Testimony

I grew up in a Christian family... for as long as I can remember our Christian faith was a vital part of our lives, for which I am most grateful and incredibly blessed. When I was young, I had quite a few anger issues, though... I was almost constantly getting in fights, starting in grade two. As the years progressed, not a whole lot changed... I can remember constantly having in- and out-of-school suspensions as punishments, having various different sorts of consequences aside from that. I think things probably started to change after I was old enough to attend Youth Group at church... I don't recall any life-changing moments when I decided to become a different person or anything, but after about grade six (when I would ended at 13 years old) there weren't really any more fights. I decided at 14 that I wanted to take my relationship with God more seriously... and was baptised in march of 2000. I remember saying that as Jesus really began His ministry with His baptism, so I began my ministry. However, over the next few years, as sometimes happens, I began to wander from what I knew was right, primarily in the area of relationships. Through my latter years of high school and into university, I made some choices that were really not beneficial or reflective of my faith... including the areas of relationships and alcohol. At the same time, I was living a double life... on one side, making these poor decisions, on the other hand, I was always involved in church. At sixteen I took initiative to have a youth group at the church we started attending... we had changed churches from one we'd attended for years to a local church. They only met once a month, and so I insisted that we should begin meeting more, which we did. We also started a youth worship team which continued on and off through the years. I continued to attend and have some leadership with the youth through until I moved to Australia. I also helped out with a couple youth groups and on one worship team when I was at uni. After uni, my life kind of took a dive. I was dropped from enrolment so I did not continue my schooling, and after the liberal freedoms of living by myself, running my own life at university, I had a lot of trouble coming back under my parent's roof. After a few months, I quit working for my dad and moved back to Lethbridge, to the life that I remembered... where I could go wherever and do whatever I wanted. I enjoyed it at first, but I wasted my life... I would stay up to all hours of the night playing computer games and consume a fair amount of alcohol. Soon I started calling in sick regularly for work because I was too tired... soon I just stopped showing up at all. In this way I went through two jobs within months, and eventually could not pay for my rent, even after coming home and working for mom and dad for a couple days. Eventually, I was forced to move out, once again back under the roof of my parents. This time... I was more than humbled, and all too thankful for how gracious they had been to me. They forced me to clean up my act by refusing me a job with them, so I had to go out and shoulder my own responsibility with another employers. It was actually really good for me working at The Home Depot as a Millworks associate... I managed to stabilise my life (after a few small mistakes) and keep a vehicle on the road. Somewhere around May 2006, I decided that I wanted to take my relationship with God to the next level, and looked at doing a Discipleship Training School. After deciding to the school, I talked it over with my parents... if I were to do the school, I would need to come work with them in order to be able to make the money I would need to travel to Australia to do the DTS. They agreed, and I left my job at Home Depot and began working with dad again. Soon enough, the time came, and I flew down under to Townsville, Australia. My Discipleship Training School (DTS) was a definite beginning of something new in my life, and the end of what was before. On that school, I faced down the person who I believed I was and learned to root my identity in Christ. I took time to spent with God, listened to His voice, dug myself into Scripture, and returned to Canada a changed man. Before I even finished my DTS, I had decided to to a School Of Music in Missions. When I returned to Canada, I immediately began working for my dad again, saving up money for new equipment and a second trip to Australia for my SOMM. In July, 2007 the band Five Star Streets, composed of members of Reef To Outback (the base I staff on in Townsville, Australia) came on their tour to Calgary. I, of course, knowing the band members, greatly desired to see them perform. However... it turned out that I was on vacation in Ontario at the time, but through some unforeseen events while on vacation, I was able to fly home early the day of the concert! At the concert, Mike spoke about missions, and in the middle of the next song, God spoke to me very clearly... “Buy a one-way ticket to Australia.” I couldn't believe it. I spent the rest of the weekend fasting and praying about what that meant, and decided that after my SOMM, I was also to do a Staff Leadership Internship at YWAM Reef To Outback Townsville. So I headed off to Australia for my SOMM early 2008. On the school I improved leaps as a musician, and experienced things that broke my heart as we focused on combating the injustice of the prostitution trade in Thailand and around the world. Then I joined staff, and was again forced to examine my attitude, as I was serving in the kitchen. When I joined RTO, I'd kind of hoped secretly I'd work there... and hope a lot that I wouldn't. My passion is for music and media, so I had a hard time being there day in and day out, especially when I was split between communications and kitchen. Eventually I moved to communications full-time, where I am now. I still struggle with many things, but it's really exciting to see where God has taken me... and wonder where He is taking m