My Testimony
Being raised in a good home by Christian parents resulted in me being led to Christ as a young child of only 8-years. This happened at Foxworthy Baptist Church in San Jose, California in the summer of 1976. Because I was saved at such a young age, I did not experience the long search of meaning that one usually expects in a testimony. Instead it is a testimony of how God has directed my life, leading me in my decisions to both bring me success and allow me to serve His purposes. Being young, God did not yet have a task for me, and so He did not begin directly influencing my life until much later, the end of High School to be precise.First Contact, Getting to College
The first time He directed my life was in the final months of my High School career. For most of my childhood my parents moved on a regular basis. Our last move had come following my sophomore year in high school. We had left Pennsylvania, where we had lived in the country, to Colorado and suburbia. I wasn't too thrilled about getting back into the city, although I loved Colorado to death. As a token of "rebellion" against citification I grew a full beard during the summer that we moved and wore it through the remainder of my high school years. Fortunately that was the full extent of my rebellion and I kept my studies up and did well in school. After taking the ACT and SAT tests I was scheduled for my Senior Checkout meeting with my counselor. I had no idea what I was going to do; if I would go to college; if we could afford for me to go to college; if I had good enough grades and test scores to even get into college! Talk about naive!So in I walked into the counselors office. She looked at me a little funny (I guess they don't see a lot of high schoolers with beards ...) and as she was digging out my papers asked me what I was going to do for a living. I remember telling her, "I don't know. Maybe something with computers." She appeared pretty sceptical and we began reviewing my test scores. Instant attitude adjustment! I was too naive to know any different at that time, but I had scored well up in the top percentiles for everything on the test. Her focus shifted immediately away from "How can we get through this quickly" to "How am I going to get this kid to take advantage of his abilities". After much discussion and information gathering I left her office now knowing not only where I would go to school, but what degree program I would pursue and the information for a merit scholarship as well. I thank God that He provided me with a counselor that cared enough to see past youthful strangeness and provide directions for my achievement.
God had placed our new Colorado home in the perfect location, for the college I entered was but a dozen miles away and serviced by the city bus system. By living at home we were able to save gobs of money that would otherwise have gone to room and board in a dorm. This, along with the scholarships (which I was able to renew all four years) meant that I not only got through my bachelors degree, but also extended a little more effort and earned my Masters of Science as well.
Part 2, Getting a Job
My final semester in school was in the fall of 1991. This was the time of the "peace dividend". As a result of the massive reductions in defence spending there were large numbers of highly experienced computer professionals flooding the job market. Throughout the semester all of the counselors kept repeating that jobs were scarce and that it would be a long and difficult task to attain employment. This was even more true for myself, for I had not been working during school, trying instead to focus on my studies. Early in that last semester I ran across an ad on the Internet where a small company was looking for C++ programmers. C++ was a relatively new programming language, which I had picked up and studied in great detail because it interested me. I figured that it couldn't hurt to answer the ad and sent in a resume.A long time passed. I applied to several employment ads throughout the semester but never got so much as a reply. Finally, in the last week of the semester, I got a call from the little company I mentioned above. During the interview they were a little concerned about my lack of experience (as I was myself), but after I took their C++ knowledge test and aced the thing I earned a chance at the job. I was soon employed at Colorado Memory Systems which in 1992 was the industry leader in manufacturing quarter-inch tape backup systems for personal computers. One interview, one offer, one job. All this during a period known as a "difficult " job market. Only God could have been at work. Not only did He provide me the job, but I give Him credit for getting me interested in C++ at the beginning. It was that knowledge that qualified me for the job, and as it turned out I was only able to use that knowledge for maybe 6 weeks before the project I was working on was reassigned!
Part 3, Being Useful ... For Once
The timing of all these previous evert was very important as barely a month after I started work my Father became a victim of the "peace dividend". Deciding that trying new employment opportunities at age 60 wasn't a great idea, he retired. My new job was in Loveland, about an hour and a half drive north of our home. I was making that drive as a commute, because I hadn't yet decided what I wanted to do about housing. Not wanting to retire in the big city, my parents decided to move near where my job was. That was fine with me, as I wasn't ready to move out just yet anyway. I have always had a fantastic relationship with my parents and never felt pressured to move out, nor felt that I had to move in order to gain independence.It was now that we discovered how important my job really was. When it came time to buy their new house in Berthoud we discovered that banks won't loan you money unless you have an income. They could have bought the house outright, but that would have seriously consumed their savings. So I co-signed on the loan and in this way was able to pay back a small bit for the work they had put into raising me. I give God the credit for making it possible that I could help in this way.
Part 4, Getting Down To Business
When I started my new job I was without a church home. It was over a year after we had moved that I finally found the church where God would have me serve. During the time without a church I had been saving God's tithe in my bank account, certain that one day I would have a church to give it to. Once I had found the church I began giving that money to it. Now for whatever reason I didn't just give it all at once. No, I instead doubled my normal tithe and gave it over time. It took almost a year before I was "caught up", but by the time I was an interesting thing had occurred. God had shown me that even giving at an accelerated pace didn't hurt too much! After much deliberation I decided that I would continue giving at the accelerated rate even past paying the saved money back. That was three years ago. Over time God has given me financial success that I don't fully understand. Yet I try to remain faithful in giving back more than the portion He requires. It turned out that our church began having financial difficulties after some of our best-giving families moved away or left. I thank God that through my stewardship of His gifts I've been able to help sustain His church during its time of difficulty.Part 5, The Continuing Saga
In the fall of 1994 I was involved with a small group Bible study at my church. One of the things that we looked at was fasting. As an experiment we decided that each person would choose some issue to pray and fast over on the following Wednesday, then everyone would report back how it went the next week. I finally decided that I would ask God to give me direction on fulfilling my future. At the time I believed this request to be a nice way of saying, "Come on God! Bring me a wife!" But He had other plans.A couple months after the fast I began getting interested in building or buying a house for myself. It was a long process of looking, dreaming, planning, disappointment, excitement and sometimes drudgery. Finally I found the house that I was supposed to buy. How did I know? During the process of looking I had settled on a number of features that were must-haves in the house. And a number of other things that were "it-would-be-nice-if" features. Nothing ever came close to this list. Nothing in the developments, nothing in the house plan books, nothing in the lists of homes by custom builders, nothing at all. Until this house. It was in a new development and I had picked up a group of floor plans from the agent in charge. A cursory glance (at that point most glances were cursory!) hadn't revealed anything interesting. When we got home however I started really looking at the layouts ... and there it was. Every feature of my list, right down to dual-sinks in the master bathroom! It was as if I heard His voice saying, "See? I didn't set you off on a journey without a destination. Please be patient."
By January of 1996 I was in my new house and I'm now waiting to see what the next job is that God needs me for. I've been able to use the house for Him in various ways including housing His servants (we've had two sets of summer missionaries come to help with our Youth Group in the past two years.) I am still not sure what some of those features I had on my list were for, but I'm certain that I will find out eventually.! As I wait I continue to work in His church. I'm the treasurer and I help teach the Youth Group. What's next? Only He knows, but I'll always be excited because everything He does is exciting to watch (and look back on!)
In Christ, 