Guest Blog:  Brian and Shannon Ladd (Life Change story from Freedom Church)

Last December, a group of crazy guys had decided to sleep in a crane to help kids get bikes for Christmas.  As a result, I decided to go check this church out.  Brian and I never went to church except for an occasional wedding or Christening, so I walked in not knowing what to expect.  Before walking out, I knew we had found the church for us!

We had both considered ourselves Christians, but never realized how far from God we really were.  On September 6th, Brian came up to me with a huge smile on his face.  He said, “I did it.  When Pastor J.R. was praying, I prayed for Jesus to come into my life.”  I have never been happier for Brian!  During the next week, we sat in the evenings and read the Bible and prayed.  We joined a small group and have begun a spiritual journey together!

The next week, as I sat in the auditorium, I really felt like Pastor was speaking directly to me.  I couldn’t sit still during the message because I just kept waiting for him to say “Shannon, I AM talking to you”.  So on that day, I called Brian (he was out of town) to tell him that I too had prayed to accept Christ!

It’s only been a few weeks since then, but we can already see a difference in our lives.  We are different people.  My kids even get excited about Freedom and can’t wait to learn about God every week.  Things that use to get us stressed and upset just don’t seem to matter as much.  Now, we pray about it and let God handle it.  We are both looking forward to growing in our relationship with God and with each other.  We are truly thankful for Freedom Church and truly blessed that God led Pastor J.R. to start a church in Acworth!  We love seeing Freedom grow and reaching more people who are far from God so that they too can experience life in Christ!