A woman has a dream

One night I had a dream, and when I woke up…I prayed and asked God to show me what the truth real­ly was.

I prayed and asked God to show me what the truth real­ly was…

My name is Maria. I am 17 but as a child I grew up in a group called Jehovah’s Wit­ness­es. Until the age of 15 I was con­vinced that that was the only way for me. The peo­ple in that group saw in me a future rep­re­sen­ta­tive — and I even saw myself that way. At school I had two friends who were Evan­gel­i­cals and we often con­versed, but I was always ready to chal­lenge them, and I crit­i­cized them a lot. Then one night I had a dream, and when I woke up…I prayed and asked God to show me what the truth real­ly was.

As I start­ed to study the Bible on my own I dis­cov­ered that all my beliefs were false. I start­ed attend­ing the youth meet­ings at my school­mates’ church and soon I received Jesus as my Lord and Saviour.

I had to put up with the insults of my par­ents who could not under­stand me. The Super­in­ten­dent for the Jehovah’s Wit­ness con­gre­ga­tion came to speak with me, try­ing to con­vince me to come back. For one month I suf­fered from the insis­tence of peo­ple who could not under­stand how it was that some­one who so bold­ly sup­port­ed those false beliefs could now become a Christian.

Today, I am hap­py to serve the Lord in what­ev­er way I can.

— Maria


Other Life Stories

A man dresses to impress with a fancy suit and watch

With a col­lege degree, a good job as an accoun­tant, an ample salary and won­der­ful wife and fam­i­ly — what more could any man want? I had all of these, yet I was not happy.

Read
A bird flies outside a man's prison cell.

I am Mohamed, and I want to thank God for what He did in my life while I was serv­ing a three-year prison sen­tence in a max­i­mum-secu­ri­ty prison.

Read
An hourglass

After her death I became a drunk­ard and I lost every­thing. Con­stant­ly on my mind was the ques­tion, If I die, where will I go?” I knew that one day I must face death like my wife. I did not have an answer to the question.

Read
Bottles and bottles of liquor in a bar.

I grew up with many prob­lems and much con­fu­sion. Alco­hol had been for years my way to escape from the prob­lems, but after the effects of alco­hol are gone, the prob­lems are still there.

Read
A person flips the pages of a Bible.

I stud­ied sci­en­tif­ic athe­ism and was taught that God does not exist. Still I felt like some real­i­ty was pur­pose­ly being hid­den from me. Lat­er I real­ized what it was.

Read
An overhead shot of a whiteboard desk. On the whiteboard, somebody has written: Is there a difference between your plan and God's plan for your life?

I was not sat­is­fied in my life and was search­ing for mean­ing and real­i­ty of our exis­tence in this world. I used to think, Why I am here and where will I go from here?

Read
Two girls sit in front of a lake with a mountain view.

I’m a teenage girl liv­ing in a small vil­lage. After I received some lit­er­a­ture… I start­ed for the first time in my life to think about God.

Read

Find a Church Near You

We encourage you to get to know other followers of Jesus, and we can help you find a church in your area.

Or use our church finder tool…

Learn more about Jesus

To help you know more about Jesus, we are happy to send you free resources.

The 7 Days with Jesus book next to the Finding the Hope book.