About Me

Testimony:

This is not a blog post. It is my written testimony for the world to read, given for the Glory of God. So, if you want to know who I am I would encourage you to read the whole thing. I didn’t grow up in church.

My story is about Jesus leaving the 99 sheep to go after the one pitifully lost, broken sheep. I was raised in a home with great parents teaching me all the morals of doing good to others and being an overall nice person. From what I’ve gleaned, my mom (from Buffalo, NY) and dad (from Syracuse, NY) were raised in a Catholic church until their parents no longer forced them to go. So, my older sister (by ~2 years) and I were raised to be “good people” but with no Jesus. With regards to spiritual things I remember being told that “we’re not going to mold you into anything, you can choose for yourself.” So, being raised in Chapin South Carolina there are a lot of “Christians” around, and a ton of churches. Based off what I saw around me, I was moralistically “better” than most people that called themselves “Christians”. So, I saw Christianity as an archaic way of keeping the populous in check. I was the good kid in high school, honors, AP, band, and my mom was the attendance lady so I never skipped.

College came around (Clemson, woohoo Go Tigers!) and my parents started going through the divorce process my freshman year. I had already picked up drinking as a hobby and quickly found myself drinking more and more and oh yeah, how bout some weed too. Oh and there were sleeping pills and anti-depressants as well once I got into ‘counseling’. Not a great point in my life. All this continued on through my junior year, while I was studying Electrical Engineering. The summer between my sophomore and junior year I met a girl named Stacie and we hung out a lot. It eventually never went anywhere because “it wouldn’t work out, because you’re not a Christian.” So, feeling low that night I got high off weed and was very upset in my room; my parents were getting divorced, I hated school/engineering, and that thing with Stacie. So, I was like ‘what do I do!?’ and a thought popped into my head, “Why don’t you go abroad?” Yeah, I thought, that’s a great idea! It’ll look good from the outside and I can just get away, that’s all I wanted to do was to get away.

So, I ended up studying abroad in Australia during the Spring of 2009! What an amazing opportunity (funded by student loans of course, as all of my college minus scholarships was). I got away alright, but my problems, for whatever reason decided to come along for the journey. I ended up breaking down to my roommates (one guy and four girls) and basically realized that no one “has it all together.” I thought everyone was perfect and I just couldn’t figure out how to ‘get it all together’ (and I love figuring things out). So that was a huge relief. I drank more and smoked more weed over there than I had ever in the states. One night as we were walking home wasted, there was a guy playing Oasis “Wonder Wall” on his guitar for money. Not sure why, but I hung out with him till he finished for the night and we walked and talked. I, sharing all my “deep thoughts” about how time affects us and such, he just listened. When we got to his place we talked on the curb for a bit, I remember his response to all my philosophical nonsense was “that’s great Paul, but you could go so much further if you knew Christ or if you read the Bible.” My response was, “You know, I might have come to Australia just to talk with you,” he laughed, but the connection to go to abroad (via the thought that popped in my head) and what he said somehow clicked. This guy was an Italian immigrant who was Catholic in Australia. I have Italian heritage and my family’s history of Catholicism. I was beginning to see some odd “coincidences” happening.

I made it back to the states with a lot more confidence in myself, having come out of my introverted shell a bit. I ended up asking a girl on a date from my “leisure skills” class, named Sharon. She and I had similar ideas about life and travel. There were a lot of “coincidental” things I noticed in her too. At the end of our second time hanging out together I dropped her off at her dorm and she said, “I can’t do this.” “Can’t do what? I didn’t ask you anything.” “Well, Paul, I can’t date you because I made a pact with Jesus that I’m not going to date until I’m 20.” ‘Oh, so you’re crazy,’ was what I said in my head. But I liked her and thought I could change her mind if we hung out more. She took me to New Spring (a non-denominational church), where I was told with regards to dating that I was a cheeseburger and Christian girls should go after a steak. I was only slightly offended. Truth can have that effect. Sharon and I became close friends and I remember one hug where I felt LOVE for the first time. The Love I now know as the Father’s Love. It washed over me and I felt so great! But within a few hours it was gone and I was left with this hole in my heart. The hole had always been there, but the Love of the Father working through her made me aware of it. That was as far as our friendship went. I wanted more, she had her Jesus bounds of no dating, so our friendship eventually trailed off. I ended up reading some books about Buddhism in the library, everyone around me was a “Christian” and it didn’t make sense. One particular sect I was reading about didn’t believe in a soul, so I put that down because for whatever reason I knew that I had a soul.

