Holland Christian Schooling Report

In the beginning I understood my Christin faith as an academic. I did as I was told, I read my bible, and I followed the Ten Commandments as any teenager does; when it suited me. I wasn’t a horrible teenager, I was raised in a small farm community that really didn’t understand someone with a vole at the end of their name, or someone who wanted to walk to the library and read rather than hang out on the steps of the malt shop/gas station. My formative years were the 1960’s. There was so much conflict and rebellion and hatred. By the time I graduated and was supposed to go out and make my way I was thoroughly confused with and rebellious. Problem was I wasn’t sure what I was rebelling against; the “rebel without a clue.” But, in the end I wound up being a successful trial attorney; I even ran for Congress! I became a Master of the Universe; I was a Goddess that walked on the earth. I believed that God already had enough on his plate, wars, famine, disease, atrocities; why should I plague Him further? After all, the Bible says: “God

As a child, I grew up going to Catholic School, from Kindergarten, until eighth grade. My mother thought private school was best for my brother and I, as there’s a misconception that since you’re paying a tuition, the education is better. My mother was also Catholic at the time, so she was more comfortable with us growing up being taught religion, which should inevitably cause us to be Christians and believe in God. Years went by of me being educated on religion, and by the age of twelve, I felt guilty that I couldn’t process or accept the idea of there being a God. I came to this reality due to the fact that I didn’t feel the connection to God that our teachers taught us we should have; I didn’t feel loved by an alternate being, I felt alone, and I didn’t grasp how such a thing could be possible.

Faith can ebb and flow through a lifetime, and it is rare for it to remain constant. This was one of the main points in Christian Wiman’s My Bright Abyss. He discusses that just as we grow as individuals; we must also grow in our faith. At this point in my senior year I was going through a particularly hard time, and was having trouble trusting in God and believing everything would be okay. In hindsight this may have been a good thing in the long run, as I was more receptive to the messages I received at NCYC, particularly with respect to what prayer is, and how to pray.

In recent days I had the opportunity to go back to North Carolina for a few short days. There, with a heavy heart from a loss in the family, I had nothing else to look towards. I’ve always heard of individuals finding peace, faith, blessings, and love of Christ from attending church. I’ve never been a person who put their faith into a higher power. As I was growing up my parents never wanted to force me into any religion without me knowing everything about it and choosing which route to take on my own. As the years treaded on, I never bothered myself to learn about the many different religions and what each stands for. So I used this opportunity as mine to attend church for the very first time. I attended the Roman Catholic services held

My mom once told me when I was young and ignorant, “Faith is the foundation of a beautiful friendship with the one person who will always remain by your side”. These words were expressed even more profoundly every Sunday in the echoing corridors of a small church by a priest I had yet to know or even care about. Preaching with his perplexing words in which I could only muster barely a fourth of my full attention span listening to. Thus, the term faith did not exactly resonate with me until many years later. My early years were filled with the teachings of the bible in Sunday school and later on as well in middle school during Friday night sessions. Unfortunately, my mom was an extremely strong enforcer of our faith for she was also raised Catholic from birth, but my dad on the other hand has a more scientific approach to how the world came to be. The years I spent in Sunday school blurred into an everlasting line of bleak nothingness just a ticking clock waiting till an end. Even today I do not remember anything that occurred within those taxing sixty minuets of constant bible studies it’s as though I lost the key to the inner workings of my childhood. Nonetheless, there have always been unbelievably great role models in my faith such as my mom, youth ministers, and friends who encourage me to be open to my faith. However, it’s always been my own restrictions that prevent me from furthering my relationship with God. So when my sister suffered her first severe

Growing up, my life was somewhat sheltered compared to the lives of other people my age. I was raised by both my mom and dad in a Christian household, in which I was taught morals based upon our faith. As a result of this upbringing, my parents and I made the decision to enroll me in a private Christian school in sixth grade. In this setting I was protected from the influences of the outside world. All of the language, violence, and temptations were around me, which I began to recognize as I entered my freshman year of high school. Even the walls of the highly respected establishment could not keep the real world out.

I'm being raised in a Christian home by two incredible parents who have taught me to hold on tight to my faith and morals. In today's society, I've discovered that "holding on tight" isn't enough. I have to grip even tighter to where my knuckles are white because it's so easy to conform to the ways of the world and drift away from God. I think that's why it was so refreshing to step back and disconnect from the world for the 8 days I spent in Guatemala. My understanding of how great Gods love increased. My prayers were more sophisticated, I witnessed with more eagerness, and my relationship with the Holy Spirit became finer. I'm blessed to have carried back home more confidence and openness about my beliefs.

