Aloha,
You've heard me say that one of the things I love about YWAM Maui is the transformations that I get to see in people's lives. I've asked one of the DTS students in the school to write out his testimony so all of you can read about the transformations I'm talking about! Erik's story is a reminder that NOTHING can separate us from the love of God and that He is ALWAYS in pursuit of our hearts. I hope God speaks to you through Erik's story.
"My name is Erik; I’m 24 years old and am from Dellwood, Minnesota. I am a student at the Maui YWAM. I became a true Christian last march while in a drug treatment program. I had been lost in drug addiction and alcoholism for almost six years before having an intervention. I was a daily user and was lost in a useless life of sin and selfishness. Everything I did had a negative result and everywhere I went I left a path of destruction in the lives of people I encountered, especially my family. I would disappear for months at a time and neglect to inform anyone around me, at some times my family didn’t even know if I was still alive. However, Christ had a future planned for me, in December of 2007 my friends and family organized an intervention and demanded that I attend a Christian drug rehabilitation facility called MN Teen Challenge, I agreed to give it a shot as I had seen my life begin to slip away.
While in Teen Challenge God got a hold of my Heart, at an Easter play at a church I gave my life to Christ and accepted that He had died for my sins, and that He had a will and future already planned for me. Over the next nine months I learned what it meant to be a true Christian and developed my relationship with the Lord. As my time in the program was coming to an end I had to face what I was going to do after. I prayed continually and had a team of people praying for me, after a couple months I felt it had become clear that I was supposed to participate in a YWAM course. I felt led to this because it was a good opportunity to give back to God’s kingdom, which I had spent so much time destroying, and because it was an excellent chance for me to avoid old friends who could potentially tempt me back into my previous lifestyle.
Here at YWAM I have already built close relationships with fellow students and staff and I look forward to strengthening those. I also expect to bring my relationship with the Lord to a new level through devotions and prayer. I am looking forward to the outreach portion of this course, which I will be serving in Indonesia, where we intend to spread the Gospel and assist the community in any way possible.
I am so thankful for the changes the Lord has brought about in my life, without His influence I probably would have been dead by now, but instead, I am presented with an opportunity to spread the love that He showed me to people all over the world."
While in Teen Challenge God got a hold of my Heart, at an Easter play at a church I gave my life to Christ and accepted that He had died for my sins, and that He had a will and future already planned for me. Over the next nine months I learned what it meant to be a true Christian and developed my relationship with the Lord. As my time in the program was coming to an end I had to face what I was going to do after. I prayed continually and had a team of people praying for me, after a couple months I felt it had become clear that I was supposed to participate in a YWAM course. I felt led to this because it was a good opportunity to give back to God’s kingdom, which I had spent so much time destroying, and because it was an excellent chance for me to avoid old friends who could potentially tempt me back into my previous lifestyle.
Here at YWAM I have already built close relationships with fellow students and staff and I look forward to strengthening those. I also expect to bring my relationship with the Lord to a new level through devotions and prayer. I am looking forward to the outreach portion of this course, which I will be serving in Indonesia, where we intend to spread the Gospel and assist the community in any way possible.
I am so thankful for the changes the Lord has brought about in my life, without His influence I probably would have been dead by now, but instead, I am presented with an opportunity to spread the love that He showed me to people all over the world."
Great story. We featured this on www.faithtelegraph.com. Blessings, Mark.
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