A few weeks back Dave posted a bulletin requesting testimonies about how we got where we are as Christians.  I also recall reading something of this sort written by Jen and have stolen her format in writing my life story.  I found this an amazing exercise, having never really written my personal testimony out before.  Thanks Dave and Jen for the inspiration to tackle this adventure.

I was raised in the city of Niagara Falls in a neighborhood called LaSalle with my three brothers and both parents.  I had a very authoritarian demanding father and could do nothing right.  Basically I spent most of my childhood trying to stay out of his line of sight.  If I avoided him I would be ok.  Not really but that was the reasoning, and only made life more unbearable when he would eventually catch up with me. 

School is supposed to be a great experience, a time to grow and learn about our world.  For me school was humiliating and I hated it.  I felt worse at school than I did at home and that was not great.  I felt completely useless.  Of course my father made sure I knew that I was useless.  I was actually a good student, but really had trouble making new friends and felt very alone in school. 

With a great foundation like that it was not hard for me to find my way into drugs and alcohol at the ripe old age of 12.  During the summer before I entered Junior High School a friend invited me to hang out at the school.  I went over and he had a case of some cheep beer and we drank ourselves silly.  This was the beginning of an inauspicious junior and senior high school career.

I spent most of my high school days high on pot and most of my evenings drinking in the streets.  It was an escape for me.  I had to find a way to escape the pain and loneliness I felt inside.  If I could numb my mind I could stop thinking about how useless I felt.  No one really cared much about me so why should I try to live up to anyone's expectations.  I put forth little or no effort in high school but still managed to graduate in the middle of my class, but could have done much better if only I had put forth an effort.

Now don’t get me completely wrong.  I had plenty of fun along the way.  I had a couple of friends and we would ride our bikes the 5 miles down to the Falls and hang out during the summer.  We climbed in the gorge and swam in the lower Niagara River and sometimes waded in between the Three Sister Islands above the Falls.  Things I would not and have not told my children about.  I would say we were rather reckless.  Looking back now I realize that it was only God’s grace that kept us safe as teenagers.

There was a bright spot along the way.  I would walk the two blocks to Grace Lutheran Church every Sunday for Sunday school classes.  Some weeks we would attend church as a family as well, but that was usually pretty boring.  At Sunday school we learned lots of great bible stories.  It always amazed me that David could face the giant Goliath and take him down.  Most of my friends as I was growing up attended the same church and we would hang out together.  We would go to youth group meetings and events high as a kite.  I even sang in the youth choir.  It amazes me that God was so good even when I really didn’t know him.  There was a man named George who could really understand much of what we were going through as young teenagers trying to figure out this world and God and our relationship to both.  He taught our senior high Sunday school classes and challenged us to read our bible and test God and his word.  It was a great challenge, but one I was not ready to face yet…