During Christmas break of 2009 I visited my friend’s parents, the Fullers. Through my experiences of life up to this point I came to the realization that there had to be more to life than what I saw. If there wasn’t, then the conclusion of life is: go through a lot of pain, try to make as much money as you can, and then die. So, that’s where I was in my thought process. With the experiences of Sharon in mind I asked the Fullers who Jesus is, what is Christianity about? They explained the Gospel (which, I think I had heard before but was definitely not receptive to), who Jesus IS, historical evidence of Jesus (I had never been taught that he was an actual person, thanks public school), the fact that a lot of Archeologist go to the Middle East to disprove the Bible, and they end up becoming Christians. Hmm, that’s odd. They concluded that I should test out what they were saying and, if I would like, they would send me a Bible so I could do just that. I thought it was a good idea, I wanted to test it out/figure out if it was real.

Spring 2010 starts up at Clemson. I went to a seminar on how to incorporate Study Abroad into your resume. There was a cute girl there named Jenny. We started hanging out and after a week I asked where this was going, and she said, “well…I need a Spiritual leader and you can’t be that because you’re not a Christian.” What the heck!? I know I live in the South, but three in a row!? It was at this point that the Fullers sent me the NIV Quest Study Bible and Lee Strobel’s “The Case for Christ.” So I started with Lee Strobel’s book because it is much smaller. And he basically reiterated what the Fullers had told me over Christmas break, and Strobel had been a very staunch Atheist.

So, I started reading the Bible. The NIV Quest Study Bible gives a starting point in Luke 1 & 2. It was somewhere in those chapters that I felt that hole in my heart tangibly fill up with the same Love that I felt when Sharon gave me a hug that one time. I had no idea what it was, but I could feel it and I knew it was real (Romans 5:5). His Love has never left me since. That was Tuesday February 2, 2010. That Thursday I met an old friend from high school, Jad, who I told I had gotten a Bible (I knew he was a Christian). And we set up to meet on Saturday to talk about it. That next day, Friday, Jenny had her friends and me over for dinner. I went home and my next door neighbor wanted to smoke weed with me, so I got high then went and laid in my bed. My Bible was next to me and my eyes were closed when a picture of a page number came into my mind, page 1392, so I turned to it and on it is the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6. I knew what I was supposed to do, so I said the Lord’s prayer with meaning, from the heart, and it took me a noticeably long time and my lips were quivering when I spoke “but deliver us from the evil one.” Then I closed my eyes again, and His voice filled my head, and He said “Go to her.” Which meant go to Jenny. It was around 2am Saturday, I had only left there a few hours earlier, and I had green lights the whole way there. I got to her place, she and her roommates were still up and I explained what was going on. She drew out and explained what I now know as the bridge diagram and I was like, “Yes, I get it, I’ve seen this symbol my whole, life but now I get it!” I keep that bridge diagram in the back of my Bible to remind me of how Jesus has saved me. A few hours later, after some sleep, I met with Jad and I shared this story with him and two others. Then we went contra dancing at River-Falls and I met the friends I had always wanted, but never had! Jesus is SO GOOD!! 🙂

What He does for one, He will do for another. No one is too far from God – Romans 5:12-21. From this I really want people to know Jesus, because His Love is infinitely better than anything this world can offer. His peace and presence are incredible and beyond the description of words. I am His beloved and He is mine. Beloved: Be. Loved. That’s all He wants us to do is be loved by Him. Then, from that position of being loved, we are able to love Him back and to love His people. His people are the ones that bear His image, i.e. everyone. Romans 5:12-21, 8:15-17; Ephesians 5:1-2; John 15:13, 17:3; Luke 12:32-34; 2 Corinthians 3:7-6:2. I believe the whole Bible is true, even the weights & measures and the maps. These are just some verses I find myself drawn to.

Thank you for reading about my life and considering partnering with me in what the Lord will be doing around the world! In doing so, my stories will become your stories which are always HIS-stories.

Grace and Peace,

-Paul