My First Love, Maria Koch

I was blessed by the Lord to have been born into a wonderful Christian family. My father and mother have always sought after the Lord. I was a “surprise” to my parents when I was born, my father being 41 and my mother almost 40 with two other daughters, 18 and 13 years old. My parents were living in Tennessee when they met some believers from Atlanta, Georgia. Those Christians really loved the Lord Jesus and their lives stood out as a testimony to my parents. My mother, father, and sisters moved to Atlanta later that year to meet with them in the church in Atlanta. That was the year I was born. So I grew up in Atlanta meeting with the church there.

I received the Lord into me at a very young age, but of course as many children I wasn't that interested in Him. My world growing up was absorbed with sports. I spent every weekend of the spring and summer traveling with a softball team for about six years, and I often played on two to three basketball teams.

But as I was growing in high school I realized the Lord was also growing inside of me. From the time I was in eighth grade, I had a friend who would call me every morning to pray and read a little of the Bible with me before I would go to school. I believe this preserved me as a young girl involved in so much at school. When I was a junior in high school I attended a Christian conference hosted by some of the local churches in Texas. That summer weekend I began to see more than ever who my Lord was and that He really had a purpose here on earth with man (Isaiah 66:1-2). I went back to school a different person. Even though I still played sports and had a lot of friends, the Lord Jesus really became my first love. Gradually sports and friends and other things didn't mean so much to me anymore because Jesus had won my heart.

Since that time I have graduated from college with a degree in Exercise Science, have gotten married, and have moved to Texas with my husband. I enjoy reading the Bible and also books by Watchman Nee and Witness Lee because their ministry reveals more of Christ to me. The reason I love meeting with the local churches is that I'm always guided to the Lord and I'm helped to realize that I'm a member of the Body of Christ--one with every person who believes into Him.

I look forward to pursuing Jesus, my first love, with my husband and family in whatever I'm doing, wherever I am in the future. Jesus is the most wonderful One.