Ninth Grader — and You — Have Influence

                                                                                                                                                    Vol. X, No. 4, April 1997

            Brandi, a ninth-grader in Florence, MS, the oldest of seven children, named her mother when her Sunday school teacher asked the class about people who had influenced them for Christ. "Some people said other names. Two of my friends said me!" Brandi, 15, recounted in the teen magazine "essential encounter" published by the Baptist Sunday School Board. "I was so surprised I almost cried. Of all the people they are around all week, they said me. If I had that much influence on people I only saw about three times a week, then I couldn't imagine how much I must have on people I am around every day, like my sisters and brothers." Although "I don't have a story about a miraculous change from drug addict to preacher or anything like that," Brandi said she realized, "If you know God and really have a relationship with him, then you have a testimony. ... If you are God's child, then you have a story to tell." [BP]