Before and After Story (Isaiah 43:12-13)

"...First I predicted your deliverance; I declared what I would do, and then I did it---I saved you.  No foreign god has ever done this before.  You are witnesses that I am the only God, says the Lord.  From eternity to eternity I am God.  No one can oppose what I do.  No one can reverse my actions."

These two verses describe perfectly how God brought me to himself.

This is my before and after story of my coming to God and becoming a Christian.

I was born in Brussels, Belgium and like every child in school I was taught about evolution which from the start was to me a far-fetch story.  I had no idea what the alternative was either.  I just knew there was something strange about it.  I just knew people and things had to be made in order to exist.

I come from a middle class European family.  My parents owned their own body shop business.  My father specialized in fixing Alfa Romeo's and my mother would help him with accounting.  As well, raising three children, later a fourth one came along.

When I became a teenager,  I became rebellious and angry at my parents and society.  Once I had been so quiet that the teachers wondered what kind of child I was but now my whole family couldn't recognize me.  My parents encouraged me to visit a psychologist but that didn't help.  One day, I remember out of my despair I called 'God' somehow I knew in the middle of dark Belgium there was a God who cared but all I heard from him had been through my catechism class in first grade.  I knew that this man who had died on the cross was special.  So that day, I simply ask God to help me.

Later on in my teenager's years I bought a cassette tape of Elvis Presley and on it was a song called "There will be Peace in the Valley" which later on as a Christian I learned was from a prophecy in the Bible ((Isaiah 65:17-25)

Well, time passed and my family and I came to Canada after having done a couple trips there previously.  We settled I met people in Penticton who prayed with me that God would help me.  My first job and at least 10 jobs after that didn't turn out after a month there.  When I was fired from my first job in a hotel the chef recommended that I took a cooking course to learn how to handle knives.

I ended up going to a cook training course for a year and met a man who told me about Jesus.  I was ready and asked him lots of questions.  The next day, I turned my angry, sinful heart to Jesus, the Son of God and accepted his forgiveness for my life.  After I changed so fast my family didn't recognized me and were afraid.  I made it right with them and now I have a great relationship with them.

That day of salvation, I was at peace and sang songs of praise even though I had not read my Bible.  I was full of joy and God has been faithful all the way.  I married a wonderful woman of God even though I never thought I would ever marry and we have two adult children and have been married 32 years.

God is good, life is good.  He is faithful.

Have a great day!