My acquaintance with the word of God was when some missionaries came to my school when I was a child about 11 years old, and gave me a bible. As a young child I was an altar boy serving with the priest in the catholic church, but I never owned a bible. I started to read the bible that was giving to me by the missionaries. It was a little pocket bible containing the new testament and the psalms. When I got to the psalms I read the relationship between David and God and I fell in love with the prayers of David to God.

I was fascinated with the awesome power of God. That was the start of my relationship with the God of the bible.

At the age of 19 I travelled to NY to be reunited with my aunt, and I started going to a bible believing church: The Baptist Church of the Redeemer. From there I was gloriously saved and was baptized in 1983.I thank God for the missionary who gave me the bible, the word of God.

To God be the glory in Jesus name!

A Divine Appointment

I remember when The Lord was leading me to my home church. You see, I have been praying for a good church to go to, a good church meaning a church that preaches the whole counsel of God, a church where the shepherd really cares for the flock, a church where the love of our Lord Jesus-Christ is on display.

I had just moved in the area, I did not have any Christian brothers to connect to, I was alone.

Then the Lord Jesus came to the rescue.

I was sitting in McDonald enjoying a cup of coffee and reading a book, when our pastor while leaving the restaurant, engaged in a conversation with me, he asked me if I know the Lord , I responded that he is my Saviour, he continued to invite me to church, and I told him that I did not have a car, he proceeded to tell me that he will get someone to pick me up, and over the next few months he had a dear brother from the church to pick me up three times a week for the services.

When it was time to register my car, our pastor invested some time from his busy day to take me to the DMV and waited for me for about two hours until I was done.

I was blown away by the care, love and graciousness of our pastor.

And the blessings continue.

My first visit to the church "Straightway Baptist Church" I know this was the place I'm going to worship the Lord, not only we have a shepherd who care for the flock and for their souls, but also the gospel is being preached, the whole counsel of God, sin, hell and damnation and not to mention, it is a fellowship that prays, we have a prayer meeting every week.

My soul is immersed in the word of God every week...

One of my delight is going out in the community every week to tell folks about the Lord and the salvation he came to provide for us at the cross.

The last command of the Lord is to " Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel"

May 2023 makes it a year since I have been part of the fellowship at Straightway Baptist Church and I can tell you it has been a blessing.

I praise the name of the Lord for that divine appointment on that day with our Pastor, because I am being fed, prayed for and enjoying a loving fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ.

The shower of blessings from the Lord has been gracious.

I pray that the Lord continue to bless our pastor, his ministry, and his family.

The Lord Knows our needs, just trust him to guide us to port.

He will never leave nor forsake us, He will be with us until the end of time.

Amen, amen and amen.

To God be the Glory.

I moved to America from India when I was nine years old, and was always thankful that my grandma taught me about Jesus. Early childhood Sundays in India were spent with her; either at her home eating her home-cooked food or with her at church—Carey Baptist. She always sang Christian hymns and prayed all day long, in the kitchen, in the living room, on the floor, everywhere. She taught me how to pray and how to trust Him. I was confident I knew God.

One day, Pastor Guarneri knocked on the door of our home in New Jersey. I was about 15 or 16 years old. We were a bit hesitant as we knew Jehovah’s Witness often made their rounds here. But, this time it was different. It was a Christian pastor. We took a chance and attended Straightway Baptist, where some 15-20 people convened in a small hotel conference room. Ironically, it was the first hotel we stayed at when we moved to the States.

It was at Straightway Baptist, as a teenager, where I learned that salvation was not earning your merits to heaven. I remember looking back at my childhood and always thinking that if I was a well-behaved, “good” person, God would judge me based on if I was mostly good or mostly bad—that my actions would determine my entry to heaven. But I was wrong. And the leaders at Straightway, (Pastor and my Sunday School teacher back then- Joy O), educated me via scripture- not their words, but God’s. I trusted Christ as my Savior but this time also confessed to God that I believed Jesus paid for our sins today and was raised from the dead, He paid the ultimate price for us. Since then, I’ve felt liberated. Since then, I’ve made plenty of mistakes and been an imperfect human, but I know that God has a place for me in heaven.

