David and Gina Portmess: “The thing we love most about this church…”

I did not grow up in a Christian home. I never went to church and I never heard the word of God spoken. The only time I heard God’s name was in the form of cursing. I knew I was missing something and there was a hole in my heart but I didn’t know how to fill it.

Fast forward many years and David and I are expecting our first child, Autumn. We received her diagnosis and we were completely crushed. The worst part is that I had no foundation of faith to cling to, no hope, and no comfort. I was broken. When Autumn was a few years old, someone very special to me gifted me a bible for Mother’s Day. Unfortunately, that bible sat for another year and a half.

One morning I woke up and felt this nagging feeling to open that bible, and I did. I found myself in the New Testament, and that really was an act of God because I didn’t even know there was a New Testament. As I began to read the Gospel of Mathew, God did a few things, simultaneously.

1. He showed me I was a sinner, I didn’t know I was a sinner, but somehow I understood that perfectly.
2. He showed me I was accountable to Him.
3. More importantly, He showed me Jesus. He showed me what He did on the cross, and I was forgiven.

It was the power of God’s word that saved me. He lifted the vail from my eyes and I could finally see. We found a local church and was baptized. God had given me an intense hunger for his Word and to know Him. We were introduced to reformed theology and expository preaching and that was what satisfied my. Hunger. I needed to hear God’s word preached in this way, the way God intended for believers to hear it. We searched for a local reformed church and came across Winchester baptist church. We spent some time looking through the website and listening to sermons and we were blown away. Finally, we found what we had been looking for.

The thing I love most about this church, aside from the people, is that you don’t have to wonder if you will hear the Gospel every week because you will. For example, we may start in Isaiah chapter 10, but we will end in the Gospel. We are beyond blessed to be a part of this wonderful church.

— Gina