I don’t have a dramatic story. There was no great conversion. There was no depths of sadness and depression that I was saved from. There was no drug or alchohol addition. But, there were a few minor miracles along the way.
I was raised Christian. From the time I was six years old, I attended church. It was not a “Blood of Jesus,” “born again,” “Hell and damnation” church. It was a show up on Sunday mornings, sing a few songs, listen to the sermon and then go back to your real life for the rest of the week, until next Sunday morning.
When I was around 19, I left the church. Not because I didn’t believe, but because the church was drifting away from the Word of God, and I saw no benefit there for me. I began reading the Bible on my own, a practice which was not encouraged by the church I had been attending for more than a decade.
Soon after, a friend who was raised in the Roman Catholic Church, began to tell me of a Church he was attending. He was quoting Scripture to me (which I already knew) that seemed to him to be completely unknown. I started attending that Church. It was an independent charismatic church – speaking in tongues, etc.
Shortly after beginning to attend that Church, I moved to another state 1,000 miles away. I never found another Church that I liked. That began a 40 year period away from my early faith.
What makes the story more unusual is that I felt that I was “called” to some sort of Mission. But, I never had a clear understanding of what it was supposed to be.
During the 40 years away from my faith, I never denied God or Christ. I just never went to Church, and did not live a Godly or faithful life. But, one thing I never forgot was the admonition in the Bible to “fear God who can destroy both body and soul.” I vowed that I would never deny God or Christ. Fortunately, that vow was never put to the test.
Eventually, I married and had two sons. When they were young, we were living in a predominately Buddhist country, with my Buddhist wife. I began to wonder how I could raise the two boys with a Christian foundation. I wanted that, but saw no clear path towards that goal.
As things turned out, my wife was forced to remain in Thailand, while I moved to Florida with our two sons. She was unable to obtain a visa, after 3 years of attempts. We didn’t know if she would EVER get to the US.
(This is where the miracles come into play)
She was alone in Thailand, sad and crying. She began to listen to a Christian podcast in order to make herself feel better. After several weeks of this – at a time when she began feeling that our family would never be reunited, she accepted Jesus. Within hours, the US Embassy called her to make an appointment. The following week, she got the visa. A few days later, she was on a plane to the US. She arrived a few days before Thanksgiving 2019. Two months later, travel in and out of Thailand was almost completely shut down due to the COVID hysteria.
She insisted that we start attending Church regularly. Soon after, a friend invited us to vist her Church. This started the restoration of my faith.
From that time, we started to have two tracks. My track was built on decades of knowledge, a decade of church atendance, 3 times of reading the Bible cover to cover, and a little bit of in depth Bible study. For the two pre-teen boys and theie formerly Buddhist mother, it was starting from scratch. We began by reading a page or two from the Bible at each dinner meal. Those three are all at various stages of their first reading of the Bible (King James Version).