Thankful for people and churches like Straightway Baptist, that practice what the Bible teaches:

Matthew 28:19 - Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

I grew up in a Catholic family in an Italian American neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY and so all I was exposed to was Roman Catholicism until I went to college. When I was 17, I attended and lived at Columbia University in New York City; went to the Engineering School and played Football there. There were two upper classmen teammates who invited me to a Bible Study in their dorm room. Randy Trowbridge and Keith Hollinger had good Christian testimonies in that there was a strikingly godly joy and peace about them; but they weren’t involved with all the worldly, sinful things that many of the athletes participated in. It was through that Bible Study and the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ that the Lord Jesus and the Blessed Holy Spirit apprehended me with the Gospel message through Bible Study, Gospel literature and godly examples. I trusted Christ and was gloriously saved by the death, burial and resurrection of the Blessed Savior and LORD of all. Unfortunately I stayed in the Catholic Church and with all that was going on with studies and sports I was a lamb without an earthly shepherd to guide me in God’s will for my life. I listened to Christian radio, read the Bible and read about the Christian life after college and tried different churches on my own. Then my employer moved me to Illinois and it was there, in central Illinois, that the LORD led me to a young Baptist church and a great under-shepherd (pastor) Lane Haddock that led me into God’s will for my life. I served in that church for three years and then when I moved back to the East Coast, found a great church and pastor (Bryan Miller) to serve with, and then at age 50 was led to start Straightway Baptist Church in Princeton, NJ.

My wife and I were looking for a new church for a while because the pastor of our former church had retired. We went to Walmart one day in Hamilton, NJ. My wife went in, while I stayed in the car. On her way out Brother Frank gave her a tract and Pastor Lou spoke to her and followed up with us and we started going to Church. One Sunday night, I raised my hand at the invitation and Brother Frank encouraged me to make Jesus my Lord and Savior. My cousin Alan Barclay had witnessed to me about 30 years ago and a seed was planted, but after that service in 2019 I called upon the name of the Lord and was gloriously saved. I was baptized at Straightway Baptist shortly thereafter.

At the age of 12, my friend invited me to her church to attend Vacation Bible School which lasted for 2 weeks. My parents allowed me to go and it was a wonderful experience since I would also stay at my friend's house. We attended every day. My friend's mother asked me to sit down and talk to her, and she witnessed to me. I will never forget! I accepted Jesus as my savior that day.

The Lord led me to my friend and He has been with me through many trials ever since. He comforted me when my two sons passed away. I felt His loving arms surround me. 

I seek His wisdom in all that i do. The Lord is always patient and loving. I praise Him for the many blessings He gives me. I am loved!

I was born and raised in Puerto Rico with a Catholic background, though I never considered myself Catholic, for my family only visited the church once or twice a year. Growing up, my view of God was that of an unseen punisher and I was afraid of him.

Most of you may have gotten saved because someone witnessed to you or you may have heard the gospel preached, a tract or just someone you knew told you about it. None of those apply to me, even though I had so-called Pentecostal family members, no one ever took the time to tell me. I do believe that the reason is that they themselves didn't know. It's true that you can't give what you don't have and you can't teach what you don't know. 

So I went on living my life with what knowledge I had of right and wrong. Though I considered myself a respectful person, I found myself making the wrong choices in many ways. After ten years of an abusive marriage, I got divorced and went back to the island with 3 children and no child support to a non-supportive family.

As you can imagine, life was tough, very tough! and I made more wrong choices as I lacked good sense and wisdom. After a few years, my life was a mess and I became desperately hopeless. So one day I broke down and cried like I had never cried before. In my cry, I called upon the Lord and I told him that I could no longer go on carrying that heavy burden, that I needed him to help me and take away the load that I was carrying, and I said: "Lord, If you take this from me, I'll do whatever you want me to do" As soon as I finished saying those words something happened; I felt as light as a feather and felt this peace come upon me, and I asked myself, what happened and I thought...God...he heard me and he is answering my plea. 

I was in awe for a few days and shared my experience with many people, but no one could comment on it. So after a few days, I put it out of my mind and went on, life as usual. Remember that I said, to God, "I'll do whatever you want me to do? That's when I began to hear an inner voice saying: Seek! In the beginning, I thought it was my imagination, but it kept on happening, until one day the voice said, what are you waiting for? it seemed urgent, so I said, I don't know what I have to seek for, but I think that I should find it in a church, but You have to show me what church. So I took upon myself to drive by different churches and stop in front of them waiting for God to tell me if it was the right one. This went on for months and then I had to move to another city.

On my way to the nearest mall, I began to notice a very small sign on a house close by the mall, and for some reason, I kept wondering what the sign said, for I couldn't see it from the road. So one day I heard that voice again saying: That's your church. The car stopped, but there was no church building anywhere, so I took a turn to see what the small sign said. Guess what, it said: Calvary Baptist Tabernacle. So I made plans with my daughter to visit that church. 

