HOW I CAME TO KNOW JESUS CHRIST AND BECAME BORN AGAIN

The following might be some questions you might ask me about my background.

Question 1 - Before you became a follower of Jesus Christ;
What was your life like? What was your mindset?

Answer- My life was... My mindset was...

I am 51 years old and for the first 15 years of my life I live in a very tough situation that included poverty, neglect, physical, emotional, social, and sexual abuse.
I had a father who was an alcoholic, who also was illiterate because he never was sent to school when he was a child. He was put to work in the logging camp where his family lived . He met my mother who was dating his brother and she ended up marrying him. My mom came from a good family and it was hard for them to see her with this man and his family who were all drunks. My mom had 5 children in less than 5 years, and the last 3 of us were 11 months a part. I was the middle child. We had no running water and no indoor plumbing and It seemed that we were always fighting off head lice and bedbugs.

My earliest memories are of living in that one room tar paper shack, and of my father taking off and leaving us with nothing to eat. My grandmother (mothers side) did all she could do to make sure we had food and cloths. My mother would leave my father and move us all to my grandmothers house, then would after a few months bring us all back to my father. This pattern continued throughout my childhood. Although my mother hated my father because he abused her, and neglected the family, she still kept going back to him.

By the time I was 5years old I had been hospitalized due to the abuse. My father's youngest brother was very mentally ill and he lived next door to us and would abuse us. One day when my father was gone he raped my mother in front of us kids with a knife. He would sexually and physically abuse us kids and we lived in terror of him all the time.

My brother Ray was 11 months younger than I was, and he was mentally retarded. He was institutionalized when he was 8 years old. We felt that he was the lucky one because he got out.

My sister, 2 other brothers, and myself lived this double life. My mothers brother would come and get us and bring us to my grandmothers house where she would have cloths for us and would give us hair cuts, clean us up so the rest of the family would see all these cute little kids.
All my childhood pictures show us in all our nice new cloths with very few pictures taken from our home.

Back in the 1960s many of the children who were impoverished were sent to special schools because in many situations the children were socially maladjusted because of neglect. My 2 brothers, and my sister were sent to one of these schools which robbed them of any kind of education . But I thank God I was sent to regular public school.

I felt like an outsider in my home because I didn't go to the same school as my siblings. I still ended up being sent to a camp for mentally retarded when I was 9 years old. Because of this I felt that there had to be something wrong with me too. I made a decisions when I was very young that I did not want to be like my father's family. I saw something in my mothers brothers and their families that I shrived to emulate.

By the time I was 15 years old I was a mess, I felt like I had no way of escaping from this the pain and agony in my soul. I had started drinking and smoking at the age of 12 and I was going down a road to destruction. I had no way of dealing with the darkness that was growing inside me. The only thing I could think of was quiting school when I was 16, that was my great goal of my life. I had nothing beyond that to look forward too.

Question 2 - What caused you to begin considering God? How did you come to the conclusion that Christ was the solution to your needs? What finally motivated you to actually come to God for forgiveness and to accept Christ as your Lord and savior?
Answer – It was because I ...
I had a relative who was in a terrible accident and became blind and I can remember a pastor coming to visit my relative, then he and all his family started going to church and I went to church with them some times. A man who would later become the pastor of that church told me about salvation, but I was to young at 10 years old to understand.

I also had a great Grandmother (mothers side) who was a Christian, and she was called the holy roller of the family. I am sure she prayed for me and my family to find Jesus.

Question 3 – Tell me what took place, and tell me how did you receive Christ.
Did you go to church? Did you read the Bible? Did some one tell you how to do it?

Answer - I received Christ...

In the winter of February 1975 when I was 15 there was three men who came to my house from the church and invited us to come to a youth group called, “Word of Life Bible Club” That day when they came to my house I remember that my older brother and myself were just going to talk to them to mock and persecute the preacher boys as we called them.

Something happened inside of me that day as they shared about Jesus, my heart was some how changing. It was the following Saturday 2-16-75 that they came to my house again. One of the men ask me what my greatest need was. I said, “ I need help to get rid of my hate that was in me.” He said Jesus would help me to get rid of the hate that was inside of me. I thought to myself that if Jesus could help me that I wanted him in my life.

We all got on our knees in that old house where I had suffered so much, where there was so much evil, and right there I ask the holy Son of God to come into my heart, and you know what? He did!
I felt such joy that I wanted to cry. I never felt anything like that before in my life. I was a new creation in that moment, and I have never been the same since that day when I met my best friend Jesus.


Question 4 – After you received Christ and became born again; What are some of the changes that have taken place in your life?

Answer – some of the changes that have taken place are...

The greatest thing that changed in me was that I had hope, and I had confidence that God was in my life. I felt forgiveness, and I felt that I had a future now. The hate was gone and I felt loved.

God helped me to do better in school. I went on to be the first one in my fathers family to graduate from high school. I even went on to get an AA in Christian ministry.

I have seen most of my family come to the Lord also including my mother, my father, my grandmother, (mothers side) my brothers, and sister.


Question 5 Do you have a favorite verse which is important in explaining your Faith Story?

Answer – My favorite scripture is...

My favorite scripture is Jeremiah 6:16a that talks about how God brings us to crossroad moments in our lives, we are to ask God to show us the best path to go down, a path that will lead to peace.