Hello middle schoolers
and middle school families! My name is Kyle Baldwin, and I am currently a
senior at Aurora High School. I will be attending Cedarville University in the
fall to pursue a higher education. Cedarville University is a Christian school,
whose main focus is to provide students with a quality education, without
compromising our beliefs in Christ. They do this by starting each class with
prayer, having daily chapel, etc. It took much debate for me to decide which
college I wanted to attend, but in the end, I knew this is where the Lord was
calling me. I guess I trace this decision all the way back to the time when I
first got involved in the church’s youth group and middle school ministries. If
it weren’t for my involvement within Fellowship’s youth program, who knows
where I’d be today?
My family has always been deeply committed to their faith
and I have gone to church ever since I was a baby. I knew all of the basics of
Christianity and participated in all of the events that the church held, but
outside of church, I lived a relatively apathetic and normal life. I always
felt like nobody was there with me, and like I had no friends. As a child, I
was an outcast, struggling to find friends or fit in, even at the churches I
would go to. It wasn’t until my family started going to Fellowship Bible Church
that I first began to see the importance of my faith.
Because of my involvement in the church’s youth ministry,
my life has been radically changed. I have established Christ as my everlasting
foundation, I’ve learned of his teachings, and implemented them into my own
life, and I’ve dedicated my life to him. My favorite memory I have from my time
at Fellowship was during my eighth grade mission trip to Cincinnati. On our
last night of worship, I felt something tugging at my soul, and I burst into
tears crying. My leader, Jim Kristoff, took me outside and we began talking
about faith and who Jesus was. It felt as if every bad thing I had ever felt
was bursting at the seams, clawing its way out. Jim referred to this as a “gush”.
Essentially, God was entering my body, cleansing me of everything I’d ever done
or felt, and replacing it with him. I can’t describe just how amazing it
was to know that Christ was, and always is, my eternal savior. All I knew was
that from then on, all I wanted to do was live for him.
The moment that I
committed my life to Christ, my life was made new. I became a new person. As my
life progresses, my relationship with God has grown stronger and I have begun
to see changes in my life. I began to evaluate some of the decisions I was
making and realized that they weren’t beneficial for me. I began to see myself
as a role model among my friends who weren’t Christians. I generally became a
better person after God came into my life. When God came into my life, he
became a refuge that I could turn to when there was nothing else. Now, he is
the first option for me whenever I struggle with temptations. I have come to
learn that the troubles of this world come to an end with God at the center of
my life. I know that God will never leave me, and he will always be with me.
God tells us to “Be
strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the
LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."
Deuteronomy 3:16.
Through Fellowship’s youth program, I was able to create
a foundation in my faith that would prosper and grow into an incredible
relationship with Christ. I have also built strong, lifelong relationships with
friends, who will always continually build me up in my faith, and support me in
all that I do. Fellowship is where I discovered what my life truly meant and
where I was headed in my life. In all honesty, the night I committed my life to
living for Christ is the night my real life began. And without Fellowship’s
youth ministry to guide me and build up my faith, I would be lost, afraid, and
a completely different man than the one I am today.
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