Liz Lopuszanski - 2016

My name is Liz Lopuszanski and I am from a small church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In February of 2016, I went to a conference in Cleveland, OH and that is where I first heard about SFG Bible School. I remember thinking it was an awesome opportunity but afterwards I completely forgot about it. As the year went by, I began to go through a very hard season in my life. No matter which direction I turned, it felt like it kept getting worse and worse.

One day, my friend called me, and we both talked about how our lives were very tough. In that conversation, she randomly said, “Let’s just go to Bible School” and somehow, without hesitation, I responded “Ok, let's go.”

On the way to Bible School, God put a strong desire in me to want to seek Him, draw near to Him, and love Him more than anything else. Prior to this, I never had such a strong desire as this. My desires had always been for the things of this world but, during this period, my desires became for the things of God.

As Bible School began, God began to transform me from the inside out. Starting from morning prayers, lectures about God’s word and theology, godly fellowship, praising God through songs, and personal devotional time. The personal devotional time quickly became my favorite part of the day as it was where I got to be alone with God and truly enjoy spending time with Him. I really love how Bible School was set up because it involved praying and reading God’s word all day, every day. How can you not draw closer to Him? In Psalm 34, David writes “O taste and see that the LORD is good.” That summer, I tasted and saw that the Lord is truly good. There was now nothing more I wanted than to live my whole life for the One who gave us His son, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

At the end of Bible School, we were all asked to describe Bible school in one word, and I chose life changing. Even though now I know that the word I chose was actually two words and everyone laughed at me for it, I wouldn’t change it. I still believe that God used Bible School and everyone around me to change the direction of my life, to live a life that honors and glorifies Him.

After Bible school, God continued transforming me and making me more like Jesus. My passion for God kept growing and when I returned home, I was not the same person who left. The first thing I wanted to do was go on Missionary trips, but God revealed to me that my church is where He wanted me to serve. 

To be honest, I was a little upset, but I knew God’s plans are always higher. So, I remained at my church and prayed diligently for God to use me for His glory alone and He began to open opportunities. The first opportunity was to start a youth choir and later lead the children’s choir as well. I had no experience conducting a choir so I prayed and solely relied on God to give me strength and to lead me.

The next opportunity was to start a worship team for our youth services. This is where Chapel services in Bible School helped equip me for this. Another opportunity was to start a Vacation Bible School, starting with only the children at my church. In just four years we saw the attendance double in size and children coming from both Christian and non-Christian backgrounds.

God is so good!

The next opportunity was to organize a youth retreat for our youth to grow closer to God and strengthen our youth in one accord. God really blessed these retreats, and many young people left passionate, renewed, and “on fire” for God.

The most recent opportunity God opened to me was to disciple, in a one-on-one setting, and in a small girls group of young teens.

God so graciously placed all these opportunities on my path, and He gave me the strength and the ability to do them. In fact, God is so good and faithful that even though He wanted me to serve in my local church, He still gave me an opportunity to go to Ukraine for missions with SFG and it was such a blessing and brought me so much joy.

God deserves all the glory, always. I am so grateful that when I was at my lowest, by God’s amazing grace, He picked me up and fixed my eyes on Him. He led me to Bible School and used Bible School to equip me and give me a desire to follow Him wholeheartedly. All glory and praise be to God forever and ever.

Philippians 1:21 – “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”