Prospective New Members: Rebekah Freele
As a church, we are excited about how God is working among and through us. One aspect is seeing people excited to lock arms as they seek to partner with us in Church Membership.
Please read the testimony of Rebekah Freele. Take some time to get to know her over the next couple of weeks.
If you are curious about what it means to partner with Knollwood in Church Membership or just want to learn more about it, consider signing up for our upcoming Next Steps Class.
My name is Rebekah but I prefer to go by Beks, I’m also referred to as Pastor Matt’s wife. I was born and raised in Sarnia, Ontario where I have been actively involved in a church plant through the FEB called Anthem Church. My parents occasionally brought me to church and at Sunday School was where I first learnt about God. I attended numerous VBS camps and I remember praying and asking Jesus to come into my heart at Temple Baptist Camp around the age of 6. As the years passed, my family’s church attendance became seldom and I didn’t have the opportunity outside of church to discover more about God.
From a young age, I found comfort and relief in being able to be in control of outcomes to create stability. It contributed to producing a pride in me to excel at everything I did, and given as a child I was relatively bright, it formed a false sense of security. I learnt to only depend on myself to control circumstances and therefore I would hold myself solely responsible for when things didn’t go as I had planned. This resulted in me becoming exceedingly critical of myself so that I could prevent this from happening and ensure plans prevailed in the approach that I wanted them to. This was not an attainable or manageable way of living as it placed an unbearable amount of pressure on me since life is never straightforward nor does it follow the plans we make.
When I was 14 years old, I began desiring to learn more about God and who He is but I didn’t understand why or where to start. I began to attend church again on my own and decided to go to the youth weekend they were hosting. It was there that I started to gain understanding of who Christ is and that he died on the cross for my sins and prideful ways to be able to be in relationship with Him. I started to regularly read my Bible, pray, grow in my knowledge of Christ and get connected in church. In my senior year of high school, the Clever family from church welcomed and adopted me into their family and took on the role of discipling me and made a tremendous difference in my walk with Christ.
I realized that God is sovereign and in control and to surrender my plans to Him. He is a refuge and place of comfort to provide rest and that I can rest in knowing that I don’t have to meticulously plan my outcomes and how to achieve them anymore. I know that even in circumstances that feel chaotic and filled with uncertainty that I can trust in God and His goodness. God is whom I depend on and that through Christ I have all that I need. I have experienced that God is faithful even in the valleys when I feel alone and unsure. God is always at work in the most impossible situations even if I can’t see it yet; He is working all things for our good. He is with me and He is for me and He holds the victory.