Dear Hebron Baptist Church,
Through my short time of being on the race I have gained an extreme appreciation of you and the people that make up the church. Many of my squad mates and team members have struggled with church and have terrible views on churches because of the way their church treated them, or things their church believed in, or just the fact that the religion was put before the relationship in their church. As I was listening to story after story of why they disliked church my heart broke for them because I wish they had the church experience I had growing up.
Thank you Hebron for having a college ministry where my parents met and fell in love with Jesus, which shaped my whole life, because a “short” time ago someone took time to invest in my parents which caused me to be raised in a house that loves the Lord and disciplined me so that church was a normal part of my life. That same ministry was the one who helped send me out to the world.
Thank you for being a church who truly does believe in the next generation and intentionally invests in that generation. Thank you to the countless amount of Sunday school teachers, camp counselors, bible study teachers, and pastors that invested in a bratty, wild, little blonde girl and believed that there was something greater in me. To the countless amount of leaders who told me the exact same thing my parents did, but of course it sounded better coming from you, for the hard talks when I was wrong, for the hugs when I cried, and the encouragement throughout my entire life.
This church has helped shape who I have become today. Thank you for providing a safe environment for when I messed up and always showed me the love of Jesus. Because I was “raised” by a church that believed in prayer and believed in sending out missionaries I can now write to you from Durres, Albania in a cute little studio apartment above a church that my team and I will be working with for the next 3 months.
I am so grateful to have come from a church that preaches truth and stands firm in their beliefs, that encourages young people to go out and make disciples and to help support them when they do leave home. You are not a church about religion but a church about relationships, helping build our relationship with the Lord but also helping build discipleship relationships to where we can help build each other up and have purposeful conversation to live a life that truly does point others to Christ.
Thank you for the numerous amount of support, letters, and prayers that I have received. This church has truly been a blessing to me and many other people. I wanted to send some encouragement back home, because while I had been their my whole life it wasn’t until I was across the world that I realized not everyone has an amazing church and not everyone has been blessed through a church the way I have. Hebron what you are doing is working, the love people have for each other makes a difference, the generation you are investing in will be the difference in this crazy world.
I am thankful to have such an amazing home church that makes it hard to be away, but harder to not go because being a part of Hebron has helped me develop a relationship with Christ rather than a religion with Christ that I can’t keep to myself that I have got to share with the world.
Love from Albania- Sydney
