Dear Grandchildren, We're in for a treat. Your cousin, Aaron Moore, is sharing his testimony today. If you read last month's newsletter, Sabrina shared her testimony. So, we'll get further insights into the incredible things God is doing in their lives. We split the testimony into two parts. Part 1 is today and Part 2 will come at the next newsletter. Enjoy! Aaron: Being asked to write a testimony has always been hard for me and slightly awkward. Growing up in a Christian home, I've always been surrounded by the Bible and believers, so it was hard to describe the certain point that was my “coming to Jesus” moment. My school curriculum, from an early age, had always consisted of Bible verses and Christian sciences. My friends were homeschooled and came from families with a similar background. Many times, even my sports leagues were with various church groups or homeschooled families. It wasn't until I moved during my fourth-grade year, I even realized that not everyone in the world was a Christian. Throughout high school, I was very active in my school and my church as a Christian advocate. I led a weekly Bible study before school my junior and senior year, sometimes having an attendance of over 30 students. I looked forward to summer church camps and retreats more than any other part of the year. It was always a natural part of my young life; I never questioned my faith or its validity. I couldn't wrap my mind around questioning whether there was a God. The answer was a simple, absolute, and undeniable, yes. My freshman year of college, things changed. I attended churches randomly, usually at the invitation of a few college friends. However, if going to church meant I had to go to bed early on a Saturday night and not party with friends, the answer was simple. Skip church and enjoy college life. I was out of focus. I asked myself if going to church was a waste of time. On the occasions I attended church, I'd sit there thinking of the other ways I could be better spending my time. I was questioning whether church, and possibly religion, was worth it. I'd still claim to be a Christian if asked. I still prayed and read my Bible weekly but didn't have the same desire to lead a Christian life as I had for the better part of my life. This was a scary time and I constantly felt guilty about it. It was hard because I knew I should believe with full certainty, and I should search hard to find the answers and should get involved in a Christian community, but I found no drive to do so. It wasn't until Sabrina moved to Edwardsville that things changed for me. We attended church regularly again, which at first was hard for me. I had been out of it for so long that being in a setting with many Christians felt awkward and uncomfortable. However, we kept going together and made a commitment to ourselves and our faith. After a few months of going to Trailhead Church, I still wasn't feeling engrossed in the belief I wanted. That was when Sabrina and I joined a small group and dove deeper into the community and fellowship within our church. This has been the biggest blessing in our faith and our personal relationship. Once again, I have a group of men and women I can ask hard questions that had been built up for the past two years. I have a community that deeply cares for one another and is there consistently, week after week, to pray over one another and to fellowship. I can honestly say that returning to church and to a community of awesome individuals has made such a change in my attitude towards life and my relationship with Sabrina. My hope for Sabrina and myself is that no matter where life takes us, we continue to find people to challenge and hold us accountable. Being away from church for as long as I was in my early college years took a toll on my faith, but the past two years have completely turned that around. What I confidently believe is, we have a God and a Savior that came to this earth, who are actively playing an integral part in our lives and in this world. While I acknowledge there are things in the Bible I don’t understand and maybe never will, I'm excited to continue in my relationships with the church and to grow in my knowledge and belief in God. I want to grow as a believer and to have a faith that will give me the courage to confidently raise our future children as strong Christian individuals. REAL TESTIMONY written on 7/20/22: Wow, this is crazy that this Google page was here. This morning, as I sit at my computer to type my testimony-my real testimony-I stumbled upon this page. I can't remember writing this in May 2020, but I know in May 2020, I was NOT saved. To be honest, that time was one of the craziest of our life. But I'm incredibly happy I wrote that testimony because this makes what I'm typing today much easier. My previous testimony covered much of how I felt but saying I was later saved was far from the truth. Before this month, I didn't believe God was real. I said I did, and I was going to church to figure what "being saved" was. But in my heart, I believed God wasn't real. I'd never have a relationship with Him, and I couldn't stand having to talk to “saved” Christians about my faith. I had grown tired of seeing people that claim to be Christians but lived a life that was clearly fake. And I was tired of hearing people talk about and relate every situation and problem back to God. When someone talked about God, prayer, or the Spirit, I'd envy their joy, but didn't trust them because I thought they were ignorant and jaded. I would've never written this or admitted these words before because I was ashamed and embarrassed. I had to “be a Christian” for the rest of my life, and never talk to anyone about it, including