This is the testimony of my conversion, the events that brought me to – and through my new birth experience. My husband read an abbreviated form of this testimony at my baptism last summer before he baptized me. It was so lengthy I needed to shorten it down considerably. We were very blessed to be able to be baptized in our good friends the Metcalfe’s outdoor swimming pool. Ken baptized Larry (that’s why he looks a bit funny, he’s just been dunked, so he’s wet). And just think – this is just the beginning! Since I wrote this testimony there are so many many more testimonies I could write attesting to the Lord’s goodness in my life. It is rated PG due to some adult content (nothing explicit) that is dealt with by Jesus in my life.

Jennifer Bogart’s Testimony

I was born into a Mormon family, and my family was involved in the Mormon church until we moved to Edmonton in 1989 (when I was around 9 – 10), I was baptized when I was 8 into the Mormon church, but didn’t really understand the entire process, the baptism was like a rite of passage that all 8 – 9 year olds went through in the Mormon church. I remember the bishop giving me a pre-baptismal interview and asking me questions pertaining to my goodness, which I lied my way through. After we moved to Edmonton my family stopped attending the Mormon church, but I kept going with some friends that I had made for a couple of years. To the best of my knowledge there was never an emphasis on the work of Christ on the cross, or a message of salvation taught at all. Coming to church, paying your tithing, behaving in a moral way, abstaining from certain substances (alcohol, cigarettes, caffeine), being baptized, going to the temple etc. were all very much spoken of and promoted, but Christ seemed to be missing.

After my family moved to Edmonton my mother and father became involved in the occult, and the new age to varying degrees. I adored my father, as most young girls do, and sought his approval, and I too became involved with new age and occult practices at a young age. This involvement continued, varying in practices and depth of involvement until I was saved – runes, witchcraft, nature worship, new age healing practices, yoga, meditation, divination etc. I was a typical truth seeker in our day I suppose, looking for the truth but never turning to Jesus, the only source of all truth. I also lived a life of depravity in many ways, as a young adult I was heavily involved in fornication, drugs, drinking, lying and general rebellion against both my parents and God. I could not hear His name spoken without inwardly shuddering. I mocked Christians regularly.

After the drugs and drinking tapered off, and I settled into life as an adult I started attending a Unitarian Universalist Church, and attended for a number of years. Anyone who is familiar with a UU church can tell you that Christ is not the center of that ‘church’, but rather it is an inclusive, relativistic organization, wherein the inward feelings of each particular member as respected as ‘truth’ including humanists, Buddhists, pagans, those respecting Christ as a teacher, atheists etc. The particular church that I was attending had a heavy emphasis on social justice, equal rights for homosexuals, and a nature-worshipping tendency. Christians were also mocked there.

After marrying Larry, I became involved in Transcendental Meditation (which leads to Hinduism generally speaking) for a time, as his family practiced it, but then became even more deeply involved in witchcraft. After our first child was born I had little time for occult practices, but I did still occasionally perform rituals and seasonal celebrations coinciding with the phases of natural cycles. However, at the same time I started to hear Jesus knock on the door, and over the next couple of years more and more in my life seemed to point me in the direction of Christ. God had been dragging my heart toward Him for a number of years. I remember a time a couple of years before I was saved, when I cried because I felt God’s draw and I didn’t think it was where I wanted to go with my life. He had other plans for me! Every where I turned I saw Christ, when I opened my heart to the possibility of him I started to see the TRUTH of His way everywhere I looked.

I can list so many things that pointed me towards Christ, even though they weren’t necessarily Christian. A Roman Catholic publication on Social Credit that Larry subscribed to, Waldorf education and the underlying philosophy of Anthroposophy, a leaflet that came in the mail once that described how we needed a relationship in Christ in order to find peace, just knowing that one of our neighbours was a Christian, the Da Vinci Code (which made me wonder what they were trying to distract us from, and made me even more curious to know Jesus), and others I am certain I am forgetting.

At the same time I was sinking into a state of depression, we were living in a tiny holiday trailer with two young children, suffering under severe financial difficulties, no telephone or access to the outside world unless we drove out, not knowing many people in the neighborhood etc. I was feeling so tapped out and drained of life that I couldn’t even find the energy to wash dishes most days. Our marriage was in difficult straits and we fought on a fairly regular basis. My latent bisexuality and tendency to desire additional mates was a heavy burden to bear as well, my loneliness tortured me. And when these two sides of my life came together I started to wonder who this Jesus was, and how I could get to know Him better.

I asked my neighbour Al Sherstan, where he attended church, and he invited me to a Bible study there (The Alpha Course) – I don’t think he even knew whether I was or wasn’t a Christian at that point in time, we picked up a Bible at a Value Village in Edmonton, and I started looking for answers and seeking to know more about Jesus. Like many, I came to know him through personal need, I remember thinking that ‘Jesus is apparently a good helper, and I can certainly use some help here!’.

Even before I attended the Alpha Course I offered Jesus my life in October/November 2006, because I just couldn’t make it work anymore. I still didn’t know how Christianity worked, hadn’t read much in my Bible at all, I just knew that I needed Him. After attending the first course session, which explained our need for Christ, how our sins separate us from God, and how Jesus is the only way to reconciliation, there was a basic salvation message and I prayed the typical sinners prayer, and kept praying it in future sessions, I wanted to make sure that Jesus was going to be in my life. And without even understanding the process of being born again, and the changes that He could effect in my life, he delivered me from many of my sins that I had struggled with for my entire life. They were just gone, and I didn’t know why! The bisexuality, desire for multiple partners, almost compulsive seeking after pleasure were all gone, instantaneously! I cannot praise Him enough for the work that He has done and continues to do in my life.

The Lord continues to work in my life, to guide and show me the way. He has been so faithful in supporting our family, changing us and answering prayers. I know without a doubt that “…being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the Day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6). I look forward to each day as it provides more opportunities to know my Lord and Saviour and His will for my life. I know that I can never repay Him for what he has done for me, saving me from the depths of my sin and depravity when I was in rebellion against Him. But even knowing that, it is still the desire of my heart to show forth His Glory and the work he has done in my life. God is so good!