I guess you could say I offically was saved on Nov. 6, 1996 in the front seat of Pastor Wilson's Honda in the parking lot of Bob Evans. I had passed by Bob Evans many many times, but after that day I will never quite look at it the same way. I had had many talks with Pastor Wilson regarding Christianity and after each talk, I felt like I needed to talk with him again. I'm sure that was the Holy Spirit working.

Actually I feel that my salvation started when I was born, and has been a slow process. I fought it every step of the way. I was born into the Catholic faith and followed it as a young boy, until my parents fell away from it. I was never really introduced into any other faith after that. I grew up to be the type of person who questioned everything. I wanted absolute positive truth on anything I was to believe in. And like most people, I've been lied to, cheated, ripped off, and had horrible things happen to me and people I love. I found it hard to believe that there was a merciful and caring God who cared about me and loved me.

For a long time I fell away from God completely. Getting back has been a long process and through much of the process I was kicking and fighting it, fighting it all the way to my salvation. I've always looked for the perfect way to live my life and thought I had found it plenty of times and each time I would find out I was wrong. It's ironic that sometimes what you're looking for is right in front of you the entire time. I finally realized that the Holy Spirit had been talking to me for a long time; I just wasn't listening. Two of the things to open my eyes were my children. For a lot of people, there is something about the miracle of having children that changes your views on a lot of things.

The most perfect person, lifestyle, role model, hero, and teacher is Jesus. When you read about him and what he says everything just makes sense. When I think back on all the mistakes, all the bad choices, and all the stupid things I've done in my life, I realize that if I had been following Christ, I probably wouldn't have made all these bad choices. Even though I have many questions still, life just seems to make more sense and I have a peacefullness inside that hasn't been there since I was a child.

Things I read in the Bible that I didn't understand before are much clearer to me now and things I thought I understood have a more profound meaning. A lot of things that used to matter to me I realize are meaningless and the precious things in my life that could have slipped through my fingers are more precious than ever.