On February 27, 2021, Church members at Dandenong Filipino Church celebrated to witness Simon Jackman’s profession of faith and Korey Abrahams’ baptism.
Korey, who will be worshipping with the Clyde Connect congregation, studied the Bible with Irene Chee, who has shared his testimony with us. Here is his story…
I grew up in a Christian family, but it was only recently that I became a Christian. What I mean by that is that as far back as I can remember my family would go to church every Sabbath, and I remember going to kids Sabbath School before the main service, opening and closing Sabbath as a family each week and even attending Heritage College for a little while. I remember always believing in the things I was taught as a child, regarding God and the Bible, but I was not at the point where it was a personal choice for myself.
Moving into my high school years, I found myself exposed to the world and the freedom to experience it outside the family environment. This exposure made it so much easier to be enticed by the secular world and I succumbed. From early on I was really into music and would often be found with headphones in my ears, volume on full blast. I was also a movie head and could binge for hours upon hours.
I remember taking weekly Bible studies throughout High School, and occasionally attendin
g church, but I felt like I never really knew what was going on during the sermons or when I was reading the Bible. Even though I believed in God and the things I was taught as a child, I didn’t practice anything.
Around this time my family experienced some issues that had a negative effect on me and I became a very angry person and developed a mental health issue, which, along with my aggression, shaped the years after I left school.
I moved out of home, started partying and abusing alcohol and other substances. A few years later I met my wife and we fell pregnant after dating a short time. Our daughter Amalia was born, but we soon separated. I moved in with friends and the partying and substance abuse intensified, while I continued to blame everyone and everything around me for my issues.
At this point I stopped working but still wanted to provide for my daughter, so took up alternative ways of making money.
Amaleia’s mother and I got back together and moved, and for a while things were ok, but then we broke up again and I really started to spiral out of control with substance abuse and depression.
There are three significant things in my life that inevitable lead me to Christ.
During this out of control time, my cousin Sheldon, and his wife Silvana kept inviting me to attend church and one day I didn’t put it off to the following week,I said yes! We attended Casey Seventh-day Adventist Church and as I sat in my seat, I felt like the whole sermon was specifically for me; that God wanted me to be there on that day to hear that message, and I couldn’t help but cry the whole way through.
The preacher asked those who wanted to make a change and give their life to God, to come to the front and I did. But I went home and was right back to partying, putting the whole experience out of my mind.
Some time later in a dark mental space, I decided I just couldn’t take it any longer. I was driving to my cousin’s house and started to speed up toward a brick wall when in my head told me to take my foot off the pedal. I believe that voice was God, but as with the first experience, I just put the it out of my head and moved on.
My partner and I got back together but nothing much had changed with my lifestyle. Then one day, in desperation, I decided I was going to go back to church and started reading my Bible. I attended the Berwick church group a few times and was reading my Bible, but continued with my substance abuse. One night at a friend’s house having a few drinks, we got onto the topic of the Bible and I was explaining the bible it to them and it hit me – how could I be teaching my friends about the God and the Bible and be sitting there drunk and high?
The next morning I woke determined to quite my addictions.
I wish is could say I never relapsed, but by the grace of God I can say I’ve been sober almost twelve months and I do that by purposing in my heart to continue my growing relationship with Jesus daily, through personal dedication time, Bible study twice a week and connecting with my church family at Clyde Connect. The one on one and group studies that I have been doing weekly with Irene really opened my eyes to growing closer to Jesus through Bible study. I have come to learn so much more, as we studied the Bible chapter by chapter, and have draw nearing to Jesus through His Word. I have learnt to look for and find Jesus in all scripture, resulting in a better spiritual, physical, mental, financial and family situation for me.
This always reminds me of one of my favourite verses in Matthew 6. “Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you”.
Clyde Connect members celebrated with Korey at his baptism