| My Life Journey |
| When looking back at my life story, I truly believe that God has a plan and purpose for all of us and now that I have Him guiding me along the right paths my eyes have been opened. I can see how he worked in my life even before I was saved. Here is my story. |
| I have grown up all my life as a Roman Catholic spending seven years in a Catholic school and receiving my communion and confirmation. When given the choice by my parents of whether or not to go to church, I chose not to go. After graduating from high school in 1989, I began attending a community college. Even though I took classes for two years, I was not applying myself and did not have any direction. In my search for direction, I began researching different religions and even looked into Buddhism and Wicca. I never practiced them, but I read about them. One day my father invited a painter to our house to do some painting, and after meeting him I found out that he was working his way through seminary and was interning at the First Baptist Church of Newtown, Pennsylvania. David invited me to come to a Bible study. This was my first experience attending a church denomination other than Catholic, and I really felt welcomed the first time I stepped through the doors. I kept on attending the services and eventually David guided me toward accepting the Lord. This was the first time I prayed the prayer of salvation accepting the Lord as my Savior. I was not fully plugged into the church and even though I accepted the Lord�s grace, but I really feel that this was the first step and the start of a very long journey toward my growth as a Christian and child of God. Eventually I decided to join the military and in August of 1992 I began my career in the Army National Guard. This was the first time in my life that I felt that I had some direction. |
| After finishing the military training, I decided to go to college and get my bachelors degree. All this time I had fallen away from my faith and put God on the back burner in my life. This was a time that I was not growing spiritually. While at college I pursued fellowship, but could not find a group that I could fit into so I worshiped on my own. My main focus at that time was concentrating on my education. This was another time that I fell away from my faith. I have never denied the existence of God, but my way of worshipping was doing it my own way. This continued for about four years, and after I graduated and began working in the professional market at my school. This is where I feel that I came to a crossroad and again, the Lord provided me the path and direction I needed even though I did not realize it at the time. |
| In 2000, my career hit a dead end and I was at a point in my life to make a decision. I had two job offers, one was local and one was in another state�North Carolina. After long and hard consideration, I ended up taking the one in North Carolina, and this was the path God wanted me to take, as you will see shortly. After moving down to Raleigh and starting my new position, I found that there was a local church that had just been started called River Oaks Community Church, and about seven people in my office attended this church. I am a piano player who is passionate with my music, but I had never performed publicly. The CEO of my company mentioned to me that this new church was looking for a pianist. Well I went to one of the practices for the worship band, and I have been there for most of the past five years (except for a time I was on the West coast). |
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| I was not applying myself and did not have any direction. |
| I was not fully plugged into the church and even though I accepted the Lord�s grace... |
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| my career hit a dead end and I was at a point in my life to make a decision |
| ...and this was the path God wanted me to take, as you will see shortly... |