And so we did, and for the first time in my life, I heard that God loves me and that he sent his son to die for me so that I could go to heaven. Then the Pastor told me that I needed to pray for forgiveness and ask Jesus to come into my heart and save me, which I did. Still, I didn't understand God's infinite love until one day as I was reading the book of Ezekiel, then it all became clear to me, as I wept tears of joy. 

Not long after that my daughter Sharon also got saved. Though I've been told that it's a far-fetched story, God is my witness that it's exactly how it happened.

My mother was saved by grace through faith in Jesus when I was still in her womb. I grew up going to church in obedience to my Mother, but it wasn’t until I was a 20 years old that I heard the LORD calling me and I was personally saved by grace through faith in Jesus in a church service. I was baptized soon thereafter at that same church. Jesus accepted me and I received Him as my Savior; and now I am awaiting His return so I can meet Him as He is. To God be the glory!

BACKSLIDDEN

I was saved at an early age, around 9-10 years old. At the time my family and I were attending Faith Baptist Church, in Hamilton Township, Mercer County, NJ. My Father was Baptist and my Mother was Roman Catholic at the time.

One evening during one of our revival week meetings, there was one of those hell, fire, and brimstone type evangelists delivering a message about Noah's Ark. He stood on stage pounding the door to the stairway leading to the basement screaming "Noe, Noe", as he was reenacting how the people responded as GOD shut the door to the ark. Talk about putting the fear of God into someone (Matthew 10:28b but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.) Needless to say, the Holy Spirt spoke to my heart and I responded by repenting of my sins and accepting Christ as my Saviour.

Not long after that, my mother also accepted Christ; then my father and myself were baptized by the Reverend John Lee, who at the time was the pastor of Faith Baptist.

I continued to attend church up until my mid-twenties. After that I went sporadically on and off again, attending a few other Baptist and other denominational churches. I became a backslidden Christian. I allowed the things of life to overtake and control me, I was not heading in the right direction, certainly not following the footsteps of Jesus.

Time marches on, in-fact it is very fleeting. When I was in my late fifties and retired from the fire service, I found myself not happy and feeling very empty inside. The problem was that I was the problem. How can a true Bible believing Christian, knowing Jesus died for his sins, accepting Christ as his Lord and Saviour, ever be happy when he omits God from his daily life?

After I got over my pride, which was the main reason my for problems, I started searching for answers. First and foremost I repented of my sins that I had committed against God. Although I am saved I still own my sin. Speaking of taking ownership, never did I blame God or ask why things in my life weren't going well. I already knew the answer to that question. I actually found a "few" good preachers on social media and would listen to their sermons on a regular basis and then I followed up with prayers for God to lead me to a good bible believing church.

God answers prayer if you ask for the right things. One day in June of 2019, about a month before my back surgery, there was a knock at my front door. When I opened the door, there stood Pastor Guarneri. My first impression was that "hey, they're not JW's". I didn't see anyone holding a copy of Watch Tower. Pastor and I talked briefly and he prayed for my upcoming surgery. I also remember pastor coming by for a follow-up visit. I prayed about these visits that I had received. Was it my answer to prayer. About a year went by without making a commitment to going to church. But still in my heart there was this constant longing to attend church. The Holy Spirit was speaking to me and I had to respond. God had indeed answered my prayers but I still had to respond. I was led right to Straightway Baptist Church.

In September of 2020, I was accepted as a new member of Straightway Baptist Church. Even if you as a true Christian should stray from the Lord, remember:

Hebrews 13:5b "for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."

I had the privilege of growing up in a Christian home with two parents who deeply love the Lord and lived to serve him any way possible in their daily lives.  When I was about 7 my family went to a special meeting at church. I don't remember what else the preacher spoke about but I know he preached on hell and that is when I realized that I didn't want to go there and that I needed to be saved.

I remember leaning over to my Father and telling him that I didn't want to go to hell. He encouraged me to go forward during the invitation. I did and someone opened the Word of God and explained to me the way of salvation and I trusted Jesus as my Savior that day! Praise the Lord! At the ripe old age of 7 a huge weight was lifted and I felt peace and happiness.

Growing up in a Christian home is indeed a blessing, but there are also challenges. As I started my new life in the Lord I heard the Pastor talk about becoming a new creature and how our lives are changed when we ask Jesus into our hearts. I didn't see any change in my life and that really bothered me. Looking back, I'm not sure what horrible sins I would have been involved in at that age. But, I took everything literally and didn't think I was a "new creature".

My Father said not to worry and as long as the only thing I was trusting in for my salvation was what Jesus did on the cross, then I was saved.

