My Testimony Part 1

1. I had pinned him to the wall and was pounding on his ribs.

2. I ended up cracking one of them

v. It’s the first time I saw fear in my dad’s eyes.

vi. When they got me off he called the police.

vii. I then moved out for a while.

d. My dad then got me a job with Ryan Construction who did a lot of work for Super Value.

1. I entered into an apprenticeship program to become a Carpenter Journeyman.

2. Never knowing that I was on the path to meeting Jesus.

IV. The path to meeting Jesus.

a. The path to Jesus started on a construction site in South Minneapolis.

i. At this time in life I was lonely and afraid.

1. One night I said my prayers like a good Catholic. I said My Hail Mary, The Lord’s Prayer and then added my own quick Prayer! “ Lord if you ever want me to do something for you, let me know!” and jumped into bed.

ii. I had made some new friends in Minnesota. My best friend was my carpenter partner “Bear”.

1. He was a Vietnam vet who had earned a Bronze star by killing 30 plus of the enemy. He had received a few Purple hearts.

2. He taught me how to kill someone. He said shoot them in the stomach and then they cry for their buddies. When their buddies come then I shoot them.

3. The first night I met him we went out for drinks then went to his place to have a few more and to look at his photo album. He had pictures of kills from Vietnam.

4. He then told me his story. He was in a bunker in a fire- fight and they where running low on ammo so he went to get more. When he got back his friends where being killed by a soldier he killed the Vietnamese soldier. He then got on the machine gun and cut down dozens of enemy soldiers. He was wounded twice but kept firing. He said it was like a nightmare. But reality was his friends were all dead.

5. We went on hunting trips with each other. We would drink and party. And the scary thing was we carried guns.

6. The bar scene was our life!

iii. When Thomas came to the job site we witnessed a real life Holy Roller. I had never met anyone like Thomas before.

1. Thomas had shared with us his testimony about how he was a drug addict and pimp at one point in his life. But he had discovered the Lord Jesus Christ and he was “ Born Again”. A new person with a new life!

2. Our break-room turned from a den of sinners to a Bible Study over a period of months because of Thomas’ influence.

3. Thomas was a man sent from the Lord. He was a genuine evangelist in doing God’s work on a hard core construction site. He led many to Jesus: They would agree to go to church with him on Friday and come back with a new Bible and a glow in their eyes and a smile across their face. You could see Jesus! There always was a major change in them.

a. Connie- One of his first converts off the site!

b. Henry

c. Bob

d. BJ

e. Others

f. Bear’s conversion- This one made a difference in my life. His quote to me after accepting Christ was “ I never slept as well as I did last night!” He suffered from nightmares all the time from the war.

i. He had been delivered.

ii. He quit drinking.