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Jamie Dower

It was a beautiful sunny day, the birds were singing and fluffy white clouds were floating through the sky. Actually scratch all that, I became a Christian when I was around 4 years old. I was standing in front of our washing machine and asked my 9 year old sister how to become a Christian.


I don’t remember much about my initial transformation but growing up in a home that valued living for God above all else has been an amazing experience. Through my primary school and teenage years God used various ways to grow me in my faith and knowledge of him. Different kids programs and youth groups helped to grow my biblical knowledge but the ability to share my hope in and love for Jesus with non-Christians who also attended helped to solidify my convictions.


In Year 11 I listened to a sermon on the fact that our whole lives can be a mission-field. Even though I had heard other messages on the same topic, this one impacted me in a way that hadn’t happened before. Quite soon after, God gave me an opportunity to become involved in our church’s children’s program. He also gave me courage to be bolder at sharing my faith in my work, school and uni situations.


I am continually amazed that God chooses us to help share the good news of Jesus with others even though we constantly fail Him. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says, For he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Even though I am weak, God is able to use my weaknesses to show his amazing glory to those around me.


Amos Selvaraj

11 Jun, 2020
I’ve grown up in a Christian home of sorts. Mum did a great job leading and teaching me about Jesus given the circumstances. But even with that guidance I just coasted along for many years- going to church, bible studies, youth groups and other Christian activities- without any real interest. To be honest I can’t say I even wanted to be there. I’ve been attending Drouin Presbyterian church since about 2011, but for the most part of the first 5 years I am not proud of what my relationships with God, family and friends were like. But even through all the mistakes I’ve made and pain I’ve caused, I can confidently say God has been with me. In 2015-2016 a lot changed for me, especially my relationship with God and in turn that has greatly affected my relationship and attitude to family and friends around me. I can now see what is important in life and it’s not me. I now understand what God has done for me in giving his son to die on the cross for my sins. I’ve realised that I am a sinner and that I need Jesus to help me. I’m still far from perfect, but knowing what Jesus has done for me makes me want to help and encourage others to follow him also. Galatians 2:20 says “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” From now my only hope is that I live my life by Gods word, and fully rely on his strength and not my own. Becoming a Christian has given me such a feeling of freedom, it’s incredible. And I am so thankful knowing that Jesus has taken what I was owed, and restored my relationship with God.

Daniel Patchett

10 Jun, 2020
At the end of the day, I’m a Christian because of God’s grace. This relentless mercy has been shown to me time and time again, largely through the Christians in my life that I’ve been blessed to know, and who provide an example of what it means to be a follower of Christ. One of the things I find most convincing and compelling about the Gospel is the implicit rightness of Jesus and his actions, how he epitomises everything that we instinctively know to be good and just. It’s by his self-sacrifice that I’ve been saved, ‘for by grace you have been saved through faith, and it is not your own doing, it’s a gift of God’ (Ephesians 2:8). I grew up in a Christian family, and my parents served as missionaries in Ethiopia for several years. They’ve been outstanding examples to me of imitating Jesus’ self-sacrifice. But I don’t want to rock up to church every week just because my parents do, because faith isn’t genetic, and I’ve found it difficult recently to challenge and question my own beliefs whilst retaining obedient faithfulness. Here, I’ve found discussing issues with other believers very helpful.  I’m still an immature Christian, still doubtful and still torn between God and the world at times. Hopefully that will change by God’s mercy and his Holy Spirit.

Graeme Lowe

10 Jun, 2020
It was a great start in life to have Christian parents, but it didn’t make me a Christian. Being a missionary kid I heard and saw amazing examples of Christian faith and God at work in PNG – but rather than inspiring me to become a Christian I felt that I wasn’t good enough and that God was probably too busy with more important things than to take notice of me. I never doubted the many stories of the Bible that I learned at home and church and the way God worked in human history - but it never seemed to be my story. Around the end of primary school my family attended the Easter Convention at Belgrave Heights and God used the preacher not only to convince me that my sin was part of the reason for Jesus’ death, but that in His death Jesus paid for that very sin and every other sin I had committed. Like the people in Acts 2:37 , I was “cut to the heart,” asked God to forgive me and found out He wasn’t too busy to take notice of me. It was profound to me that I now knew God - because previously I only knew about Him. Through all the ups and downs of life from that moment and to this day God has shown me that I have a place in His story – now and forever. 
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