Testimony

I first came to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior in April, 1973. It followed a full year and a half of coming to know that I was a sinner.

It started in November,1971. I began to be aware, somehow, that I wasn't living a life that was pleaseing to God. Over the course of the next several months the realization that I was a sinner began to settle in, deeper and deeper. This was accompannied by a growing desire to read a Bible.

In January and February of 1973 Lake Ontario began to flood over, and the lakeshore residents began to cry out for help sandbagging in order to protect their homes. I thought,'there, If I help sandbag, God will look at this act of mine come judgement day, and all will be well'. A series of events prevented me from getting to the lakeshore, including no transportation. I started to get really scared. Now I could not do anything to earn my salvation. I knew, somehow, that judgement day was coming, and that I was not going to fair well in it.

Then, on March 8, 1973, I met Kevin Bartlett. He was 16 years old just like me. He lived with his twin sister and their mother. What a strange little family. I went to their house, and there, on the wall, was a copy of the 10 commandments. I began to read those commandments and started to squirm. I began to try to justify myself by picking and choosing the ones I hadn't yet broken. As you can imagine, this attempt to comfort myself didn't work very well. Kevin started to tell me that I was a lost sinner, and that my only hope of salvation was in believing in Jesus, that He died for my sins, and was the only way to be saved, just by believing, no works, nothing but faith in Christ alone. Somehow, I knew that he was telling me the truth. His preaching, and the coincident conviction that I was a sinner went on for a whole month. Kevin and his mother made sure to tell me that as I came to Jesus as Savior, He was also to be my Lord. I had no problem with that. I just knew somehow that they were telling me the truth.

On that April 28th night, it was a Saturday, I was at a church service at a Christian retreat house. As the service came to a close I leaned over to Kevin's mom and asked what I must do to be saved. In later times she told me I was shaking at this point. I do not remember that, but I was sure anxious to know what I must do to be saved. She told me to go forward at the end of the service. This I did. I went forward for prayer. I wanted Jesus to save me. I wanted Him as my Lord. The minister asked me if I believed that Jesus was my only hope of salvation. I told him "yes". I knew that no works could save me, just simple faith in Christ, that He died for my sins and rose from the dead three days later. I knew that He was the Son of God. There and then I called upon the name of the Lord. I knew then and there that I was saved. There was no doubt in my mind. I also knew that from that momment on I was to live for Him. How could I not? He had suffered so for my sins.

After I had arisen from my knees, I had this strong desire to tell people about the Savior. I had this deep hunger to devour His word. I wanted to be around Christians. Oh, the joy I had inside! I was cleansed from my sins. I was foregiven. I now had eternal life. What a wonderful night that was--April 28, 1973, at 9:10-9:25 pm.