my wife, because they'd know I didn’t believe. I wasn't scared of the fact I didn't believe; I feared people would know I didn't believe. I went to church, prayed, and wanted to know God. I craved to feel what people, like my grandparents, talked about feeling, but I never thought it would happen. Therefore, I honestly didn't believe it was real. Until this month. My entire life I've been in church, and had the desire to believe, but never did. I'm a practical person and I always heard people say God still talks to you and performs miracles. I'd tell God, “If you're real, I need a very clear sign from you.” Many times, something great would happen that could be God, but later I'd think it could also be a coincidence. I would move on with my life. That has been my whole life until lately. God hit Sabrina and me so hard in the face at the same moment. And for the first time, I felt the Spirit of God come into my life. The Spirit literally flooded my body, my mind, and my heart. Last month, if someone would've told me this happened to them, I would've thought they were another crazy, delusional Christian. I would've said, “Good for you! God is good," and walked away, avoiding them forever. If Sabrina would've told me she was “saved,” I would've been angry that I now would have to live with a new wife. But God saved us in the same moment. Here is what happened in our life. I hope it encourages you. MARRIAGE RETREAT It is very hard to pick a starting place for our story, but I'll begin at what we believe was the moment God started prevalently changing us. Sabrina’s grandparents told us early this year they wanted to host a marriage retreat in Michigan for the grandkids. They've married most of the grandchildren. And they're a light in our lives. We had a newborn and were hesitant to travel but felt like we needed to go. We thought our marriage was great, but now see God needed us there. The weekend was amazing, but some of the biggest takeaways for us was, we needed to find Christian friends and join a church. During the past two months, we've regularly attended our church, joined a small group, made new friends, and tithed again. That was a small part of the trip. Next were things that have happened in two months. CHURCH We started attending Twin Rivers Church and love it. After the Michigan trip, we attended every week and God has been placing the perfect sermons on our minds. Yet we were still not saved. Sabrina joined a women-in-business small group she loves. Every week, she comes home with information, joy, and stories of how God's working in the ladies’ lives. He has finally brought her friends who were uplifting and joyful. She constantly talked about how some women were so contagious, nice, and fun to be around. She thought they were just the best people but didn't know they were that way because they had the spirit. We've met people in the church who do videography (I will get to that story later). Basically, since we've been going to church and making friends, we've been having many revelations. TITHING/ BUSINESS How our business has been thriving, the words we've had with clients, and the literal filming and editing of our work, might be some of the greatest revelations God has given us lately. For the month of April, we made $0. We had made little more than that for a couple of months, too. When we returned from the marriage retreat, we felt we had to tithe for the entire year. It was such a hard thing to do (especially for someone that didn't believe God was real). I viewed it as giving money away to a club and organization that made many people feel good about themselves. I hated tithing because I felt I didn't have a personal relationship with God. But since we've tithed, we have had the two biggest months in our business, making almost as much money as I made in a year at my old job, a job we discussed possibly having to go back to. In the past two months, so much about our business is changing. We have had new words with brides, our edits have improved, and we upgraded a lot of equipment. We thought we were killing it, but now see we were doing in two months what we hadn't done in seven years. God is working on our business, making it thrive as we head into our seventh year of business. TRUCK AND RV Seven is a significant number for us during this testimony. On our drive to Michigan-the ride in which we were saved- we finally accepted our truck. We've always had this burden of the $35,000 wasted on the RV and truck. But God spoke to us in that moment and showed us how good the truck was. After accepting that and knowing we weren't selling it, we realized we only really lost $7k on the RV. This was before we were saved and realized that seven was an important number. After we got saved, we realized we had just booked a $7k wedding, the first ever! The same number of the loss of the RV. It was crazy. God made our RV broken and terrible so we would buy the perfect house, move to the perfect area, at the perfect time. I would've never quit my job to do videography full time if we hadn't bought the RV, and our life would not be what it is. WISDOM THE LAST 2 MONTHS Since the marriage retreat, we thought we've been getting really smart. We've dissected and came to terms with childhood hurt, having very hard conversations with friends and family, and growing our business. We've been talking about how we're being filled with new ideas every day and thinking we were just so cool. But we now see God gave us these amazing things, and that He was working hard in our since we’ve been pursuing Him for real. We discovered this on our ride to Michigan. Part 2 will be shared in the next newsletter. Featured Photo by Alex Perez on Unsplash