I (David) received Christ as my personal Lord and Savior in September of 1971. Susan received Christ the following month in October. We were the products of the ‘60s generation interested only in the pursuit of pleasure and vanity. Twenty-two years of age with one child, our selfish and dysfunctional condition would have brought on significant detrimental effects in our marriage and in the life of our one and half year old daughter, if God had not saved us from our sins and restored our lives.

My background was Catholic and as a child I was made to regularly attend church. Susan was raised Episcopalian. As young adults, our philosophy was bent towards eating, drinking and being merry. Since we believed that we only go around once in life, we wanted to “make the best of it”. Which of course meant partying most of the time. God was only relevant to us if a significant crisis or need arose. After we met, married and began our family, we tried attending church. Our attendance was short lived, as church seemed lifeless. It dawned on us some years later that we, not the church, were lifeless.

While working as a life insurance agent, I met a prospective client, a restaurant manager. After giving my 20-minute insurance pitch, I heard, “I don’t need insurance, I have eternal life assurance”. I knew then that I had wasted a half-hour of my time, but at the same time found myself asking question after question and listening to stories of how God had healed this man from emphysema and how God had delivered him from alcohol abuse. Although keenly interested in all I was hearing and being moved by this man’s testimony, I refused to pray with him to receive Christ. I felt I could not make a serious commitment such as this without thoughtful consideration. For the next three days I could do nothing but consider all that had been presented to me.

I informed Susan about my encounter and told her that I was going to pursue finding out if Jesus was real. This decision meant that I was intending to leave my present lifestyle of drugs and alcohol abuse and begin learning what the Bible had to say. Susan was not excited. After several days of continuous thought, I made my decision to leave my old life and follow Jesus. I met with Lee, the restaurant manager, and together with his pastor they led me through the prayer to give my life completely to Christ. For the following weeks, I met with Lee to talk about Christ and the scriptures, it seemed I could not get enough.

I never had an immediate or overwhelming experience, never felt anything happening to me after I prayed, but something in me changed and I became different. My vocabulary had changed; I could now speak more than three sentences without the use of profanity. I desired to read the Bible and could understand it. I could sense that my heart and mind felt new and refreshed. My wife thought I had gone off the deep end, and I thought she might leave me. I continually prayed for her and made a deliberate attempt to tread softly with my new faith.

Some days had passed after surrendering my life to God when our marijuana dealer came by to give us a sample of some new “weed” that he had just gotten. I told him I was not interested, Susan invited him in. As the three of us sat in our living room, Susan and our dealer began smoking. They told me how great the high was. I explained to them that I was not interested in smoking with them because I was determined to find out if the Christian thing I had just committed to was real. I remember that resisting the temptation to smoke a joint at this time was incredibly difficult. After Susan made the arrangements for the dealer to come back that evening to deliver an ounce of what she said was the best she had ever smoked, I walked into our bedroom, fell on my knees and prayed. I prayed that God would not allow this man to return. I knew if he were to come back that I would make the biggest joint I could and smoke it. I knew that I could not resist the temptation if he were to return. To this day neither Susan nor I have ever laid eyes on our former dealer. When he did not show up that evening, I realized that God, in His faithfulness, had answered my prayer.

By now I was attending church regularly. It was one Wednesday evening while worshipping in song that I experienced God intimately. Though I had received Christ by faith and had been the recipient of the above answered prayer (a miracle in my eyes), I had not yet experienced Jesus personally. It was on this evening He said to me, “David, I wanted to come to you and introduce myself, I am Jesus who died for you. I love you and want to be your friend so you can be with me in heaven forever”. At this, I started to cry. I had met God and knew He was real and that Christ was the truth, the way and eternal life. From that time forward I believed I was called to be a minister of the gospel and have pursued that direction. While I was experiencing God’s grace in September, Susan was experiencing God’s move in her life. My goal during this time was to be as loving and as kind to her as I could, and try to keep the boat from rocking too much. I was totally unaware that God was bringing deep conviction to her heart and soul.

There was much I (Susan) didn’t understand and much I didn’t agree with in David’s newfound religion. I was, however, battling with a tremendous amount of guilt and shame; living with the ghosts and demons of the past. I couldn’t imagine that God would reach out to me knowing these things about my past.

I remember the day in October when I had a discussion with David. I was happy when I learned that I could have forgiveness, but I was overwhelmed with amazement when David also shared with me that God not only forgives he forgets. I wanted this freedom in my life. The Holy Spirit had done the job of convicting me of my sins and revealing God’s great love for me. It was then that I prayed and invited Christ into my life. Immediately I accepted that Christ had died for me. Unworthy as I knew I was, his grace enabled me to see past the sinner I was and see myself as Christ did. If I denied his salvation for me, I denied his act of love. I must be worthy through the cross.

Thirty years later after raising our family we now look to full time ministry opportunities overseas. I have been employed with two fine Christian educational institutions. David has been a worship leader, pastor and elder in church, while being active in prison ministry, and cross cultural ministry at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center.

We now feel, in our hearts, that God is leading us to serve Him as missionaries to China. He has made it very clear to us with the confirmation of our close friends, church leaders and recent circumstances. We are currently praying for specific direction and inquiring information through various contacts and missionary organizations to help us begin to make the right decisions to accomplish God’s will for us in China.