet had a personal revelation about them.

For example, I went to dinner one day with friends, I had on a long skirt, was happily growing my hair out, and left the makeup at home. But, I had on big gold earrings. At the time, I had not yet heard Brother Branham speak about jewelry, nor had I encountered it in church. It wasn't a rule I knew, so I didn't have a problem with it. Soon however, God spoke to me.

I was in church one day, just a couple weeks after getting home, and a visiting pastor was speaking. I felt led to kneel at the altar and began a sincere prayer, asking God to empty me out of all the grease and oil that still remained from my past so that I could be filled entirely with Christ. Kneeling there, I had a personal experience with Christ and could feel my prayers being answered.

From that time, the Message was no longer just a set of rules, it was the Truth in my heart. The following quote from the message "To Whom Would We Go?" 60-0606 p.53 speaks to that moment in my life:

We may not be what we ought to be, we may not be what we want to be, but there's one thing we know; we're not what we used to be (right), once we found Christ, and come to the foundation.

I am growing deeper in love with Christ every day. I am feasting on the Word, building a new life, and truly I can feel God transforming me into a new creation.

I was baptized in December and have been growing in the Message ever since. Looking back, that small push that made me pursue an internship in Cape Town was really God moving in my life and creating space for me to come to the Message. I often think of that moment as my "Rebekah moment," where something made her go down to the well in the evening, and God used that to bring her into a new life with Isaac.

While I have scars to carry from my old life, I love my story, because it shows how God is still working in our lives today the same way that He always has and always will.

I have joined the Young Foundations website, and have been enjoying taking the Message Quizzes each month. Recently I was fortunate enough to get a spot at the Still Waters Camp this summer, and I am beyond excited to see what blessings God has in store for my life moving forward.

God Bless,

Sister Abigail