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My Conversion By Sarah, a member of Quo Vadis.
I was raised Church of Christ. My parents were, well they still are, very religious. They taught me about God and Jesus, and took me to church every Sunday. I loved that church. I was comfortable there. Everyone knew me, and were very friendly to me. (they still are very nice and loving people). I was baptised Church of Christ, went to a Church of Christ school throughout Junior High and High school. I had some AMAZING Bible teachers who taught me the faith, drawing me closer to Our Lord. I was still very much Church of Christ when I left for College. I joined the College Group at University Church of Christ, and grew to love those people. And even when I met Brian, I was the one saying that if anything ever happened HE would be the one converting. NOT me. I was hardcore and I loved my faith. So why the change? I mean I was happy where I was, why did I need to go off and join another church? This is where it gets interesting. Being who I am, and dating a Catholic guy, I wanted to talk about it A LOT. I was determined to change his mind. we would get into arguments, and discussions, neither one of us winning. The Spring Semester came, and I finally gave up trying to talk about it. Now, as most of you know I have a problem with depression, that has a BIG role in this story. Brian and I were happy when we were together, and when discussing faith, it wasn't anything harsh, we didn't raise our voices, and we always ended on a positive note. Well it was about midway through the Spring Semester, and it was a bad day. I was depressed for no reason, and I really did not want to go to class, besides we were just watching a movie anyway. So I decided to skip class. (Not a wise thing to do, but I just couldn't be around people) I tend to think better when I drive, so that's what I did. I hopped in my car and drove. I decided to pick a street, and see where it took me. I decided that Prince St. was the best. Instead of turning Right, which leads to downtown Conway, I turned left. So I'm driving along, listening to a cd that Brian had made me, thinking to myself. Just stuff like, "I don't know what to do with my life", "Why am I so depressed?", "I wonder where this road leads."and "I wish that God would show me what to do with my life, where I am suppose to go, and do." And that's when I go under "highway hypnosis" You know where you just blank out, don't really remember anything about the drive, just that you ended up somewhere. Well I blank out, and the next thing I know is that I am in a Catholic Church parking lot. Being the good Church of Christ girl that I was, I turned around as fast as I could and got out of there. I was NOT about to go into a Catholic church!! In my eyes they were idol worshipping pagans!!! With all their statues, and "Hail, Mary's". Nope I was getting out of there. As I was speeding off, I hear a voice in my head. "Why not become Catholic?" "You can at LEAST inquire about it." Why are you running from My church?" I argued (out loud) with that voice, saying "No!! It's not the church of God." "Why would I want to learn about a 'non-christian' faith" "I'm not going to do that." I went back to school, and met up with Brian by the fountain, which was our typical custom on nice days. And of couse I looked a bit confused, well he asked and I told, but I didn't give him the whole story. I just told him that I remembered working for daddy one day, and having to go out into the middle of no where and finding this Catholic Church. I think he knew that I wasn't telling him everything, but he went along with it. So I went to go find Jamie, and I told her. She thought that it was very interesting and weird. But it was kinda cool. About this time one of my friends was in the process of leaving the Catholic Church and joining another. furthering my thought that the Catholic Church was wrong. I decided to go and talk to my preacher at UCC about it. I told him what happened, and he told me that he converted from Catholicism. I was "ok, cool." and he taught me how to do "breath prayers" just simple short little prayers that you can say throughout the day. i took that with me, and put it into practice. For the rest of the semester though, I had a pull to go back to the Catholic Church. I was usually able to resist, but sometimes I would give in. Esecially when I was depressed. Besides, the drive was pretty. Well, Summer came. Brian went to Altus, and I went to Maumelle. It was not fun at first. I didn't get to talk to him, nor see him. I didn't have a job, so I was BORED!!!!Mom usually had to run errands throughout the day, so I was home alone a lot. One day, I was REALLY bored. And there was nothing good on T.V. so I decided to flip through the channels and see what else was on. I came upon the Religious section of the channels. And that was when I was introduced to EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) I thought it looked cool, so I switched to that. What I didn't realize was that it was a Catholic T.V. station. I thought that it was kinda cool that the Catholic Church had it's own T.V. station and wondered why the Church of Christ didn't. Well I watched this one show called "My Little Angels." It was OBVIOUSLY for kids, but I still sat there. They had some catchy songs. And then came on " Hi, Lucy." Oh my