Before I came to college, I really did not have a Christian community to call home. I diligently attended Sunday service etc., but I did not have a community of Christians that surrounded me in my school and daily life. Most of the attendees were older adults who did not understand my youthful tendencies and interests. Thus, it was hard for me to exercise my beliefs outside of the church setting. My friends at school did not care for my faith, and I felt my spirituality be suppressed and ignored. I knew that I was not growing in faith by sermon messages alone and needed a spiritual community of mentorship, accountability, and guidance. However, I did not know where to find it.

As a child I was forced into a religion I knew absolutely nothing about. My mother woke me up early every Sunday and got me ready for mass. I hated it. I didn’t comprehend why I was being forced to attend and listen to some stranger talk for hours, about something I did not understand. This continued for a couple years until I was around 8 years old and my family became inactive. Although we became inactive, our faith still lingered and we continued to pray every night, and not leave our homes without a blessing. A couple years later I felt as if something was calling me to attend the church. I started

As an American citizen with almost unlimited freedom of religion in this country, I have taken full advantage of this freedom that has been graciously given to me for free just for being born in the land of the free and the home of the brave. As a young child until the end of my junior high school education I attended a Christian school, and throughout the span of my high school career I attended a Lutheran school. Both of these schools had an impact on my religiously, and as the person I have developed into today. Although there were similarities between each of the schools I attended, there were also clear differences between them. Like schools, religions also have differences between them, such as the god or spiritual presence which

I was raised in a divorced family, both of my parents believed in raising my sister and I with a Christian-based background. I was enrolled into a private christian academy as soon as I started kindergarten. With my first impression of the education system I was

For all seventeen years of my life, I have grown up in a Christian home and attended a Seventh Day Adventist church and school. I believe that growing up in a Christian environment has provided me with the foundation of my spiritual life. I 've been taught fundamental aspects and ideas of Christianity and have studied most of the common stories and messages of the Bible. However, even though I am equipped with these study materials and spiritual strengths, I believe that my relationship with God is shaky and not as strong as it has the potential to be. Even though I can proudly acknowledge that there is a God, I often don 't feel His presence and sometimes doubt His existence. I always find myself questioning my spiritual life and relationship with God. If I 've grown up in a Christian environment all of my life, why do I not have a strong relationship with Him? Why is my faith so weak? I believe that the answers to these questions can be found by acknowledging my spiritual weaknesses and using my spiritual strengths to improve them. I believe that acting on some of my spiritual weaknesses, such as an insufficient amount of time devoted to God, unfocused time with spent with Him, and biblical unintelligence, can help me to improve my spiritual life and walk with God.

I walked into my new classroom and was asked constantly what was wrong with my hand and foot. After constant bombardment from my classmates, this was when I started questioning my faith. I became very lost until 7th grade. I still believed in God, but only so that there was someone to blame for making me who I was. All I wanted was to be just like everyone else. My faith was renewed in 7th grade when I found my home church. The congregation was very friendly and the church had a youth group and mission trip opportunities, both of which I took advantage of. Around the same time, I also started taking medicine for my condition which vastly increased my

Religion is practiced worldwide in many different forms. My family and I have been through a religious journey throughout my lifetime. When I was younger, I would attend a Mennonite church with my grandmother and my parents would come mostly for holidays. They were not very much of the church going type until I was older. My dad did not see it was important for us to attend church until his parents returned home from missionary work in Guadalajara, Mexico when my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer. I was in third grade when they returned home and we did not start attending regularly until a few years after. We still lived in a “Christian” home but as I have grown up, looking back, I see that it was not much of a Christian home. We only prayed on holidays before we would eat our meal and that was when we were surrounded by my grandparents of either side. Eventually we started attending church regularly at a United Methodist church up the road from our house. I still do not believe we are that dedicated to the church and to God, as we only pray before we eat on Sundays and holidays as well. We do not speak much of God or ways we could work on being better Christians, we still go about the same ways of life we had before, except now on Sundays we attend a sermon. After all of this, I am slightly torn on what I personally believe. I feel as though I am lost in that part of my life. I hope in the next few years, I find what I truly believe.

My father grew up in a very basic home structure, with Christian values and beliefs, but not very strong in the practice. On the other hand, my mom had to basically survive on her own, as her house wasn’t broken, but it was abusive and had its own struggles. Her mother, of whom is my grandmother, forced them to go to the local church just to get her and the other eight to nine siblings she had, out of the house. I guess you could say my parents weren’t very strong Christians until about the time when they had me. Mom even said she thought her Christianity wasn’t really that strong until I was able to comprehend what I was originally being taught, and was then capable of applying it to my life. I went to the private school that my church had for six or seven years, and while I honestly abhorred it, it taught me a lot. Being understanding,