Julie Santing's Testimony

I thought it was about time to add my testimony here, that you get an idea what kind of people designed this place. To be honest I didn’t really want to add my testimony, I’ve been putting it off and off. It’s scary when you think about it the fact that these few feeble words are going to show people what God has done in my life. He has done so much for me and I am so unworthy of it all, and I don’t I think I will ever be able to thank Him enough, glorify Him enough or worship Him enough. I hope and pray that I will be able to give you a tiny glimpse of how great God is and that you will realise how important it is that you live for Him and worship Him.

I’m the daughter of Dutch missionaries, Ben and Gitta Santing, (well more precisely “tent-makers” as in they worked to provide their own support instead of receiving sponsorship) who God called to Ireland around twenty years ago. They first worked in Sligo city and then when I was five years old moved to Tuam, Co. Galway and set up Tuam Evangelical Church, and we are still here today.

I don’t remember when I asked Jesus into my heart. My mother has told me that I was 4 and that I had just come home from a gospel meeting. I don’t doubt for a moment though that I am saved and am going to heaven, God has done so much in my life since then.

One of the most significant moments in my spiritual growth was the fact that my Mum died of cancer when I was thirteen years old. During this horrific time God proved himself again and again to me. I remember a time when I had stopped reading my Bible and I sat in the sitting room listening to a CD. I was in so much pain I couldn’t even cry anymore. The song was about how much God loves people and God cut through it all and said, “Julie, I love you”. At that moment I felt as if He had come and put His arms around me, and just showed me how unconditional His love is. No matter how unfaithful I would be, no matter how little I read my Bible, no matter how much I struggled with Him, He would always be the shelter I can run to.

Around the same time God provided a youth group in Athenry for my sister Caroline and I to go to. Here we had the support network that we needed to carry us through this time. The leadership of the youth group and of the church there have literally become the family that my siblings and I missed having because we lived so far from our uncles, aunts, grandparents and cousins. My youth leaders, Evelien and Ismael, have mentored me, loved me and prayed for me. I am so thankful for them. The pastor of the Rock fellowship Athenry and his wife have become grandparents to me. Especially when my Dad decided to get remarried a half year later, something which my siblings and I struggled with, this network was invaluable.

Caroline and I started going to youth weekends where we were challenged to give our all to God and to live for Him. I asked God to take all of me for whatever purpose He may have and He challenged me to live in complete obedience to Him (something I still struggle with). This was especially hard when it came to loving my stepmother, or even just obeying her, or asking her forgiveness for something I had done wrong against her. And seriously God is still showing me stuff that I need to bring to Him for healing or areas which I need to obey Him in, but slowly but surely God is healing the rift between my stepmother and me.

I am now seventeen years old and many would say that my life is just beginning. Whatever comes I want to live my life to glorify the amazing God that has saved me and loves me. I challenge you to just to remember how much Jesus has done for us. He came down from heaven and died on a cross for our sin.. my sin!!! He died there and He rose again, how can we not worship Him? How can we not live our lives for Him?