GOODNESS!!!! it was the MOST ANNOYING SHOW!!!! I could not stand it!!! i quickly turned the T.V. off and went to go read. So a couple of days go by and I'm home alone again, and bored. So i turn on the T.V. and watch some Mythbusters, and A Haunting, but then I just got the urge to watch EWTN, I knew I was going to regret it, but I turned it anyway. Playing was "EWTN Classics with Mother Angelica." I watched a few minutes of it, and instantly fell in love with it. I didn't agree with her, but she was cute and funny. Always making jokes, but a lot of her stuff could apply to other Christians, and that's what I liked. But I still thought that she was wrong. So I found myself watching more and more of EWTN. And then I was watching it and the series "What Catholics REALLY Believe." came on. I thought that it would be interesting. Just to see how "bad" the Catholic Church was. I watched it, and the more they started talking the more things made sense. I realised that I had NO idea what the Catholic church was about. Everything that I thought was wrong. And that's when I felt that I had to learn more. I messaged my friend asking if she knew of a priest that I could talk to. She never messaged me back. So, I decided to take things into my own hands. It was the day of the Crow Family Reunion. I left early because I wanted to "go home". Yeah I didn't, instead I drove around for 3 hours trying to find a Catholic Church that was opened or that did not have a Sat, night Mass. I had a list of churches who offered Perpetual Adoration that I got online, from a website advertised by EWTN. So I went to those churches. Well I couldn't find anything. So, I went to the Diocese. I didn't really know that it was the headquarters for all the Catholic churches in Arkansas, I just knew that it was a Catholic place. I went inside, tring to find someone. I was walking around, and FINALLY someone walked by and saw me. She asked if I needed something, and in desperation I said, "YES!!!" "do you know where the priest is I need to talk to him." She asked which Father I was looking for, and I just told here that I didn't care. She said that they had all left, but she gave me the website for the Diocese. The next night, while my parents were away, I went to the website, and started looking through it. Then way at the bottom I noticed a box and it read "Interested in the Catholic Faith, or want to come back?" I was like "OMG!!! That is so me!!" I clicked on it, and it started talking about RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) I was so happy, because now, finally my questions were going to be answered. It listed off the Parishes that offered RCIA, so I e-mailed a couple of them and just waited to hear backe from them. I also e-mailed EWTN, to thank them for the great service they do, and how it helped me become interested in the Catholic Faith. They e-mailed me back with information about the Coming Home Network. It's a group of Catholics and non-Catholics. What happens is that each non-Catholic is paired with a Catholic "helper". And when you had questions, you could e-mail your helper, and they would explain it to you. I was paired with a helper, and she helped me a lot. She converted from Church of Christ, so she knew where I was coming from. It was great. She had all these links on different articles, different Catholic websites, it was AWESOME!!I loved it!!! I was longing more and more to learn about the Catholic Church and to watch EWTN. But I still had my doubts. The Catholic Church made sense but I wanted to make sure that this was something that God wanted me to do. I went to my room and tried to meditate and listen to God, but I was too distracted. I got by my window and prayed, "God, show me what you want from me. What do you have planned for me. I am leaving myself completely open to you and your will, just tell me." For a moment it was just silence, and then a very slight breeze came through. But my window was closed and the air was off, so I don't know where it came from. And then I heard the sweetest, most innocent voice say to me "I gave you the gift of teaching, now go and use it well." Besides freaking me out a little, it left me confused. It did not mention at all if I was taking the steps he wanted. But it also did not say that I should stop. And at that moment I knew I was doing the right thing. The next day I went out and bought my first Rosary. I went on the internet and looked up how to pray the Rosary, printed it off, and took it upstairs to my room. That night, I decided that I was going to pray the Rosary. I was VERY nervous, because I hd no idea what I was doing, but it felt right. i started praying, and gradually I just felt more at peace. I was happy. And I looked out my window to look to the sky and I could've sworn that I saw the outline of Our Lady in the branches of the trees. But it was her face only, and it looked like she was smiling. This gave me great confidence, and ever since then I have been given a great grace by God to understand fully the Catholic Church, and to be able to explain it. That is my story. I would also like to add, that I am not betraying the Church of Christ. It was because of the Church of Christ that I grew up with a love for Jesus, and they helped me understand the importance of worshipping and honoring Our God. I am just taking what they gave me and going deeper with it. That is all. |