My Testimony

I am a 24 year-old young woman who is a conservative Christian. I was raised in a Lutheran home, but started searching for a different church in 2008. Mainly I was searching in Baptist churches because that was the most common church besides Catholic around where I lived. I began searching on the internet and found scripture about the woman's headcovering and after much prayer and meditation on the subject I felt a conviction to begin covering myself. At that time, I was still wearing pants, and I only wore my covering in the privacy of my own room. It wasn't until several months later that I found scripture regarding modest dress for women and again after much prayer and meditation I became convicted that I was to wear skirts or dresses as a woman.

When I first started wearing a covering out into public, it was a veil or bandana style covering and I would wear my hair down under the covering. At the time, I did not feel convicted otherwise. I am still unsure of where my convictions lay on that issue as I personally do not feel that showing my hair is against God's Word as long as I have a covering on.

My introduction to Anabaptist churches came on a trip to a nearby Amish community, I was able to attend a Conservative Mennonite church. I felt blessed to be a part of a congregation (even if only for a day) that stressed heavily the modest dressing and headcovering issues. I stayed in contact with the host couple from that day and when my now roommate and I wanted to meet each other we stayed at their home. We attended their church, but the second time I went didn't seem as nice as the first time. The married women were certainly nice, but the youth, girls our own ages, did not seem as welcoming to us. We started looking for other Anabaptist churches to attend and even though we live in a large Amish & Mennonite community, it is hard to find one! We are still searching, or least I am, and I pray one day God will lead me to a church where I feel welcome and I can agree with their standards and beliefs.

Currently I cover with a veil and you will either find me wearing a cape dress or a skirt and modest shirt, depending on the day.

I believe:
- In the Holy Trinity as One
- The Bible is written by many different authors all inspired by God
- In woman's headcovering (1 Cor 11:1-16)
- In modest dressing (1 Tim 2:11-15 and Isaiah 47:2)
- A woman is not to take a leadership/ministry role in a church (1 Tim 2:11-15)
- In the Lord's Supper
- In baptism for all Christians
- Forgiveness for all our sins if we forgive those who have sinned against us (Luke 6:37, Matthew 18:21-22)
- Marriage is an intimate relationship to be kept between one man and one woman (Matthew 19:4-5)
- Marriage is to last a lifetime, except in circumstances of adultery (Matthew 19:9) -- I also believe that there are exceptions if there is a case of abuse
However, if divorced, remarriage would result in the divorced committing adultery. The spouse is free to re-marry only if their significant other has passed on (Romans 7:2-3).

I am currently developing convictions on other scripture in the Bible and praying for guidance on what it means. As I develop these convictions I will be happy to share them with you.

I would love to hear your testimony, if you feel comfortable sharing it, please do!