Blog Postings

The Testimony of Joanna Tinsley

Speaking at Listooder for the first time, Joanna Tinsley related the story of how she came to trust in the Lord Jesus Chrsit as her Saviour. Joanna began by reading Psalm 27:1, he LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? She stated that she was not there to present Joanna Tinsley, but instead to present God in her life.

Brought up in Poland, in the ways of the Roman Catholic church, Joanna never heard of the need to have a personal trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Baptised in the Catholic church at 1 year old, and Holy Communion at the age of 7, she was taught to confess her sins to the priest. She was also told that, to God, certain sins are considered greater than others. This is, of course, against what we find in the Word of God.

With a desire to go to art college, Joanna pursued the necessary results in her exams. She passed those exams and moved on to college. However, in this, Joanna sees the hand of God. She now believes that if she had not moved on to college, she may have ended up becoming a nun. At that college, Joanna began attending an early morning mass. Although this mass did not teach the truth of Scripture, there was one chorus which was sung on a regular basis:

Jesus, name above all names
Beautiful Savior, glorious Lord.
Emmanuel, God is with us.
Blessed Redeemer, Living word.

This spoke to Joanna, and she prayed to God. She prayed that if this was indeed true, that the Lord Jesus Christ was above all others, that He would reveal Himself to her. God eventually answered this prayer, but she was to go through some dark times before He did.

Over the next few years, Joanna began to get disillusioned with the church. She stopped attending mass, and began looking for spiritual answers elsewhere. Moving on to continue her art studies at University, she began to dabble in astrology, spirit worship and other religions, but she found no answers.

At University, she became friends with some young people who met together to study the Bible on a regular basis, a group of true Christians. One of the group, Martin, began to share the Gospel with her. This was the first time Joanna had heard that the death of the Lord Jesus Christ meant that He could take away all of our sins forever, that the Pergatory taught in the Roman Catholic church was not true, and that it was possible to have a real and personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Over time, Joanna began to come to a better understanding of the Gospel. She knew that Christ had died for her, and that she needed to be forgiven for all her sins. With the help of Martin, Joanna turned to the Lord for Salvation. That moment, she knew that her burden had been lifted, her sins had been forgiven forever and she had been lifted from the road to hell and was now set for heaven. Joanna knew this was different. She knew that she had been changed forever. And despite her parents' belief that this would be a temporary 'fix', Joanna began to grow in the knowledge of God, and to the grow in the strength of the Lord.

As a believer now in the Lord Jesus Christ, and at the age of 24, Joanna began to pray that she would meet a Godly man and be able to get married. Humanly speaking this was a difficult thing to pray for. In a predominantly Catholic country, truly Christian men were hard to find. But God had plans for Joanna's life. Within a few months of getting saved the Lord brought Colin into her life, a believer from Northern Ireland, and clearly led them to get married. Together, they now serve the Lord Jesus on a full-time basis. In both Poland and Northern Ireland they have been given countless opportunities to lead children and young people to Christ.

Joanna finished by reminding the young people of 2 Corinthians 12:9, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. We all face challenges in our lives, but God is real and God is sufficient. Whatever the trial, whatever the difficulty, God knows all about it. He will give us the strength to endure it, and will use that trial to make us stronger for Him, so that we might do His will and serve Him day by day.