Jesus, my Saving Grace ๐
18 October 2026 โ an evening I will hold close to my heart for a long time. โค๏ธ๐
Surrounded by loved ones, I, along with three others, was confirmed into the Anglican Church of Australia โ a milestone I will always cherish.
Eight years after moving to this part of South West Sydney (and around 16 years since moving down south), I finally took this step of faith. While this marks a new chapter in my spiritual journey, the foundation of my faith remain unchanged: the one true God I serve, His only Son, Jesus I trust, and the Holy Spirit who guides me.
I am deeply thankful to my family and friends for respecting and supporting my decision and also to our Newlife Anglican, Oran Park church family, for their prayers, encouragement and support. Thank you for walking alongside me and making this milestone so meaningful.
When you know, you know. Sometimes, the Holy Spirit gently prods us into new seasons and gives us the courage to embrace what lies ahead. For me, this moment is a beautiful reminder of God’s faithfulness and guidance.
This is my testimony. This is my story โ a story of grace.
How did I meet Jesus and how has Jesus changed my life?
I honestly don’t remember a time when I didn’t know about Jesus. When you’re born a pastor’s kid, you meet Jesus from birth! ๐
My childhood and growing-up years were filled with Christian activities โ Bible studies, women’s fellowship, Sunday services twice a day, weekday morning services, Sunday School, nightly devotions, and singing with my family during blackouts and stormy nights. Our parents constantly reminded us that we were raised through the love and generosity of the ekalesia, the church community.
They served in different communities and villages in PNG, including a very remote area where they were pioneer missionaries early in their ministry, well before I was born. I remember moving several times as the church required them to serve in different places.
They taught us Christian giving and sharing โ that what we had was not simply ours to keep. The food we ate, the money and rations we received, and the homes we lived in were divine provisions through the goodness and generosity of the ekalesia.
From a young age, we learned to share willingly and gratefully. My siblings & I are products of Christian generosity & giving. ๐โค๏ธ
Jesus has always being a part of my life. I knew or know about Him, talked or talk and heard or hear about Him, sang or sing songs about Him and saw or see Him reflected in the people around me. But I had yet to understand what it meant for my faith to become personally mine.
I met Jesus through my parents and siblings, schoolmates, teachers, lecturers and friends. I met Jesus when I met and fell in love with my best friend, my better half, my husband, Iamo. I met Him again when I held each of our four children for the first time, and more recently, our grandchildren โ through the joys, challenges and ordinary moments of doing life together.
But my journey hasn’t always been perfect. There were times โ and, if I’m honest, there still are โ when I haven’t lived the life expected of a pastor’s kid or a follower of Christ. I remember someone saying, โOh, you’re a PK!โ and someone else telling me, โYou’re boring. Live a little!โ ๐ As if being a PK was a criteria for being a Christian.
Then came one of the biggest turning points in my or our family’s life โ moving to Australia.
We were taken out of our comfort zone and away from the support system we knew. We struggled. That’s a whole other story. But God’s hand has been upon us, protecting and blessing us ๐
Anyway, eventually, we found a church in Parramatta. And because I was a PK, I knew what I was supposed to do. I made sure my family and I were doing all the right things โ attending church, being involved, and ticking all the boxes. On the outside, everything looked right. But inside, something still didn’t feel right.
Then one Sunday, after church, I was shaking hands with a visiting preacher. He looked at me and said,
โYou have a good spirit. I can see it in your eyes.โ
It was such a simple thing to say, but it stopped me. He didn’t know my story. I hadn’t told him anything about my upbringing, my struggles or my faith. Yet he saw something in me that I knew wasn’t simply me. It was God’s Spirit.
That moment made me realise something: I wasn’t just my parents’ daughter, and I wasn’t just a pastor’s kid carrying my family’s faith. I had my own faith.
I had to choose Jesus for myself.
And in the same way, I realised I couldn’t make that choice for my own family. They too had to meet Jesus for themselves. I could teach, encourage, pray and lead by example, but He alone can convict hearts. ๐
That was my personal conversion moment โ not a dramatic moment when I first heard about Jesus, but the moment I recognised that the faith I had grown up with had become personally mine.
And that, to me, is grace. Grace is not that I was good enough to find Jesus. Grace is that Jesus keeps finding me.
For me, meeting Jesus is not confined to one moment. It is a lifetime of learning to recognise Him in and through the people and circumstances God places in my life. I meet Him every day โ at home, at work, on sporting fields, at church, in my community and in the ordinary moments of life.
And I often think: If I don’t learn to see Jesus in the people I meet every day now, how can I be ever be ready to recognise and face Him when He comes again?
So when asked, โCan you share how Jesus has changed your life?โ I’m sharing a lifetime of meeting Him โ through family, love, relationships, mistakes, forgiveness, kindness, giving, sharing and grace.
Even when I wandered, Jesus didn’t.
He was, is and will always be with me โ my saving grace.
My prayer ๐
Almighty and loving Father, all-knowing, all-powerful and ever-present God, blessed be Your name forever!
Thank You, Father, for the many blessings You continue to shower upon a sinner like me. I am unworthy to be called Your child, yet even while I was still a sinner, You gave everything so that I might be saved. How merciful and compassionate You are, Father! Thank You, Lord. Thank You!
Lord, may my heart and my whole being be surrendered to Your will and Your will alone. May Your Word be a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. May Your Holy Spirit lead and guide me in all that I do and say, so that my life may bring glory and honour to Your name.
And Father, may I never forget that without You, I am nothing. Keep my heart humble, my faith steadfast, and my life firmly anchored in You.
In Jesusโ mighty name, I pray. Amen. ๐
