Maureen

Its my turn to SPEAK!

My name is Maureen, and I go to the mega church in London, Saved Aparche, where the spirit of God dwells...yeyaaa!

I first came to Lighthouse in 2005, with my brother and sister. I remember seeing a lot of young people who were passionate about Jesus, but as for me I just thought they were crazy. After the service me and my sister spoke to a girl, and she told us about Jesus and encouraged us to give our lives to Him. So we did. But like the parable of the sower in Matthew 13, I was worried about cares of this world and the pleasures it offered. So I was in and out of church playing God for a fool. My brother and sister were very much active in church, but it never appealed to me at all. I used to look at them and criticise everything they did. I could not see what they loved sooo much. They used to encourage me to come to church and I would lie and say I had homework to do. When they left I would go shopping with friends or sit at home and watch T.V. The world was really my friend. I was always misbehaving in school and getting into trouble. I would go out with friends and walk around aimlessly, doing nothing with my life. The choir leader at church would call me for meetings every Saturday but I would lie and say I am busy, but I really had nothing to do. I also didn’t like my mother much because she was a lot stricter than other parents (so I thought).But I now know she was really trying to help me. I had a friend at school who also did not like her mother, so we used to laugh together abusing them. (You see, evil communication really does corrupt good manner, 1 Corinthians 15:33). I remember even saying that I would be happy if I never had my mother. Demons are real, you see!

I remember one night I was on msn, and I was talking to a friend of mine. As I was listening to music, she sent me a site. I was weary so I checked it out and it was a porn site. I took it straight off and asked her why she sent it to me, and she laughed. However, some weeks later, something prompted me to go back to the site. I began to get interested in watching it, and it became like T.V to me. Soon after I decided that I to would get involved and I started to masturbate. It became my lifestyle, and I continued doing it in secret. Some Saturday in 2007, for some strange reason, I thought I would go to church and see what the choir was doing. Everyone was very friendly, and so it encouraged me to keep coming to church. A friend of mine encouraged me to go to the annual camp in August. I first said no because I never knew anyone, and I wasn’t interested. But they persisted until I said yes. This Yes was the turn over of my life.

I can not tell you which part of the camp changed me but all I know is that I experienced the love of God. When Rev Oko (thank God for his life) prayed for me, I cried and began to say sorry to God for everything I had done. That day I felt like the spirit of God told me that everything had past away. And my life has never been the same again!! I thank God because despite the different things I had done He was still there, knocking at the door of my heart, ready to receive me just as I was. I can truly say that I have been changed/transformed from an unsaved girl with a dark and desperately wicked heart, to a woman with righteous and holy Spirit. THANK GOD EY!

I feel so blessed to be in the Lighthouse Chapel International church and I thank God for the life of Bishop Dag Heward Mills, because he decided to follow the call of God on his life. I also thank God for the lives of Rev Richard Ayree, Rev Joe Adjei, Rev Oko Brtei-Doku and Pastor Jino Mills-Odoi. They are all blessings to me.