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Hey! I�m Andrew, and I am 15 years old. I live in Saint John, New Brunswick. I�d like to tell you a little about myself!
My father is an Anglican pastor, so I have grown up in the church, and I always believed in Jesus and that stuff, but I had never lived for him. I was a terrible witness, and it was gut wrenching when people would compliment my parents on having such a caring young Christian son.
There was a need inside me, and I could feel it. It was a dark empty hole, and I didn�t know what to fill it with. Some of the things I tried to fill it with continue with me to this day. . .all of them a sad reminder of my time spent in the �old land�.
I was told last summer that I could go to a one-week camp if I wanted. I really didn�t want to, but I decided that I would probably have more fun than sitting around, so I left � packing up me, myself and my bad attitude.
It was a ton of fun, and I really enjoyed the whole week, especially the chapel services each night. Consisting of contemporary praise and a short message, I wound up longing each night for the service, and some nights would not go back to my cabin till midnight. After 3 nights of this, they finally gave an invitation for salvation.
Although I would never have doubted my salvation prior, I had never released the presence of God to work in my life. I had not lived for him, and I had shamed God in those days. I needed to reaccept, and rededicate my life to Jesus.
During those days of camp, God worked miracle after miracle. By the end I was witnessing to other campers, and stayed up at night reading the Bible to a guy who was really curious. I helped to lead to lead him to Christ that week.
I had never been so happy in my entire life! I was on fire for God � and he was working. Within a month our youth group had a worship band, with me on piano. This ministry blossomed, yet did not really grow. We had high hopes, but we were not really in the position to do big ministry. We did some coffee houses, but we tried and failed at worship music. We had a hardcore drummer, an electric guitar that taught himself guitar from metal music, and a bassist like Les Claypool from Primus.
That didn�t mix, and one day those three decided that they wanted to form their own hardcore Christian rock band. They broke this to us with no warning. The dam finally burst after months of me foreseeing it.
Our male harmony is named Chris Durning, and his girlfriend came to all our practises. Though she didn�t play an instrument, she still attended the practises. . .our loyal moral support you could say. Meet Jewel Wright.
Now Jewel has a twin sister, Kate, who has a boyfriend, Enoch, who has an older brother, Nate. Now we wanted these people to come and hear our band play � or in this case practise. They arrived, and within the hour Crosswalk was no more.
Yes, Nate the bassist, Kate the vocalist, and Enoch the electric guitar happened to arrive at an open practise just as our bass, guitar, and drummer were leaving. After the old crosswalk (the breakaways) had left the church. All of us started talking. I felt like I knew Kate, Enoch and Nate for years! We talked, we laughed, and we finally decided to play music. Praising God, we continue today!
My life has become so much greater since accepting the blessing of being one of God�s children. How could I have lived without it?
People tell me I am too mature for my age, in every way � including spiritually. Though I have only been an active Christian for just over a year, having a priest for a father really helped drill the Bible into my head. I�ve always had a gift for helping people, and I really want to help you, if I can.
My target witnessing audience are the punks, Goths, alts, and those that society sees as outcasts. My goal is to spread the love of Christ with these people, and to set a witness. I wish the break the stereotype of mainstream Christianity. I want to let my fellow punks know that going against the flow is what Christianity is all about.
Well, that�s a little of my life story! If you have any questions, shoot!
