This page is dedicated to teens sharing how Jesus has changed their lives.

Lennox (year 12)

I was born in Hong Kong into a completely non-Christian family. When I was six, my family (dad, mum, brother and I) moved over to Australia. Soon after arriving, my parents started attending the Cantonese service of EFCA, then held here at East Lindfield. Naturally I was brought along to Sunday School, and being at such a young age, I easily accepted what I learnt there: that Jesus was my King and Saviour and that he was all-powerful. My parents became Christians shortly afterwards and essentially I’ve grown up in a Christian household and I can say that I’ve been a Christian pretty much all of my conscious life, not being able to remember much of life in Hong Kong. There wasn’t a point where I was a non-Christian and then I was. Our family kept on going to church on a weekly basis, and I always went to Sunday School and over the years I developed a solid understand of who Jesus was and what he did for me. At the beginning of high school, I started going to the Bible studies on Sunday mornings run by some youth leaders, and during Years 7-8 I think that my reason for going was more to see friends than to actually study God’s word. But this period soon passed and particularly over the past two years I’ve felt that I have matured a lot as a Christian. I’ve been blessed with a great supporting family and caring youth leaders and Christian brothers and sisters at SWITCH, who have all encouraged me in my walk with God. Looking back over the past two years I can see how God has really helped me to grow in Him through youth group and events such as KYCK and the Next Generation Conference. He has provided me with a loving Christian environment in which I have grown up and The greatest change that I noticed is my increased motivation to read the Bible and spend time praying, something that felt like an obligation back in the early years of high school. More time spent reading the Bible have really deepened my understanding of what it really means to live for Christ, and particularly a series of studies on Matthew 5-7 have been particularly helpful. Being a Christian, I take great comfort in knowing that God is in control of every single aspect of my life, and also assurance that there is life after death. I can take all my worries and struggles to Him, and I know that He is caring and willing to listen.

Matt (year 12)

Well, I’m a kid born into a very Christian family, both my parents are Christian, grandparents are Christian (both my grandpa’s are reverends), relatives were mainly Christian, you  couldn’t really get much more of a Christian family than what I had. And as you would expect I was brought up with Sunday school, bible stories, taught to memorise the Lords prayer, the ten commandments. I remember not really liking it, I found it really strict and boring… it didn’t feel relevant to me. When I was in year 1 I moved to Australia for 3 years and stayed with my grandparents, and I remember that, if I stayed home on a Saturday and grandma happened to be at home too, I could expect a very long sermon on some part of the bible and being a good Christian when I ventured into where she was. 

I wouldn’t say I was a Christian, I believed that there was a God, I believed in Jesus Christ, but I never really considered what it meant, he had no relevant place in my life, I did not seek to devote my life to him, I thought, if I obeyed his commands and was a good person I would go to heaven. I was wrong. 

I came again to Australia in year 8 and this time it was permanently, my parents sent me to the school I am in now, Pacific Hills Christian School, at first I thought it was horrible, the students didn’t respect the teacher and nobody wanted to learn. This was also quite a down time for me, new culture, no friends, I had to do chores =.= (I had a maid in Hong Kong) and my relationship with God…well…there wasn’t much of a relationship. 

But God was good to me, I soon came to make friends with people at school who were Christians which has been very important to my growth in my relationship with God. Especially though was my Pastoral care teacher in school, she would often give devotions in class that I drew encouragement and knowledge from, her passion for God was a testimony that itself was encouraging. I started to come to realise how little of my life was devoted to God, and throughout year 11 I saw God’s work in me, the encouragement from my teacher, sharing struggles with my brothers and sisters in Christ, fellowship in church camps and learning from God’s word each week I was able to grow in my relationship with God, coming back to him through everything he had blessed me with. 

I guess the thing that I realised in 2009 was that, God was God, and Jesus had died for me. I remember talking with my friend and he said, “If God is really God, and is so great and died for us…shouldn’t our lives be so much more for him?” and I totally agree, he died for OUR wrongs, that our ignorant and proud selves could be saved from the trouble we had made for ourselves. And because of this I should give God the place where he should be in my life, the centre and I decided that was what I would do. 

For me it was definantly a journey where I came to know about God, a process where my relationship with him grew, just like any other relationship it takes time. And it still is a journey where everyday we need to pick up our cross and follow him to wherever he takes us, running this race with perseverance, striving to live a life worthy of our calling. 

Well… this is my testimony on how I decided to devote my life to God, but remember that a testimony is lived out in our actions, not just written down.

