I grew up in the Qualicum area on Vancouver Island. There are 8 people in my family -- my parents, 5 boys and 1 girl (second oldest). I am the second youngest. I am a year and a half apart from either brother. My parents tried to bring us up with Christian values and often read us Bible stories or mission stories when we were growing up. The problem in our family was probably like many families. My parents grew up in very authoritative backgrounds and never were shown the love that children should have when they are growing up. My dad grew up in a children's home of 100 kids run by his parents.
My mom grew up between her home and different childrens' homes. Growing up we were always living in places that were a little ways out of town. We were home schooled and not a part of any home school association so the only friends we had were each other. When I was thirteen I was very sad because my older brother had been really mean to me. One particular time I was crying in my tent and asking God for help. I did not really know God, but had heard many things about Him. I did not seem to get any answer, so I made a decision that I had had enough with God and was going to live and try and learn how to make friends the "World's" way. At age 15 I started high school for the first time along with my older brother John who was 16.
I started smoking just before going to high school and then started drinking soon after coming to high school. At age 19 I moved in with one of my best friends in Victoria on Vancouver Island and started to do what most people my age were doing-- going to the bars and trying to pick up girls. I never had any long lasting relationships though, and just kept going because that was where my friends wanted to go.
When I was 19 two of my brothers went to visit our cousins in Switzerland. They were skiing one foggy day and my brother John hit a cross slope ditch that he didn't see and broke his leg very badly. He was rushed to the hospital and had one of the top two doctors in Switzerland operate on him. The doctor's team almost gave up on his leg and nearly amputated it. In the last minutes they were able to put the pieces back together. They put a steel sleeve around his femer because it was fractured so badly.
The doctor told him that he would not be able to play sports at high intensity again. John became a Christian while he was in Switzerland and our uncle prayed for his leg and told him to never give up praying. He had really seen the Spirit of God do many things while he was there--one reason he decided to give his life to God and also to keep praying.
He came back to Vancouver Island to get his left knee operated on because so much scar tissue had built up in the knee from the time of the break. (He partially tore a ligament and could only bend it half way.) The surgeon told him it would take at least 3 operations to correct the problem to get the knee back to 90% of normal.) A while later he was at a Sunday morning service in a small church in Qualicum.
The visiting evangelist who was leading the service started it off by saying that many people come to healing services to see miracles, but never really give their lives to God. So, instead of him praying for people, the evangelist said they were just going to worship God and Jesus was going to start healing people.
While softly singing the words: 'Hallelujah' and 'Holy Spirit' the evangelist said there was someone in the place who had a torn ligament and resricted movement in their left knee and God was going to heal them if they would have the faith. John said he just prayed "God I don't have any faith but please heal my knee". Well, when John left that worship meeting his knee was completely healed. He has all the x-rays to prove it. The doctors could not believe it and of course could not explain it. John told me this, but this did not make me want to change my life and start living for God. At this point I was quite mad at God.
A little while later my other brother Ray had his allergies healed and told me of other people who had miracles happen to them. Later John told me of a time when God told him to give away about $160 when that was all the money he had. He did give it away and the day after someone from work came and gave him more money than he had given away without any prior knowledge that he had just given this money away. There are many more stories about him that I can tell, but I will get back to my story. At 22 I began feeling like my life did not really have any special meaning. I began to ponder how God had changed my brothers' lives. I also started to feel lonely because my best friend had a girlfriend and did not really hang out with me that much anymore.
I finally decided to go to church with my brother Ray. After the church service I was getting ready to leave and Ray asked me if I would have someone pray for me at the front. I had had lots of people pray for me before and had never really noticed anything. This time a man prayed for me and then asked me if I would accept Jesus into my heart. I said yes.
One word changed my life. It was like everything that was weighing me down was completely gone. Most people probably would not have said that my life was that bad or even noticed that I was a little depressed. But now something had definitely happened that I could not explain. It was a big miracle to me, because I had had many people pray for me had never seen anything happen. This was a turning point in my life--maybe you could say that a seed had been planted. I still went to the strip clubs and I still went out to the bars and got drunk on Saturday nights. I would usually come to church the next morning feeling a little hung over. I did not really have any church friends and did not feel like introducing myself to anyone. I still felt uncomfortable reading my Bible for some reason. I talked to my brother John about going down to Colorado Springs and went down at the end of May 2000. That’s when my life changed.
None of my brothers' friends wanted to go to the bars. The church there was also something that I had never experienced before. When I had visited that church a couple of years previously, I had noticed something different about the atmosphere in the church, but had never really pursued it. I later learned that this was the presence of the Holy Spirit and this is how my prayer life started to take off. I was also hanging out with Christians who had lived lives like mine and much worse and now were living for God with their past lives behind them. I had tons of questions and started reading my Bible every day.
It made such a big difference to live and hang out with Christians and finally read the living Word. My brother later told me how he was praying and fasting for me all the time before I became a Christian. I knew at certain times that someone was praying for me because of things that didn't happen that really should have. Sometimes I would get really mad, but I knew that I could never do a thing about it.
Now of course I am so glad now that I had that protection of prayer. I am 28 now and God has done so many things in my life. Since giving my life to Jesus I have seen and heard of so many miracles that have happened in the churches that I have attended. I know now that God does exist in church when people humble themselves and ask Him to come in. I also learned that God does speak to us if we will listen. I have many stories about this also but won't tell them unless you ask. If you have any questions for me please feel free to ask. Thank-you for reading, Sam
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