At Casey Church this year we have had many reasons to celebrate, particularly 8 reasons. That is 8 people who made a decision to get baptised. Earlier in the year we celebrated three of our young people who made decisions at summer camps in early 2020. In July 2021 Danubia and Matthias celebrated their baptism in a small window of church not being in lockdown. The highlight being that Matthias’s dad, head elder Jeremy was able to do the baptism. Finally on the last weekend in November, 3 more people stepped into the waters. Natasha, Myitzuri and John. Each person has a unique story, a special journey and we want to just share a small part of John’s, in his own words.
“My journey started thirty years ago where I questioned what I believed and who is God. Having grown up as a Greek Orthodox and going to a Greek Orthodox school I started realising how much of what I believed was actually more tradition and culture rather than faith.
Giving my testimony in front of Casey church I was trying to figure out what I was going to say and then realised I was actually trying to figure out what I would leave out, considering everything I realised God had done for me over the years.
After many years of searching and looking at other religions, trying to delve deeper into the Greek Orthodox faith and at times looking into other beliefs. Through many searches I stumbled across the Bible Flock Box Youtube channel. The channels presenter Greg Sereda was someone I could listen to, trusted and he would answer many of my questions in the live chat. The more I watched and listened the more I realised that all this now made sense. I still had questions but that was a s a result of years of Orthodox conditioning that I needed to get around. As an example, the worship and praying to saints.
Finally, after a few failed attempts to reach out to a local Seventh Day Adventist church, I messaged Greg and asked for help. Greg, who was in Poland passed my details onto a colleague in New Zealand who in turn got in touch with family that attended the Yarra Valley SDA Church. The family members approached Pastor Emanuel Millen who contacted me however I failed to answer the call. He then by chance ran into Pastor Sylvia from the Casey Church and passed on my details to her as I was living in the Casey area. Pastor Sylvia contacted me and we started talking. We set up bible studies with Bible worker Liam and all of my questions were answered. The answers made sense and were backed up with the Bible. So, my plea for help went around the globe and finally got back to within kilometres of where I lived and the hand of God was there every step of the way leading me.
Throughout the past year since first being contacted by Pastor Sylvia who shared the same background as me, I learnt a lot and every day I found myself closer to God. He was there protecting me through a horrific car accident which I came out of uninjured and also more recently leading up to my baptism he protected me from a situation late one night that could have turned very hurtful.
I have learnt to trust God more and more and although I am not perfect and far from being where I think I need to be I now recognise the glory of God and how he impacts my life in everyday life. He is always there and I am grateful.
As a result, it was apparent I needed to be baptised and give my life to God for everything he has done for me. It was with a great sense of humility I was able to stand in front of my brothers and sisters at Casey church and share with them my baptism and the new chapter in my life.”
We are in awe of how God is working in the lives of people constantly, if we just pause and take a closer look.
-Pastor Sylvia Mendez
