Sandra English

Women’s Ministry

I can never remember a time when I did not attend church, nor can I remember a time when I ever doubted that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead.  What I did not understand was how that life and resurrection connected with me.   When I was 9 years old, I remember walking the aisle of the church I attended and the preacher’s wife praying for me and then subsequently being baptized.  So, I was unconverted and unregenerate, but welcomed into full fellowship of the church.  My late teen years gave full testimony to the fact that I was unsaved, but in my twenties, I became convinced that my lifestyle was not one that was very moral, so I set about to develop my own self-righteousness, got rebaptized, and  became very “active” in the church, to the point of even being an AWANA commander.

It was not until 2004 that God brought me to the end of myself. The  Holy Spirit showed me the reason why Jesus died and rose from the dead, it was to save me from my sins.  God sovereignly and graciously brought me to the point where that I could see that all my righteousness was as filthy rags.  I was then willing to turn to Christ as Savior and Lord.    Because of the perfect life that Jesus lived and because of His substitutionary death to take the wrath of God on my behalf, I am reconciled with God.  So, I was baptized again, but this time as a regenerate believer.  I have experienced what the old hymn speaks of- “it was grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved.”  I understand that  God is an infinitely HOLY God who will by no means clear the guilty, but welcomes into His family all who receive Jesus as Savior and Lord and clothes them with the righteousness of Christ.  So, I am not what I was nor am I what I will be, but as I abide in Christ, He is changing me and I know He will finish what He started because He is faithful.

It is my desire to show other women the truth of God’s Word.  I want to grow with them as we learn to love the Lord above all else and as we learn how to love, submit to, and respect our husbands and  love our children.  I have a passion for sharing the gospel.  My husband and I live in Bryson City.  I have three grown children and five grandchildren and I am a former 4th grade teacher who recently retired from the Swain County School System as the Family and Community Engagement Coordinator.  I look forward to  what God is going to do at Grace Baptist Church for His glory and the good of His people.