i used to live on cape cod, which is surrounded by water on all sides. you need to cross a bridge to get there. the whole thing is about 60-70 miles long. so when someone lives here and you know them you bump into them often enough. when i was young i had a friend named Kieth. when i was about 11 years old my family moved from 1 town to another about 10 miles away. we still would see everyone else, but after i moved i never saw Kieth again. every 2 or 3 months I'd look around and say to myself "where's Kieth?" for 7 or 8 years every 2 or 3 months I'd wonder why i wasn't bumping into him. i heard occasionally that he was still on cape, but never saw for myself.

I'm 18 years old. a senior in high school.  it's mid-January. I'm catholic and something happens in church. it was a child laughing and everyone turns to shush the child and i look around and say "God where are you in all this?"

 it's less than a week later and I'm at the (ice)skating rink i don't know how to skate, but i go once a year just to say "i tried". i can barely keep my balance. and all i can manage is this baby-step kind of shuffle. so I'm shuffling along and i pass my dad and he's talking to someone that looks familiar, but i just can't place the face, so i keep shuffling along and about 20 feet later i realize "hey, that was Kieth!". so i turn around and shuffle my way back to him and wait for him to stop talking to my dad and he tells me that he belongs to Victory Chapel. i ask him what that was and he tells me they are a group of friends that like to have fun. music scenes, movies and just hanging out. to this day he claims he mentioned Jesus, but i didn't hear anything about it. he invites me to a movie night and i go.

i show up 30 minutes late and the credits are rolling. and I'm thinking "that was a pretty short movie" but after the credits the movie starts. so it looks like the movie people just made it with all the credits first. so i settle in and watch the movie. it doesn't even enter my mind that these people have been doing something for the last half hour. after the movie there is an altar call that didn't make much sense to me, so i ignored it. i find my old friend Kieth and we start talking and he tells me about Nicodemus and being born again. i tell him i have my own religion, but it sure is nice to see him again.

 God went out of His way to set me up for 7 or 8 years, so when i didn't agree with what Kieth was saying about religion, I'd keep coming back just to see him.

he invited me to a music night on Saturday and i went. the music had familiar music, but the words were changed to glorify God. and at the end there was an altar call and basically i said "nope, not for me". at the end i hear more. and I'm told that all the new testament scriptures are the same in the version they are using and the Douay(catholic) version. so i go home and look. sure enough "you must be born again" is in my bible.

 so the next day i go to my catholic church and ask to talk to a priest and he says bad things about the pastor "over there", but can't give me any of the real life answers that i ask for and he says "stay for mass(the church service)" so i stay. I'm kind of tired and i drift off to sleep. i wake up as everyone is leaving, look at the clock and realize that i told Kieth I'd go with him to his evening service and he's going to be at my house to pick me up in just a few minutes. so i run. i was on the track team back then and in good shape, so I'm able to run at a good pace, but I'm winded when i arrive. and i get there just as he's pulling in. i tell him that I'm pretty tired and if he doesn't mind me falling asleep in his service, I'll go. he says "don't worry about it" and we go. in the catholic service there was no life and nobody even noticed i was sleeping. which is impressive, because i snore. in the born again service there clearly was life and there was no way i could have fallen asleep. i hear the altar call and choose not to respond. after, i hear more about being born again. Kieth says "will you come Wednesday as well?" i say sure, still amazed that my long lost friend that God put on my heart to look for is standing there.

Wednesday night service. January 21, 1987. the pastor is preaching on "establishing the kingdom of God" his second point was "a decision has to be made" and The Holy Spirit says pretty clearly "you've heard all the evidence you need, now make a decision" so i decided to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. when the altar call comes up, I'm more than ready to respond.

so there i am. saved. going to heaven. clean slate and all. and there's another altar call. "if you haven't been filled with the Holy Spirit, come up and we'll pray for you" i don't really know what they are talking about, but I'm there and they just led me to complete forgiveness with Jesus, so whatever they are doing now can't hurt. we start praising God and the man in front of me says "just speak out in faith". the first time i ever hear tongues, it's coming from my own mouth. saved and filled with The Spirit both in one night. 2 weeks later i was water baptized.

God is so good to us

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