It was a time...

It was a time in my life when I was questioning my purpose. There had been a lot of pain in my life when my parents divorced and my mother left us.  I thought that it was my fault that my mom left and if she couldn't love me who could?  I wondered if there was a God and why we were here?  I told God one day "If you are there please reveal yourself to me."

One day I was at the stove cooking something when I heard a voice. The voice told me "Go down stairs."  I went downstairs not knowing why I was going there and wondered what that voice was that I heard.  As soon as my foot hit the carpet at the bottom the voice said "turn on the TV."  I went and turned it on and watched 100 Huntley street.  The man on the TV was talking about Jesus and how he healed people and raised them from the dead.  Somehow these stories of Jesus touched me and made sense to me for the first time.  At the end of the program I said the prayer to accept Jesus in my life.  On my knees I cried and cried.  I could feel the presence of the holy spirit in my life for the first time ever.

A while later I had a desire to go to church. I was afraid to ask my Dad because I thought he would laugh at me.  I took the chance and asked him if we could go to church.  He thought it was a good idea. We went to one that one of his colleagues went to.  Here I learned how to pray and how to live the walk with Jesus.  One day when I was saying my prayers in bed a strange jumble of words and sounds came out of my mouth.  It scared me so I stopped praying.  I learned afterwards this was the gift of tongues.

That was 27 years ago.  I haven't always been faithful to Christ.  I have slipped away many times but he has been committed to me.  Right now he is using my 4 year old autistic son to sanctify me (but that is another story).

Marlene Lawrence 

Burnaby

I had grown up...

I had grown up in a Christian home but never really accepted it.  When my parents divorced when I was a kid, I struggled a lot.  I blamed everything on God and completely turned my back.  I got into many things I shouldn't have.  So one night when I was in bed, staring at the ceiling, I came to the conclusion that I needed out and there was only one way to do that.  I got on my knees beside my bed and prayed and asked for forgiveness.  I wasn't feeling any different afterwards but then I started shaking dramatically.  I wasn't cold and I didn't have a fever.  I then reached out to a small blanket on my floor. When it hit my back I stopped shaking and began crying.

I will never forget that night.

Tori
Niagara Falls, ON

One afternoon...

One afternoon I was just walking in the kitchen within my house and the radio was on PRAISE 106.5. Right at that moment there was someone talking about trying to make time for God and trying to make Him a priority in your life. There was a woman who shared some things that helped her to do so and at that moment God guided me into the decision to try this out, to spend a little time with Him. At this time I was in Grade 6 and I began trusting in Jesus. I found that my trust wasn't completely in Him and as I went through grade 7 my heart was still being transformed. In the beginning of grade 8 I went to a camp with my school and we had a time of communion. It was held in the woods where God's glory just shined in every direction. My life was truly transformed then and is continuing to be changed, as well as shaped, everyday. Thanks Jesus for a blessing me with an awesome radio station and an amazing family, as well as a life changing school, for the way I know Him the way I do today. (at the moment I'm almost finished grade 8) :D

Carissa Yuen
Richmond

...in 1966, my brother died tragically,...

Briefly, in 1966, my brother died tragically, our neighbours had sympathy on us and invited my sister and I to vacation Bible school that summer.  We received the Gideon's King James vest pocket gold coloured centennial N.T. Psalms and Proverbs.  It would be Canada's 100th birthday the next year.  That Bible was a little brick of gold to me.  Only 10, I struggled with the Old English but saw Life and Light in God's Word to me.  I held that book to my chest and cried so deeply.  My mother said, 'Your father and I have nothing to do with that.'  God visited me many times, without words, a pervasive presence that gave me peace I'd never known before.  13 years later, I accepted the invitation of a T.V. preacher in Toronto, confessing Jesus as Saviour and me a sinner.  I was changed inside (born again I'd learn later).  I attended church for many years, was baptized, evangelized.  God has never left me yet I've wandered away many years back and forth. Our life doesn't end at conversion, it begins.  God saves us and will never leave us or forsake us, Heb.13.5.  We make mistakes and He still loves us.  We zig-zag our way to heaven, meandering here, wandering there, all the way.  Jesus is Lord.  Thank you for this opportunity to share.

Robert Woodhead
Saanichton