Sara

Sara is a girl who was born in an eastern country in which many people are believers of Buddhism and Shinto. When she was at university, she met a few Christians. She assumed, however, that these were just some people who were fascinated by the west and followed western religions and views or that their religion was a result of western imperialism. She then lived with a friend for some time though and she was surrounded by Christian families and started to doubt whether Christianity is the truth or not.

She then went as an exchange student to another eastern country and she saw an advert that said “Let’s read the Bible together. Telephone…”. She decided to call and the lady to whom she talked to was an evangelical Christian. Sara started liking the Bible and she started reading it a lot. She even wondered how she lived without Christ all these years. A friend then invited her to a church and Sara was baptised in this church (a Presbyterian church).

Some years later, Sara was participating in some evangelism groups and she was sent to Greece and helped refugees there. She also wanted to travel to another country to help some people in need, but her passport was stolen and she stayed in Greece. During the time that she was still staying in Greece, a man asked to marry her. She decided to marry him, so she stayed in Greece in the end.

Sara also wondered about the different doctrines in Christianity and if she was in the right one. She started reading about interpretations of the Bible. One subject that she investigated was women. There are many different opinions among doctrines in terms of women. Protestants, for example, have female priests, while other doctrines do not. Sara was reading about the different interpretations of churches regarding women and she decided that she believed that more traditional views were true.

Paul the Apostle in the Bible also says that women should cover their heads, while being inside a church. This is a rule that is still obeyed by certain churches today. In some orthodox churches women do this and in others they do not. There is disagreement today regarding whether this rule should be followed or not. Sara personally agreed with this rule and decided to follow it. When she did, she felt some deep internal transformation as a woman and she started thinking that Biblical symbols transformed people, when they are obeyed in faith.

Then, many questions arose for her. The Presbyterian church believed that the water was just a symbol and they baptised her by sprinkling. If symbols have important meanings though and the water as an element is important, surely people who are baptised should be immersed in water instead, as Jesus did. She also started thinking that the modern evangelical symbolical interpretation of the presence of Jesus for the Holy Communion does not have historical roots.

Moreover, Sara started thinking that without some Godly authority that can give definitive answers for different parts of the Bible, there cannot be one and united church. This is because people can interpret the Bible in different ways. We can’t only rely on the Bible and interpreting it, if we want to get definitive answers. She concluded that there must be some Godly authority and apostolic succession. There were two options to satisfy this: the catholic church and the orthodox church.

Sara initially started attending a catholic church, but she was reading about both orthodoxy and catholicism. One day, she was reading a book regarding church history at a coffee shop and suddenly a man approached her and asked her what type of Christian she was. She replied that she didn’t know and she was searching about it. The man gave her the name of an orthodox priest and told her to go to see him.

When she arrived at the building where she was supposed to find him, the building was closed. At that moment, two ladies arrived and they opened the door. Inside this building, Sara talked to the priest that the man told her to talk to and also to other priests and theologians. She decided that she wanted to become an orthodox Christian, but she was worried that, as a foreigner, it would be hard for her to find a godmother. An orthodox monk, however, told her that God would offer one to her. Indeed, Sara found a godmother and she found her very quickly. She was afterwards baptised as an orthodox Christian and she never had felt closer to Jesus than she felt after her baptism.