On August 8, Kevin Fryatt joined God's family when he was baptized. Read more about Kevin.
When did you first start attending New Hope ?
I heard about New Hope through a mutual friend of Chris Howell that I’ve known for a very long time. Moving into the Baltimore area, and to the East Coast for the very first time, I was very nervous and praying that God would lead me to a church and surround me with strong people and He did just that. I began attending New Hope in the middle of April 2009 and knew that I found a group of believers that valued the journey more than the destination.
What kept you here?
I knew from my first time attending New Hope that there was something different about this church than other churches I’ve been a part of. People at New Hope accept you the way Christ accepts us, just the way we are – dirty old sinners in need of a Savior. It is evident to me that the people I’ve interacted with at New Hope , be it members, visitors, or leadership have a passion for discovering the truth and questioning what we already believe. During the Reformation of the 16th and 17th centuries, individuals like Martin Luther didn’t change the course of Christianity because he believed what was taught to be true. He valued the ability to question and reinterpret what was always considered to be true – and through this process discovered valuable Biblical truths because of it. The willingness to admit that we’re on a journey and the boldness to follow in the footsteps of the Reformers by re-examining what we’ve always thought to be true has kept me, and will keep me, at New Hope for a long time.
How have you grown spiritually while attending New Hope ?
While attending New Hope I’ve grown in the understanding of acceptance. Through the living examples of many individuals I’ve come into contact with I have come to know just a little more of a glimpse of what it truly means to be accepted by Christ. As Christians, we often say that its not about what you wear, the people you hang out with, or the amount of jewelry you wear but at New Hope it’s the way people act that speak louder than words. I constantly struggle with trying to fathom how much God really does love us despite everything we’ve done to deserve the opposite but my experience at New Hope has shown me just a glimpse into the heart of God by experiencing what true acceptance really means in a practical sense.
Why did you decide to get baptized?
My decision to follow Christ was made a number of years ago but I delayed getting baptized because of every excuse I could come up with and because of fear of what the act of getting baptized would mean and scared of the change and unreal expectations that would be placed on me because of it. I think secretly I was led to believe that after you got baptized you didn’t sin – something my new found understanding of acceptance smashed to pieces. I got baptized because I was fed up with the nagging sensation that I was letting God down on a decision that I had made years earlier. I couldn’t live in fear anymore and had to trust that He would take care of me along the way.
Describe your spiritual journey...
I grew up in a family dynamic where my mom was an Adventist and my father was not. I grew up in the church and learned all the Bible stories but never understood or knew the ‘why’ behind what I knew as the Christian faith. This lead me to a very academic understanding of the Gospel but I had, and still have, a very difficult time understanding the most important part of Christianity, the relational aspect of our faith. I stopped going to church as soon as became old enough to stand up against my mom and tell her I didn’t want to go – so around the age of 13. At the age of 14 I started doing drugs and hanging around with the wrong crowd of friends. I kept using drugs until, at the age of 22, I had an encounter with God. This encounter was proof to me that God approaches people where they are at in life because I was far from perfect and very far from God at that time. I remember being at a party one night and I had had a few drinks and held another one in my hand and as I was sitting on a picnic table waiting for a friend to come back from getting another drink I heard a loud audible voice, which I believe to be God, say to me, “Kevin, this isn’t for you.” I took that to mean that God had something bigger in store for my life. Sometimes we hear voices in our head and have to discern over a period of time whether or not it was really God speaking but in this case I had no doubt at all. I put down my drink and did the ‘smart’ thing – I drove home. God must have protected me! A few months later I gave up drug use and have been clean since. That encounter was the beginning of my spiritual journey, where it would lead next only God knew.
In the next couple years I was soon to be graduating from university and it wasn’t until my final semester of studying Accounting that I came to the realization that God had something more that just Accounting in mind for me. One morning in my final semester I woke up with the strong feeling that I needed to drop my remaining Accounting courses and just finish my degree as soon as I could. I knew I had to get away and try and discern what God was trying to tell me so after I graduated I travelled down to Central America for four months on a sort of spiritual reconnaissance mission in which my heart was broken for the poor. I volunteered at a local SDA high school and radio station in Belize and God grew within me a fond appreciation for the poor and a started to develop within me a servants heart. After that experience I knew that there was no way that I could go back home to Canada and work a ‘normal job’ and that I needed to find work that would incorporate these newfound passions – so I began to pray. On my way back to Canada from Belize I stopped at a friend’s place in Portland to visit and checked my email just to find an email from a friend from university offering me a job working in the war-torn West African country of Liberia . Without knowing much about the country and less about the job itself I accepted the job without any idea of what it would lead to – or if I would even come back alive! Since then my life has been an incredible (and often damaging) spiritual, personal, and professional rollercoaster ride that I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world. What doesn’t kill you indeed does make you stronger!
I ended up spending three challenging and rewarding years which have forced me, one way or another, to trust God more and more. Furthermore, my time there catapulted me into a career that I only dreamed of as a child – working with the poor in Africa . I believe the last three years taught me a lot of things but the thing two things that stand out the most are: 1) What it means to be the hands and feet of Christ, and 2) my faith is so minuscule in comparison to the Christians who lived through the Liberian Civil War. Despite the atrocities, they continued to trust in God and be content with the provision they had.
What does Jesus mean to you?
What does Jesus mean to me? To be blatantly honest, Jesus still puzzles me and I think He always will, but to put it in a few sentences I would say that Jesus:
1. Is the father I never had
2. Is my answer to the fact that I’ll never be good enough and never live up to God’s standard.
3. He’s my answer in those times when I don’t one
4. His example shows me how to love, and be loved.
What would you say to someone who is thinking about getting baptized?
If someone is thinking of getting baptized I would say ‘do it’. Don’t be afraid of what people might think of you or what might lay ahead. God has a better plan for us, we just have to be willing to accept the offer.
Any other thoughts?
The Christian walk is a journey, continue with it.
“Once you start believing you’ve reached your destination, the journey has ended.”
