"Ever since I surrendered to the Lord, He has walked with me through every phase of reclaiming my true identity." -Simon Noel
“Because I’m able to see myself as the Lord sees me, the desires of my heart have changed.”
Suddenly, while praying, I became aware of my own desperate need for life and love. This was the beginning of my transformation and return to Christ. As I took a baby step toward him, he took a giant step toward me…
“Not only did my cheating girlfriend break up with me for attending a church, but the “trans woman” (my now-husband Simon), and I were both thrown out of the church.”
There was a figure wearing white clothing… He looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Don’t be afraid; trust Me. No one will be harmed."
“Honestly, I didn’t want to be a ‘trans woman’; I wanted to be a real woman.”
“I no longer suffer from debilitating depression, thanks to my awakening to a new life in Christ.”
“No one, not even my mother, knew that my longing to be a boy, a budding transgender identity, was based upon my desire to keep my body from being sexually violated.”
“No matter how many surgeries I had, every time I looked in the mirror, I saw a man staring back at me.”
“[An older man] lavished attention on me, and I loved it. But after a few times together, he seemed to lose interest in me. I found it difficult to enter into a long-term relationship with other men.”
“My surrender was the beginning of a transformational, intimate, and abiding relationship with Christ and His Spirit.”
“No one had ever told me God loved me, but suddenly, He was telling me Himself. When I walked out of that church, my life dramatically changed.”
My faith gave me courage to confront the wounds of my past. As I have embraced and loved myself as a man, a husband, and father, same-sex feelings have dwindled.
“I also received much healing prayer over many years for the various traumas I’d experienced in my life. Today, I’m very secure in my womanhood.”
“Rejection ruled my life as an unrelenting symphony of lies, as I attempted every which way to gain acceptance.”
“I believe that God’s answer to my prayer, ‘Please remove this from me,’ was, ‘Here’s an opportunity to stop hiding. Would you like to take it?’”
“Christians were the people who loved me wholeheartedly and ultimately helped free me from the pain I had carried in my heart. They responded to my vulnerability with tenderness.”
“My freedom came as I surrendered my entire heart and mind to God and allowed him to reshape me as a whole person.”
“None of the many psychologists, pastors, and teachers who tried to help me knew what to do or how to address the impact of my broken family on my identity.”
As I would see things in the Bible, I began to apply them to my life; God was transforming me from the inside out.
“I thought, because of my choices, God had abandoned me, but instead I found He had never left.”
“I became aware that He was the real man I had been looking for all my life, and though I had always tried to love Him, I never realized how much He loved me, personally and intimately. Experiencing the love of Jesus literally changed my life forever.”
“As I chose to follow Jesus and surrender my sexuality to him, he began to show me what it meant to be a son and to walk in purity.”
“As my life took a turn, however, I became extremely excited about discovering God, serving Him, living my life for Him, and making the world around me a better place in which to live. Twenty-nine years later, and there has been no turning back!”
“As I grew to know Jesus on a deep, personal level, gradually, he began to restore my identity.”
“I started seeing myself as a loved daughter and child of God. This perspective shift empowered me to see myself as the woman God created me to be. I realized the self-rejection I had carried for so long was not what God had for me.”
“I enjoy spending time with my children and grandchildren! …They would not have been born had it not been for the mighty work of God!”