Lynn (year 12)

Since I was born, I grew up in a Christian family. And like the other kids in the Sunday school classes, I always went every Sunday, in rain or shine. When I was young, I didn’t really think deeply about what devoting your life for Jesus meant. However throughout year ten, that was when I started to discover more about myself and my identity, that was when I truly began to understand what living a life for God actually meant. In that year, I had joined Rice orchestra, and on the night of the event, I felt like I had gained a new perspective upon living as a real Christian, as though a blindfold had been lifted away from my eyes. The awe of seeing so many youth packed into the entertainment centre and singing songs to praise the Lord was a sight I will never forget.

Being a Christian has definitely made me a happier and more content person. By following Jesus, I have learnt to behave in ways that pleases him. However, my step towards being a true Christian was no smooth journey. There were times when I questioned my faith, especially when God didn’t seem to answer my prayers or help me through my struggles. There were times when I believed I could take my own life in my own hands and deal with it by myself. But I was wrong. In my high school years, I realised, I wasn’t strong enough to take on the world on my own, filled with sin and temptation.  The only person that I could put all my trust and hope into was God. Amidst adversities, he was the only one that could give me true peace and comfort in my heart.

Alice (year 12)

I’ve grown up believing in God, mainly through school in Hong Kong. I believed God was real, but I was too young to have a proper relationship with Him. After coming to Australia, through various hardships and blessings, especially my parents also becoming Christians, I really started to trust in God for all aspects of my life. I was really challenged when I was 14 in Chicago where my family attended a Christian conference. The youth were fantastic and I was so amazed by their passion. In fact, I felt really guilty because through the talks I was confronted with the fact that I don’t love God as much as the He loves me, or that I’m incapable of ever doing so. At that moment, I decided to fully repent and change my life.

My family is now dominated with Christian values. Whatever happens, I know I can trust in God and that because He loves me so such I can be truly joyful and content. Also, even with worries or fears, I know God has a plan and because I’m part of it, I don’t need to be afraid of the future.

Hannah (year 12)

Similar to some of the SWITCH teens, I was brought up in a Christian family and it was a process where I was exposed to Christ as I was a child. I remember being in a holiday program led by a man named Mr. Young at one of the FEFCA camps when I was younger. It was on that camp that I really believed that Jesus was my saviour, and I was in need of Him. I guess I was always the “good girl” at school and at church too. I knew all the answers at Scripture classes, I was always on top of my homework and I would listen to those who were in charge. If you could imagine a little Asian girl with pigtails and glasses quietly sitting at her desk surrounded by screaming students, you’d have a picture of who I was.

But once I reached high school I came out of my shell and began to question my faith. Was it really strong enough? There was a time when I felt like I knew that God was out there but I just couldn’t get to Him. I remember listening to a Christian’s amazing story of how she was touched by Jesus after a life of struggle and thinking that my faith wasn’t as strong because of all the good and fortunate things I have been brought up with. I felt that, somehow in the process, I had become softened and unaccustomed to life’s difficulties and I could never experience God’s goodness in the same way that she did. I never told anyone this, in case saying it aloud really made it true. I tried to ignore it, but it was hard. I was torn between living a life where I really wanted God to be at the centre of my life and a life where I just couldn’t be bothered to find time for Him.

Thinking back, I really had the blessing of being surrounded by Christian parents and friends, who encouraged me with their faith. I had been on a mission trip to Cooma in 2006 and found it to be fun and encouraging spending time with people who served God. So when the India Mission Trip 2009 came up I wanted to go and experience everything I had on the last mission trip. I expected God to work through us to show the Indians and, in particular, those who we were working with His love and grace. Little did I know that it wouldn’t be us who would be those encouraging.

On that trip I learnt that God can use anyone for His purposes, it didn’t matter whether we were rich or poor, average or spectacular. He showed me lives burdened with poverty and stories etched with pain and suffering, yet it was through these people that I learnt that God has a purpose for everything, through the Operation Mission workers at the campsite and even through the children we worked with. Most importantly, He showed me His love through them. Even though I was taught this lesson again and again in Sunday School it wasn’t until I saw those who God used that I realised that it didn’t matter how I was brought up, or how society defined me, but who I could be before Him. It didn’t matter that I was brought up in a Christian family, unaccustomed to real persecution but, rather, it now made sense to me that God had placed me where I was so that He could build my faith.

I realised that I didn’t need hardships to be a child of God, and that my faith didn’t depend on what I had gone through in life but that God had protected me from the scary things life could throw at you. I was really blown away by this, that someone so powerful and almighty would protect me, someone so unworthy, from a life where I may not have been able to grow in my relationship with Him otherwise.