Baptism is a symbol of the new life believers have in Christ. This is Ashley Alexander’s public profession of faith in Jesus from her baptism on Sunday, October 7, 2024.
Growing up my family attended a Catholic Church. I was baptized, attended Sunday school, and had my first holy communion. I learned how to say my Hail Mary' and Our Fathers ; so well that I was loved amongst the sisters who taught us. I was the perfect “student.” But I was never taught about the love the Lord had for us and all the good things he provides . I only learned to follow the rules to get into heaven. As I got older I thought these rules were absurd and I could never live up to the standards so I decided to go my own way which turned out to be a very dark and lonely road.
I moved to Texas in 2018 for a job and I remember seeing Marcus Mathias at work . He was always smiling and so friendly and it freaked me out. I never understood why he was so happy and carefree. I had never met anyone like that and I had never known what that felt like. One day he asked me what I knew about the Lord and I told him about my background. He slowly would give me nuggets about the Bible and would ask me hard questions and I slowly opened up to him about my life and why I had turned away from the Lord.
After weeks of conversation Marcus invited me to church in Denton which was far from where I lived but I decided to give it a chance when I read on the website “broken people loving broken people”. After reading that it seemed safe to me because I had felt broken for most of my life. I immediately texted my sister telling her about it. She was shocked but she agreed to come with me. From the moment I stepped into Redeemer I was overwhelmed with the amount of love and kindness I received from everyone. Again, I was freaked out by how happy everyone was. I thought “how can all these people be so nice to me when they don’t even know me?” I was so afraid that everyone would quickly see I didn’t belong and throw me out , but that never happened, so I kept coming back.
During one of my conversations with Marcus he mentioned Matthew 11:28 “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest in your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” I was tired of running, tired of pushing people away, tired of being alone, so I let go. I let go of everything bad that had happened in my life and turned to the Lord for the first time in my life. I’ll never forget that day my heart was changed. It felt like the Lord was pressing down on my heart to break the stone I built around it. My life has changed for the better all because of the good things the Lord provides.
I finally have a good and loving relationship with my sister. I was brave enough to reach out to a friend that I had loved for a long time but was afraid to tell him and now he is my husband. I have a community that I truly feel at home in. I forgave myself for everything I had done to survive and now I finally understand why everyone is so happy.