Denise Douglas
My life began in Stratham, NH in June of 1977. I had a pretty normal childhood; I lived with one older brother and both parents. My experience with religion was fairly limited. I attended the Protestant church in Stratham with my parents for a few years until my mother started working nights then it stopped. Occasionally I would go to the congregational church in Hampton with my grandparents but it wasn’t really enough for me to get anything concrete out of it and that ended at about the age of 10. From that point on I was your run of the mill kid.
As a young adult I always had the feeling that I was missing something, but I had no idea what it was. I tried filling it with a number of things, definitely most of which were self-destructive, alcohol, drugs and meaningless relationships with men. I even tried moving to a different state. When I was 24 I moved to NY. It seemed okay for a little while but there was still that emptiness inside. It wasn’t until the birth of my oldest niece in 2002 that I realized just how homesick I was. In fact that was a big reason for my decision to move home in the spring of 2003. I now realize that God had taken the reigns and was leading me to what would soon become the best moment of my life, accepting Christ. The transition back to NH just seemed to fall into place effortlessly, I was working for a Timberland store in NJ and when I decided to move home, I was given the opportunity to transfer to the store in Kittery, ME. Excellent, I still had a job. My parents had gotten a divorce in 2000, so my Dad was living in the house by himself, so he eagerly welcomed me home as his roommate. Perfect, I had a place to live. And so it went for about a year.
Then in August of 2004, an old friend and boyfriend (now my husband) came into the store. I hadn’t seen him in a very long time and it was really nice to reconnect with him. This was the first of two visits, again very nice to see an old friend. Well to make a long story short, through a series of events we began dating and because he was such a devout Christian, I started to become intrigued by the idea of living my life for Christ. One weekend I asked if he would mind if I went with him to church, he of course welcomed me excitedly. It was a very short time after my first Sunday at Hampton Falls First Baptist church that I felt the urge to pray to Jesus to forgive me of my sins and to come into my heart and be my Lord and Savior.
For the first time in my life I was a whole person, I felt the weight of the world lift from shoulders immediately. Since that day many events have changed my life including my marriage, and the birth of my two sons, but none of these can compare to change that I experienced when I became saved. I now know that no matter what joy or hardship comes my way I will never be alone or empty and that to me is priceless.
As a young adult I always had the feeling that I was missing something, but I had no idea what it was. I tried filling it with a number of things, definitely most of which were self-destructive, alcohol, drugs and meaningless relationships with men. I even tried moving to a different state. When I was 24 I moved to NY. It seemed okay for a little while but there was still that emptiness inside. It wasn’t until the birth of my oldest niece in 2002 that I realized just how homesick I was. In fact that was a big reason for my decision to move home in the spring of 2003. I now realize that God had taken the reigns and was leading me to what would soon become the best moment of my life, accepting Christ. The transition back to NH just seemed to fall into place effortlessly, I was working for a Timberland store in NJ and when I decided to move home, I was given the opportunity to transfer to the store in Kittery, ME. Excellent, I still had a job. My parents had gotten a divorce in 2000, so my Dad was living in the house by himself, so he eagerly welcomed me home as his roommate. Perfect, I had a place to live. And so it went for about a year.
Then in August of 2004, an old friend and boyfriend (now my husband) came into the store. I hadn’t seen him in a very long time and it was really nice to reconnect with him. This was the first of two visits, again very nice to see an old friend. Well to make a long story short, through a series of events we began dating and because he was such a devout Christian, I started to become intrigued by the idea of living my life for Christ. One weekend I asked if he would mind if I went with him to church, he of course welcomed me excitedly. It was a very short time after my first Sunday at Hampton Falls First Baptist church that I felt the urge to pray to Jesus to forgive me of my sins and to come into my heart and be my Lord and Savior.
For the first time in my life I was a whole person, I felt the weight of the world lift from shoulders immediately. Since that day many events have changed my life including my marriage, and the birth of my two sons, but none of these can compare to change that I experienced when I became saved. I now know that no matter what joy or hardship comes my way I will never be alone or empty and that to me is priceless.