kujtim & MArjana haxhia

I was raised in a catholic family which was not very committed at church, but kept the catholic tradition. I have been a quiet and obedient child in general, but sometimes I would loose my patience and I would hold grudges.  I often would go to the catholic church and I was even baptized, even though I did not know what it meant to be baptized. I had heard about Jesus being the Son of God and that had died for my sins, but I never knew Him person- ally. I did not know that He was God.

I thought I could reach heaven by good deeds and really tried to do so. But deep inside I could understand that I wasn’t as good as I thought or as good as people said I am. That’s why I was longing to find a way so I could have eternity with God.

An answer to me was Ephesians 2:8-9 «For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.» I was in my second year of the University and a member of the Campus Crusade Staff challenged me to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. That day I realized that Jesus had died for me personally for my sins and all I had to do was to invite Him and acknowledge what He has done for me. I remember that day as one of happiest days of my life. One could tell the joy shining from my face.

Since then my life has changed and I became a person who wouldn’t hold grudges anymore and I am improving in areas of my life, such as being more patient, having more faith and loving people more. I am so happy to know the reason I was created with the incredible  love of my heavenly Father. God is working in fulfilling His plan for my life.

I come from a catholic background so it was normal for me to go in the church on Sundays and to follow different rules the church had. I grew up thinking that I knew God because I thought that going to there  was enough to know Him.
But as time was passing by, I realized that God I thought I knew existed only on Sundays and during the other days I did what I wanted and it was me in the center of my life.

When I was 14 years old, my cousin invited me to go in a Christian Evangelical church ,and it was there where I heard for the first time for a loving God with whom we can have a relationship and that we could know Him personally.I  was impressed by the way people in the church knew God and how friendly  and careful they were  with me .If there was a question that crossed my mind that time ,was that how I could know the same God they believe and how I could make Him part of my life?
I had these questions in my mind for almost two years until a friend of mine told me that Jesus paid on the cross for the sin that separates me from experiencing God and His friendship. She told me that Jesus didn’t only die on the cross, but He also resurrected from the death on the third day so I could have the eternity with Him. The fear that I was experiencing in that time was that I wasn’t good enough for this sacrifice and I was afraid I wouldn’t love God enough as needed. But when my friend explained me that His sacrifice was more than enough as to cover my insufficiency, was the moment when I decided to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior of my life.

Since then I’ve been experiencing God’s love and care, but also the plan He has for my life. Now, Jesus is not only the Lord of the Sundays, but the God of all the days of my life.
Seeing how much Jesus changes my life as a student using Cru  and also seeing the great need for the Gospel of Christ, the desire of my heart is to help that this great News be heard by as many people as possible.