A glimpse into Carina’s story…
Carina grew up in Germany in a mostly Catholic community. Her parents got her baptised, she was taken to church for important occasions and eventually went through the whole process of Communion and Firmation, just because everybody did. As you might have guessed already, she never connected with the Lord in the Catholic church - no one every told her that she can have a personal relationship with Christ, that she could be saved by grace or that her sins are forgiven by the spilling of His blood.
She never felt truly part of that community either and so when she was old enough to decide herself, she stopped going to church completely. Not knowing that she could find the truth & healing in Christ, she went down a different path of seeking. Carina had always been a truth seeker, asking her parents questions way beyond her age about existence, life after death, an d spirits.
Her Mum introduced her to Yoga and other New Age practices early on and Carina went deeper down that path when she was a young adult trying to find answers, solutions and healing for her physical and mental health. Every so close but just not right there, that’s the story of the New Age realm. It’s like running around with a chocolate piece dangling in front of your face, without you being able to eat it.
A major seed was planted during the last phone call she every had with her grandma, where her granny told her that she believes in God and heaven. Back then Carina only confirmed that she believes in that too but didn’t think much further than the New Age principles and conceptions that she had about who God is supposed to be.
After 27 years of searching and seeking, she found herself in her room in Lisbon (where she lives these days) and contemplated how the Lord cannot be within her (a new age principle that she was taught about everything being divine). She sat on her desk chair crying out that she cannot do it by herself, that she isn’t strong enough, that she cannot provide for herself even with money on her bank account and she was wondering how she had spend so much money on courses to get rid of panic attacks, anxiety and to help others with methods that would still keep her feeling to fragile for this world every now end then. The high that she experienced from studying a new tool or practice would ever only keep her satisfied for a certain period of time.
On one of those days, with these feelings present, she received a clear call to prayer. She couldn’t ignore it and she immediately knew that it was from The Lord. Carina sat down on her knees in her bed and started praying and over several weeks, she started to get to know the Lord, she felt her anxiety going away, her panic attacks had stopped and never returned and she had questions. She started googling the difference between religion and Christianity, as she had been taught that she better should stay away from religion. She stumbled across C.S. Lewis, when she asked the question of why Christianity. The Lord guided her to gospel music, Christian YouTubers and online sermons that paved her way with the Lord.
There was only one big question left to ask: Why Jesus? Again, Carina tipped exactly that into her Google search bar. A sermon by Ervin McManus popped up, titled Why Jesus? After listening she started to talk to Jesus and said: “Okay Jesus, so you seem to be real and well hi, I am Carina and I kinda want to get to know you better because I get a feeling and an understanding that you are important. “
That’s were her walk with Christ started. A little later after thinking it would be beautiful to attend sermons in real life, her Google friend helped her out after searching for a “modern church in Lisbon”. She found her church home and got blessed with the best community, family-away-from-home, and friendships she could have every imagined, bringing her closer to the Lord by the day. She got baptised on the 12.04.2024 and her life has been forever changed. Thank you, Jesus.
You can find more insights into her story and all sorts of conversations around being a Daughter of God, relationships, wellbeing and growing in faith on the Mood lab podcast and on her Instagram.
Carina’s biggest desire it to be able to accompany you on your walk with Christ and to encourage women and men in their God given design.