I’m Aloysius, 17 this year. I started attending Woodlands Evangelical Free Church with my family in early 2025. As I spent more time attending church and learning about God, and learning more about Revelation at the Saturday Youth Ministry sessions, I began to understand God's love and what Jesus the slain Lamb did for me on the cross to forgive my sin. I realised that I wasn’t fully committed to Him before and had a lot of sinning, and I wanted to change and start a new life with Jesus as the main thing of my life.
Before, I was afraid about trusting God. For example, I was only 50-50% sure if I would go to heaven. But now, it’s a different story. I now understand that it is by God's grace alone that I can have the 100% confidence to say that I will be with God forever if I should die today. It has nothing to do with what I have done or what I can do — it is not an exchange — like what Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.” It means God saving me has nothing to do with going to church more, reading the Bible more, etc., because I can never be “good enough”. I believe Jesus died for my sins and rose again to offer forgiveness. I have accepted His gift of life to me and that is the reason I can be sure about my salvation.
The testimony of my father’s life story has also encouraged me. Because I have seen how he has turned over a new leaf after becoming a Christian, and how he has put his faith in God and in the promises and finished work of Jesus, that has also helped me want to put my faith in Jesus.
Baptism, to me, is a very special step in my journey with God. Through this I am choosing to publicly declare my faith to Jesus Christ and my desire to follow Him wholeheartedly. To me, it is also a mark of leaving my old life behind and beginning a new life with the Lord.
