Laurence

My name is Laurentiu Gheorghe Mustatea. I am 25 years old and I was born and raised in Romania.
I grew up in the Romanian Orthodox religion and tradition, taught by my grandmother to go to church, say my prayers at night, be polite with people, and be good.
I don’t know exactly why I lost this faith. To be honest, probably because I blamed God for all the bad things that had happened in my life. The truth is that God had a plan for me, and he wasn’t the one to blame for my life; I was. I pushed God away by blaming him for all the bad in my life. And, until a while I ago, I contradicted priests, Christians, and believers. I was, truth to say, a stubborn one.

Everything changed when I met Ana-Maria, a girl who believed and loved God. I started going to her church, because her parents and uncles (the most important people in her life) believed in God as well, and I wanted to prove to them that I was no different from them. I was very wrong to believe that.
At that time I was believing that if I try my best to do good as much as I can (not to be evil or bad; to be civilised, honest, good, moral) if there were to be a God I would be saved, because I wouldn’t have done too many bad things. (However, when something really bad happened I began asking God to help me).
Then by going with Ana-Maria to church and listening to the Word of God, I discovered that Jesus has done everything for me on the Cross and that the only thing I have to do is believe — believe in him, believe that he died for me and my sins, believe that he is the Son of God, and believe that he came back to life on the third day. And bit by bit I started to feel different.

After coming to England, things changed to better and I became more close to Jesus Christ. I wanted to know why he did what he did. I wanted to know him better and let him into my life, heart and soul. Ana Maria and I prayed together every day. I started reading the Bible, studying about my precious Saviour, because I wanted to know him much better and I wanted to change to be like him, to glorify him. All of this has made me a new man, a believer in Jesus Christ our Saviour.