Born in Poland, I followed the traditions of the Roman Catholic religion for the first 18 years of my life: christened as a baby, having religious lessons, and attending Sunday ‘mass’ with my parents, as all the other children in my village did.
I was taught to believe in God’s existence, the concept of sin, hell and heaven. What I lacked, however, was peace with God. I questioned the purpose of life and felt a deep sense of unhappiness.
I have always enjoyed reading and was led to a book called The Master. Based on the Gospel of John, this book presented the life of Jesus Christ on earth, his death and resurrection.
I believed instantly in what I had read as a true reality and this has had a powerful impact on me. I had never heard properly the amazing story of Christ from the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and, for the first time, began to read the Bible for myself.
The more I studied the Bible, the more I realised that the Roman Catholic Church did not represent true Christianity, but instead burdened its followers with empty traditions and falsehood.
One early morning, I realised that, in order to follow Christ as my Saviour and Lord, I needed to turn away from a life of rebellion and turn towards God.
I found an evangelical church in Lodz, Poland, where I joined a group of Bible-believing Christians and was baptised. Unlike my christening as a baby, this baptism reflected the wonderful fact that I was now truly a child of God, by his grace alone, through faith in Jesus Christ, as God’s Son who paid the penalty for all my sin.
Praise God for taking me ‘out of darkness into his glorious light’ (1 Peter 2:9)! Since my new spiritual birth, I have continued to experience God’s unfailing kindness and love. I am now a member of the Evangelical Free Church, Stony Stratford, which I have attended for nearly 20 years, together with my family.
Yola Johnson
