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Jessica Church

Professor Fielding

WRTC 103

9/18/17

Looks are just as Bad

Did you know that Christianity is now the worlds largest religions? Religion for some

people is not a big part of their life. In my case though, religion is one of the most important

things in my life. To be even more specific, I am talking about how being a Christian at my

church led me to an amazing group that has had such an impact on my life. Christianity was

introduced about 2,000 years ago by people we know as Jesus Christ and his twelve disciples. As

Christians, we believe that God comes in three forms which are the father, the son, and the holy

spirit. Some of the practices that we have as Christians are to worship and to pray. I was brought

up and raised in church and therefore I am a part of this group because of my love and belief in

God.

The most important thing about my experience is how my religion and my involvement in my

youth group at church has changed my life for the better and I want to share these experiences

with others because it is a life changing experience.

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One experience I encountered with my religion was with my youth group. My youth

group would go to different outings about once a month. A lot of the time we would go on

outings once every 3rd Sunday of the month and do mission work or other activities that helped

people in the community. One Sunday, we decided to go down to Monroe park which was a park

in Richmond, Virginia which houses a lot of homeless individuals. When we arrived at the park

our responsibility was to hand out bibles and food to the people in the park. One thing that we

noticed as we started handing everything out was the number of stares we were getting from the

pedestrians on the sidewalks. Just like in the article we read from class Becoming members of

Society, Devour mentions how different cultures have different views on what goes on with

gender, but that is kind of the same thing here people have different views on how they see

religion or if they even practice it (Devour, page 36). It made me realize that not everyone is

going to have the same beliefs as me, but no matter what I should continue to do what I believe

in and what I think is good for people.

Another time was a couple of summers ago my youth group and I went down to South

Carolina for mission work for the week. Our objective for the week was to serve the residents

and children of Charleston, South Carolina. We didnt know who all was going to be there or the

type of environment that it was going to be since it was in a completely different state. When my

youth group arrived at the park we were very hesitant. There were tons of young children, who

looked so happy about being at the park and once we saw that we were overwhelmed with joy.

As we started playing with the children, parents began to look at what our van said on the side. It

was the name of our church and where we were from. Most of the parents got bothered by the

fact that random strangers were there to play with their kids and talk to them about God. After a

while, the parents decided to take the kids away from us. Some parents are just very protective of
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their children and that is understandable. I learned from this though that even when we as

Christians try to do what it is best, it is not always going to be allowed by people.

My last experience in particular was something we werent expecting, but my youth

group and I were out to lunch and we all were sitting at the table together. When we were all

together we would always pray and bless the food before we ate it as a group. When we finished

blessing the food we looked up and we saw that we were receiving stares. This did not only

happen at this one place, but it kept happening to us whenever we were all together and praying

in public. We choose not to let this affect us or what we do because we knew that what we were

doing was the right thing. People just choose to not accept some things that people do. It really

gave me a greater understanding of how people dont accept everything you do. I am praying

before my meal because I want to, its what I was taught and Im not going to let other people

affect me or my group in doing what we know is right.

Overall, my significance of my membership to this particular group is important to not

only me, but to my family and my friends. It plays such a huge role in my everyday life and I

dont know what I would have done without god and church growing up. From these experiences

that I dealt with it made me a better person, it helped with my confidence to not be afraid to do

the right thing even when everybody is judging me. It showed me that not everybody is going to

accept what you believe in and thats okay. Being a part of this group brought me to some of my

closest friends, that are now like family to me and I know that they will be some of my closest

friends for the rest of my life. My Christianity brought me to this youth group and my youth

group made me who I am today. It showed me that I am never alone in this world and even when

I feel like I am being judged because of my beliefs or what I am doing, that I always have God to

be there for me.

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Works Cited

Book:

1. Devor, Aaron. Becoming members of Society: The social meanings of Gender.

Composing Gender, A Bedford Spotlight Reader, 2014, pp. 33-45.

Websites:

1. Stefon, Matt, et al. Christianity. Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica,

Inc., 14 July 2017, Britannica.com/topic/Christianity.

2. History of Christianity. All about God, 2002, www.allaboutreligion.org/history-of-

christianity.htm

3. Youth Group. Hunton Baptist Church- Glen Allen, VA, www.huntonbc.org . Accessed

17 September 2017

4. Beginnings. Religion Library, 2008,

www.patheos.com/librart/Christianity/orgins/beginnings. Accessed 17 September 2017