I had a pretty normal up-bringing, grew up in a small town, my parents both worked. We went to church occasionally. I did not like to go to church and don�t recall ever hearing the Gospel preached there. By age 13, I was smoking weed and found some acceptance with the pot head crowd. I had no interest in school or even sports and kept to myself most of the time.
When I was 17, I joined the Army Reserve, the training and discipline was good for me but I continued to smoke marijuana and started using LSD and speed, I also got my first motorcycle. At 18 it was drugs and motorcycles and usually together. My friend and I both had bike�s, we often would drink, smoke weed and sometimes do LSD and go riding. God no doubt protected me, I walked away from hitting a 69 Impala on my Honda 450 and thought I was pretty much invincible.
I got married at 19 and became a father at 21. My wife left me after 2 years of marriage. I was awarded full custody of my son. So here I found myself working full time, paying all the bills and raising a baby boy and thinking that I had a handle on life, yet at that same time still drinking and using drugs. I remember thinking of the days of going into peoples homes to buy drugs and there would be kids running around the house while mom and dad got high. I knew I did not want my son to grow up like this.
In 1987 at age 23 I was sitting in a bar feeling depressed and lonely. I had recently been dumped by my girlfriend and was discusted with the one night stand scene. I put my beer down and went home. I walked out in the woods behind my house and looked up to the sky and said �God, if your real, I need more than this, I am miserable and lonely and need someone in my life that I can love and trust�. Up until this point in my life, I had tried everything I could think of to fill the void in my life that only the Creator could fill.
A few weeks later I met a women (Donna) at a Parents without Partners dance. We started going out together and although she talked some of Church and God, she never pushed it on me. After knowing each other about a month, I had to leave town for two weeks of training for my job. Before I left she gave me a bible. I started reading the book of Matthew, and although I had read some of the bible before, this time the words were alive! and I could feel the love of Jesus as I read. Then one night while in my motel room after reading the word I went to bed and had a dream. In the dream I was laying on a platform made of wood and sticks and there was a fire beneath me. I woke up hot, sweating and freaked out. There was no audible voice but I knew the message (Make a choice: God or Hell) As I sat up in bed shaking I said �OK Lord I am yours, whatever it takes�
The Lord instantly took away a 10 year drug addiction and a filthy mouth too. He gave me a wife (Donna) and a family. ( I told God I was lonely, so he matched me up with a gal with 4 kids, so be careful what you ask for! LOL!) We were baptized together in 1988.
Life has been good, yes there has been trials, setbacks and so on, But God is faithful, He sent His Son Jesus to pay for my sins that I may have eternal life, not only life after death, but real life while here on earth. A life of love, joy and peace that can only come through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Testimony