Ben Osborne's Baptismal Testimony
Morning service, Sunday 10th October 2004
Hello, if you have attended this church for a while you will know that I am the youngest of the Osborne family. Well I have come to this church all my life and of course grown up in a Christian family. I've always believed that there was a God because of being brought up in a Christian family, and attending Sunday school. I personally have found growing up in Christian family hard. When I was at primary school I was teased for attending church, and I used to deny going. So from then on I had decided to ignore God! So I started doing so other than when at church. During secondary school I found it very hard, and I was a bit of a rebel and didn't like people telling me what to do.
I went on a cifa camp with a friend and really enjoyed it and learnt a lot about Christianity and God, but after I got back I went back to my old ways of rebelling against God. After the first camp I also got beaten up by a couple of people in my village, and after that I was thinking why did this happen to me? Why didn't God stop me getting beaten up? This caused me to doubt very strongly. Now when I look back at it I can see that he was with me because I didn't feel any pain, my injuries were not very serious and they had healed quickly, because people were praying for me.
I went again to camp the next year on my own, and somebody who knew my sister and brother in law had requested me to be in his dormitory, and he was very helpful to me becoming a Christian on the camp. What he said when we met up regularly made sense to me, so when there was a chance in one of the talks to pray a prayer of confession I become Christian. I realised that Jesus had died on the cross for me, and took away all the wrong things I had ever done and gave me a new chance to start a fresh life dedicated to God.
As a result of me becoming a Christian I was better behaved at school and changed my outlook on life, and that helped me get the grades I needed to get on the course at college. I started meeting 1-1 with Chris Anderson where we would study the bible and pray, which really helped me.
So why have I decided to get baptised? I decided on a recent trip to Africa that completely opened my eyes to how good God is. God provided me with some great Christian friends there, who made me see I wasn't really living for God. I was out in Africa with Wycliffe doing a kids club for missionary children, and it was really good to be surrounded by such nice people who really encouraged me. The thing, which made me realise Gods power, was, that I almost broke my ankle out there playing with the kids, and many people prayed for me in England and in Africa and my ankle that could have been injured for the whole trip was healed within 2 days and I was able to play with the kids again. I saw how God answered prayer and I felt it. I was on a high after this and I stood up in front of the church and thanked God and everyone who prayed for me. The whole Africa experience has really changed me, but I am still aware that God has got so much work to do in my life. So I wanted to share this with you and show you how good God really is, and that you can trust in Him too.