Lu 18:17 "Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein."
I accepted Christ as my personal Saviour when I was 5 yrs old. I don't remember all of the details such as the specific date, my
teacher, ect., but this is what I do remember.......
It was mid-summer. I rode the Sunday School bus with my sister to Valvet Hills Baptist Church.
On the way to Sunday School, the bus captain was talking about how Christ had died for our sins,
and how He rose again to live in our hearts. I was a bit confused about why he was talking about this
since it wasn't Easter.
When I got to Sunday School, my teacher again was talking about Christ's sacrifice for me. After Sunday
School, I talked with her and accepted Christ into my life. I then understood that Christ had died for ME, and
that He wanted to forgive me for all the wrong that I had done.
Two years later we were attending Harvest Hills Baptist Church, in Guelph, Ontario, and the pastor, Pastor
Gord Grieve, was talking about "Assurance of Salvation". When he gave the invitation, I raised my hand to
be councelled about my assurance. After he had prayed, he pointed to the corners of the gym we met at for different
counselling needs....salvation, assurance of salvation, and baptism. I headed to the corner for assurance and found
my mum was the one talking to the kids. She asked me "What are you doing here? You're saved." I told her that I
needed assurance, and so she talked with me and helped me understand my REBIRTH more clearly.
Shortly afterwards I was baptized as an expression of my faith.
I grew up going to an excellent Christian academy called Temple Baptist Christian Academy, in Cambridge, Ontario.
I continued there from grade 2 up thru grade 12, with a year of grade 6 being home schooled by my mum.
This experience really helped me grow in an interest in studying the Bible.
Thru the school and the youth group from Temple Baptist Church, I came to know Pastor Al Reitburg, the youth pastor
for the church, and my phys. ed. teacher throughout high school. He became a great influence in my life. It was
thru his love and devotion for the teens he worked with, and the Lord's guidence in preaching I had heard at a
Soul winning conference in Barrie, Ontario at Heiratage Baptist Church, that I felt called to be a youth pastor.
After I graduated from high school, I atteneded FaithWay Baptist College of Canada. The Lord taught me more
outside of the classroom, and inside. I learned many wonderful truths thru my professors and thier teachings.
But my greatest lesson of my college career was outside of the classroom.
In the fall of 1993, I did not have the finances to attend school and I had informed Pastor Homan, the vice-president,
that I could not attend "unless God gives me a miracle". I had prayed and prayed for the finances, but I just did not
have enough. The last Sunday before school was to start, a friend I had met thru a summer job came to our church.
He handed me a card, but I did not look at it at the time. Afterwards, on the way home, I opened the card and found
10 $100 bills inside. I immediately went to the phone when I got home and told Pastor Homan that I got my miracle.
Many other lessons came that year.....the biggest one of my life!
At the start of the year things were going pretty good. I had a night job at a donut shop that was paying for the rest of my bills
and I was going out with a nice girl from Alberta. I went home for Thanksgiving, and when I returned to school, one of
my dorm mates, who also worked at the donut shop told me that my shift had been terminated, no notice was given. My girlfriend left
me and started flirting with the guy that was dating my sister. I started to think that since God had left me that I would give up on Him.
I was about to commit suicide, but thru His grace another dorm mate, Seb Cote, caught up with me and started to "reason" with me. Pastor
Homan came a got me and took me to his office. I was dismissed from school in order to get my life sorted out, but he did let me know that I
was welcome back.
During the next year I struggled with myself. Not wanting to give up on God, and not really trusting Him either. I finally realized
that He had not given up on me, but that He wanted me to trust Him further. It was thru the song "Power and Promise" by Bret Williams and In Reach,
that the Lord taught me about truly trusting Him.
The next year ('94) I returned to FaithWay to pretty much the same situation I had run away from. The Lord encouraged by thru 1 Peter 3.19 where it says,
"Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrawise blessing;KNOWING THAT YE ARE THEREUNTO CALLED, THAT YE SHOULD BE CALLED, THAT YE SHOULD
INHERIT A BLESSING."
That year I began realizing who my true friends are. I began getting to know a wonderful woman named Joyce Melanson. The very first time we talked I thought
she was a "strange easterner", but once I got talking to her more, she became a friend I could REALLY talk to. In Jan. '95 Joyce and I started to date and our
relationship flurished as we got to know eachother more.
I graduated from FaithWay in April of '96 with a Graduate of Theology diploma. I then began serving the Lord at Highland Baptist Church in the Sunday School and Youth
Ministry and the Music. I still serve there today.
On July 18, 1997, I married Joyce, and since then I've never been more complete. We enjoy working in the church together and looking forward to starting a family
in the near future.
My favorite verse in the Bible is Zech 14.20 "In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD's house shall be
like the bowls before the altar."
If God considers the pots just a sacred as the bowls used before the altar, I am amazed to think of how he regards me as His child!!
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