Bethany's Story

- [Dad] Hi Bethany!
- Hi, I mean hola, hola!
- [Dad] Hola, yeah.
- My dad had a massive passion for life.
His motto was to live for today and we did everything together as a family.
He was just, he was there and I always felt loved.
So often in life, there are things that you can't predict, that just happen out of the blue and once you walk through that door, you've had that moment, you're never the same person.
And yeah, that big moment for me was definitely when my dad died, yeah.
I was 12 years old.
We hadn't had any history of heart problems, so it was a complete shock.
We just came home one evening, Mum and myself, and we just found him.
It got really lonely, 'cause I didn't really have anybody else who was my age and who got me.
I felt like everything in my world had just fallen apart.
Two years after my dad died, I went to an event called Soul Survivor, where there were thousands of people my age, all gathered together to learn about God.
There were so many people there so happy, so engaged, so joyful, all just going for it like it was the best thing that they could ever be doing and I went and it felt like all my pain, and my sadness, and my grief was just really weighing me down.
And I just went up in one of the main meetings to the front and I just kneeled down and I just said God, I need You.
I feel like I really just need a hug right now.
And it's really hard trying to describe it, but it was like somebody had just knelt down in front of me and just put their arms around me.
And I just felt God say, I'm here, I love you, it's okay.
I had gone through so much pain and I'd gone through so much grief and God was the first thing that actually made a difference.
I just felt so much of that pain just get released.
I know just what it feels like to feel hopeless, to feel broken and to feel like there's nothing that you can do to change your situation.
I look at my friends and I look at the world and I see so much suffering in it.
I just thought you know, there's this love that I've experienced, I just wanna give that to them.
Whether or not you're sure if you think there is a God or you don't know what you believe, there is a God who loves you and he wants us to have just the best life.
He wants us to be in a relationship with Him and He just loves us that much.
And no matter what you do, He will always be there for you.
All you have to do is ask.
(inspirational string music)