This is a guest post by Judah.
Winnie Bochaberi’s Testimony.
A saved young born again Miss, with an amazing testimony of how though life turns around once Christ is part of your everyday, it remains a walk that is not always easy. Still Jesus promises that He will never leave us nor forsake us, even when the walk gets tough.
So here is Winnie, fresh from high school and battling the death of her mother just as she was joining campus. She confesses that she is weak at dealing with grief, and the loss of her mother wasn’t any easier to deal with. Going into campus, Winnie became part of the wrong crowd and before long she was an addict. An addict to the high life, alcohol, partying, men…. Name it all.
“I was hooked and did not know how to get out of all this. Being a young beautiful girl, admired by men and in the wrong company; I didn’t know much about Jesus and I was hooked to the other side of life.”
So how did she get to know God?
“While in campus, I used to stay with my born again sister. Coming to the house drunk was the usual. If I wasn’t high, then I was asleep. It got to a point where alcohol was my solace. That was my life. Partying, trips sponsored by men and drinking. My sister got saved in 2012, and she started coming to K-KREW Bible Study. She invited me and encouraged me of how it was a nice place. So I accompanied her.
I didn’t understand how so many young people gathered together to praise God. I felt out of place. But I still came with my sister every other week. People at Bible study knew about my struggle. They knew the battle I was fighting, but never once did they judge me. They accepted me as one of them, and even allowed me to go for missions with them. Drinking was still part of my life ata this time until I realized that this life of mine is meant for Christ, and Christ alone.”
In 2013, Winnie heeded the call to accept Christ as her personal savior and got baptized.
It has been an uphill climb since, and Winnie attest to that. She lost so many friends since she made her decision.
“Yes, I got saved, and joined the New Believer’s Class but my struggles were still with me. On Sunday, I would go to church in the morning, but go for nyamachoma in the afternoon, and drink the day away. At the end of the day, I’d feel empty. I started serving in church, but with a guilty conscience, because when I went back home I’d go back to drinking.”
Still God is faithful. Once you place your trust in Him He will always open up a door. Winnie asked God to help her get rid of her previous lifestyle. The men, the company, the alcohol… everything. Because it was time to let go. She got a job and was able to depend on herself, so that those men were no longer her source of income. The addiction was still with her for a while leading to depression and loneliness.
Until that Friday at KKREW’s Kesha.
“Pastor Julian was the one preaching, and I came full of expectations, with a long list of what I needed God to do for me this night. I remember telling Him that this night He had no option but to save me. I was not going to walk out of this kesha the same. The alcohol, the struggles, the battles were ending today. I had decided and I asked God to come through for me. So Pastor called out to people who had addictions, but were serving in ministry. Despite the voice at the back of my mind telling me that I had to stay composed, when Pastor Julian came to where I was standing and anointed me, I fell to the ground, and at that moment, I felt something cold leaving my body.”
This is the place where everything turned around for the better.
“I felt like a new fresh being. I was at peace. Now I don’t want anything else than to serve and talk to people about His greatness and what He did for me. I want to be that Proverbs 31 woman who will bring up a family in the ways of God without being apologetic about it.”
She finishes by feeling grateful to KKREW for not judging her every time she came to Bible study with her addictions clawing at her. They accepted her and walked with her through the climb until she got to the place that she is at now. “That is what true Christianity is about,” she says.