But I worried. This went on for several years. One day when I was 12 I was alone in my tree fort praying for assurance. Our wonderful, loving, merciful God looked down from heaven and spoke to me. I remember it so clearly, the Holy Spirit, held me close and gave me such peace and assurance that has never left me. With tears streaming down my face I went running into the house to tell my mother that I was saved! really saved! God told me so!

From the time I first asked Jesus into my heart, God started teaching me how to pray. I had always heard that God answers prayer, boy does he! I had a lot of growing to do. God taught a little girl about prayer one step at a time. He answered so many of my childish (and yes selfish) prayers I really believe just to show me how much he loved me. I learned to pray specifically and most importantly of all to pray that His will be done.

I won't bore you with the list, we'd be here all day. But, when God started Straightway Baptist my husband and I were serving at another church with the Guarneris. God put a real burden on our hearts for this church and we started coming down on Sunday afternoons to do what we could to help and then going back to our church for evening service, 30 miles each way. We not only prayed that God would bless the new church but that he would guide us and show us what he wanted us to do. When the church had it's very first service we were there. The following Sunday we were back in our places at the other church. The Lord moved in the service and in the Sunday School class that I was teaching, but something wasn't right. On the ride home from church I started crying, I asked my husband what we were going to do. He didn't even hesitate, he said that God wanted us to be at Straightway. Praise God for my husband! 

There have been good times and bad, but through it all God has been there and richly blessed our family. Thank you God I can't imagine life without you!

For as long as I can remember I have felt a draw to God. There was a church around the corner from my house, and I could often be found there, when the doors were open. My mother never forced me to go to church, I would get myself up and out the door. But I was not saved. My siblings and I would spend summers in the small Pennsylvania town where I was born with a great-great aunt. This aunt, who was born in 1890s, was saved and she had a firm idea about how girls should be brought up. So, at the age of ten I was tasked with reading the Bible to her daily. This became a habit which I took home with me, reading it every night. By the time I was twelve I felt the Lord pulling on my heart. Verses like John 3:16 and Ephesians 2: 8 called to me. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.", became a drum beat in my soul, calling for a response. One night, about a month before my thirteenth birthday, I knelt beside my bed and prayed. I remember asking God to forgive my sins and telling Him of my believeth that Jesus died for them. When I closed that prayer, I felt reborn. I was certain I was saved. Then I went to church the following Sunday. I should state here that the church I was going to was Pentecostal, my young mind did not know it was not scripturally sound. I was excited when I told my Pastor that I had gotten saved, his response was "did you speak in tongues?", my response was 'no'. I was then told I was not saved, and I needed to "tarry" at the altar until it happened. As a child I did what he said after service that day, nothing happened, nor did it happen at any other time, leading me to believe I was not saved. It was not until years later when I met my future father-in-law that the assurance of my salvation was explained to me. At that time, I learned to rest in my salvation, and I was finally baptized. From that time on I have walked with the Lord.

I grew up in Kolkata in a house where my mom was a Christian and my dad a Hindu. My dad never really practiced his religion and he never stopped my mom from practicing hers. I always considered myself a Christian thanks to my mom's influence! I always knew that Jesus died on the cross for me and most importantly that He arose on the third day. I knew He is a living God and not some idol and that I can talk to Him whenever I wanted and that I did not need a priest to intercede for me. In spite of knowing the Lord, deep in my heart I always thought I could lose my salvation if I did something terrible. One day Pastor Guarneri came knocking at my door. He was just about to start a new church and was inviting people over. I'm so glad and thank the Lord that He sent Pastor to my door. I was attending a church and was a member too but it was a huge church and no one really knew anyone there. Pastor showed me the Romans road to salvation and told me I am a sinner and that Jesus has paid the price. I realized that it does not have to be paid again and again. Jesus paid the price not in silver or gold but with His precious blood. He took our sins upon Him and the pain and shame on the cross. ONCE SAVED ALWAYS SAVED! Ever since that day, I am a100% sure I am on my way to Heaven and all my doubts are gone. The Lord sent Pastor to my house that day, it was not a coincidence! Pastor kept following back with me and I started attending Straightway Baptist Church and have been coming here since the doors opened seventeen years ago. The minute I walked in I felt so welcome and I knew this was where I wanted to worship. Pastor preaches from the Bible and has a burden for the unsaved and will not miss an opportunity to share the gospel with someone. When my mom attended Straightway Baptist for the first time, she told me she was praying for me to find a good church and that she was so happy the Lord had answered her prayers. Happy to add that my dad accepted the Lord on August 1st, 2015, the first day my mom started her chemotherapy. Now both are waiting for me in Heaven!