Andrew's Testimony

Andrew's Testimony
I was raised in a Roman Catholic home in the Boston Massachusetts area. My father was a self made man who, by my teen years, had become quite wealthy. My parents invested in my education by putting me through some of the best prep and pre-prep schools in the Country. I then went to college - first in Indiana and then in Virginia. It was during my schooling in Virginia that I came to the end of myself. I was living alone in an apartment and become very lonely and depressed. One night I went up on the side of a hill overlooking the City, and I sat down there and called out to God and told Him that I just could not go on and that he needed to take my life.
When I said this a strange feeling of peace descended over me and it was as if someone had said to me “you are going to be alright”. I walked back to my apartment that night still feeling that peace and strangely knowing in my heart that I was going to be alright. A short time later an acquaintance of mine invited me to an Andre Kohl magic show which was being held on campus and was sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ. This was a large university of over twenty thousand students. When I arrived at this auditorium it was already packed with a few thousand students. I remember very little about the performance, however at the end of the show they announced that they were going to have a brief intermission so that whoever wanted to leave could, but they came back they were going to talk about Jesus Christ. When they called the intermission the place just emptied out! There were very few people left, but I stayed. I JUST KNEW that the Lord was the answer I was looking for. They asked us to pray a prayer, as sincerely as we knew how, to receive the salvation that Jesus Christ offered.. And I prayed as sincerely as I knew how! But I felt absolutely nothing! Until about two weeks later when I was walking to classes one morning and I felt drawn into a chapel that the university had at one end of the campus green. I went inside and knelt down to pray and something strange happened. It just felt good! I mean real good! Being raised Catholic I thought prayer was supposed to be hard work - even painful - but this felt really good. So good that I didn’t want to leave and go to classes. I know now that the Holy Spirit was all over me manifesting Himself to me and drawing me in. Eventually I left the chapel and went to classes. At the end of that day I was walking home from school and I had an idea. I said “Lord would you give me a ride home today?” I had been walking home from classes (about a mile and a half) for about a year and had never had a ride before. I promptly turned around and put out my thumb for a ride. Immediately a car stopped! I thought this is nice . I got in and the person gave me a ride to the top of the hill - which was most of the way home. I thought I would walk the rest of the way home as it was not that far, but as I was getting out of the car I noticed a sports car pull off the road in front of us and the passenger side door opened. The car was a convertible with a plastic window in the back that was so fogged up you could not see through it. I began walking and planed to walk past the car, but when I came abreast of it the man leaned over the passenger seat and asked me if I wanted a ride. I was dumbfounded! I had not asked for this ride and I had never seen this person before so why was he stopping and waiting for me to give me a ride? I wondered if it was safe to get in the car, but I got in anyway. This person gave me a ride to the bottom of the hill (about 100 yards) where he was taking a right onto a side street. I thought how strange it was that he stopped to give me such a short ride. From there I only had to walk across a four lane highway and up the driveway to the house and I would be at my door.. When we came to the bottom of the hill I got out of the sports car and closed the door behind me As the sports car drove off - before I could even take a step a pickup trick stopped! The man driving offered me a ride. I got in. This man drove me across the four lane highway and up the driveway right to the door of the house. I was in shock! It had taken three rides to get me home and the last two I hadn’t asked for. I walked in, went upstairs, and walked into the bathroom to look in the mirror to see if I was still there. When I looked in the mirror I saw that there was a big black smudge in the middle of my forehead!
Having been raised Catholic I was very familiar with what is known as “Ash Wednesday” - when the priest would rub ashes on your forehead and say “from dust to dust you shall return”. It was about death. On the side of a hill some weeks before, I had asked God to “take my life”. I had literally asked Him to kill me or give me death. He had answered my prayer, but He answered it in a way I had never expected. The death He gave was a death to the world, so that I could love Him! I asked Him to take my life and he took it...so that I could live for Him. I did not understand all of that back then. I only knew that God was real. I now knew He was not far away from me, but that He was very close and was taking an active interest in my life. I knew He listened and heard every word I spoke and that He had manifested Himself to me in a little thing - like a ride home.
This was the beginning of a life long journey down the narrow road home.