Angeles Escalante

“I grew up in the Baptist church, my dad was a pastor there. When I was 10 years old my parents got divorced, and my mom moved me and two of my siblings to a Pentecostal Church.

I was very involved in church. I really enjoyed being a worship leader. If someone needed something done, I was there doing it – but I cannot say I was there because of God. To me, it was all just routine that I followed out of habit because that’s what my parents taught me.

In 2016, when we moved to Kentucky, my mom started attending the Seventh-day Adventist Church. I thought she was crazy. I was mad at her and when I told my siblings they got mad too. One time my sister went to church with my mom and called me saying ‘hey, can you bring mom some extra clothes?’ I was confused, ‘what do you mean? Did she get baptized?’ ‘Yeah.’ So, I grabbed the clothes, dropped it off and went home. I did not say anything to her because I really thought she had made a wrong decision.

Throughout the next few years, I would sometimes attend the Adventist church with my mom because it made her happy. At the same time, I was still going the Pentecostal church – helping in any way I could. Despite all this, I still did not have a relationship with God. So, in 2021 I dropped everything and stopped going to church altogether.

Still, something in my heart was telling me that God was real. I felt like even though I did not have a relationship with Him, He didn’t stop trying to have a relationship with me. By May of 2022 I decided to start visiting the Adventist Church again. I think the reason why I chose the Adventist church instead of another denomination was because I had seen how much they cared and supported their youth. Little by little, I started to know God more personally. I also started to believe in the teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. However, I could not bring myself to make a decision for baptism.

There were two things that kept me from being baptized. The first thing was that I feared the reaction of my brothers. I did not want to receive the kind of backlash they had given my mom. The second thing was that the pastor of the Pentecostal church where I had been baptized in 2015 had sexually abused me. So, I always told myself that I did not need to get baptized again.

When my 21st birthday was approaching in August of 2022, my friends and I made plans to go partying in Nashville. A few days before that, the pastor’s wife, hermana Yaritza, approached me and said ‘hey, there is a youth retreat this weekend and I want you to come with me.’ At first, I refused and told her I already had plans for that weekend, but she wouldn’t take no as an answer. So, I ended up cancelling my plans and going to this youth retreat instead.

This was my first time at Indian Creek Camp. The youth retreat was about making decisions. Deep in my heart, I knew God was calling me to make a decision for baptism, but I still could not accept it. Prior to this retreat I had prayed to God that if He really wanted me to be baptized, he needed to designate someone to show me so.

At the final sermon, the pastor made an altar call. I could not stop myself from crying, and I hugged Hermana Yaritza. She was hugging me back and asked, ‘Do you want me to go up there with you?’ It was God’s answer to my prayer. So, I told her yes and that’s when I decided to get baptized again.

My life has changed in so many ways since. I know I've always had God's love, but I had never actually tried to love Him back. Now, my relationship with Him is personal. Every day, I have a bigger desire to get to know Him, and each day I am at awe by his surrounding grace and love.”

-       Angeles Escalante, from the Owensboro Hispanic Church in Kentucky.