Participants: David Asscherick & Shanda Ban (Host), Nathaniel & Jacob Gibbs
Series Code: E
Program Code: E000014
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00:20 Hello and welcome to Engage, I'm David Asscherick and
00:23 I'm here with my co-host Shandra Ban. 00:25 In the book of Acts, Acts 16 we find the story of Paul 00:29 speaking to the Philippine jailer. 00:32 What he says to the jailer is very interesting and 00:34 I would like to read it for you here. 00:35 Ask 16:31, "so they said, believe the Lord Jesus Christ, 00:42 "and you will be saved, you and your household." 00:47 The Bible goes on to say just two verses later that very 00:50 night the jailer was baptized and his entire family. 00:53 Our program today is entitled When God Saves a Family. 00:57 We have two special guests with us, friends of mine and 01:00 now friends of Shandra, so Shandra introduce us to our 01:03 guests and we are looking forward to a great program. 01:05 For sure and thank you David. 01:06 Today we have Jacob and Nathaniel Gibbs and they have 01:10 come from Andrews University in Berrien Springs Michigan. 01:13 Which one of you is the older brother? 01:15 - I'm older. - you're older so since you're older 01:18 we will let you go first. 01:19 - you're not old you're just older. - Ha-ha-ha! 01:21 - tell us a little bit about your story. 01:24 - who is Nathaniel Gibbs? 01:25 Will we started out, Jacob and I, in a pretty normal 01:30 family, just mom, dad, and us two. 01:32 Almost a modern day leave it to beaver so everything was perfect 01:37 - so not just normal but supernormal? 01:39 I guess what really was going on is here is like this 01:42 innocency going on between Jacob and I. 01:44 - how many years is between the two of you? 01:46 Three, so we are just growing up, just having a great 01:50 life, I don't think I knew there was major problems until 01:53 one day my mom was taking me to the grocery store, and it 01:56 is only about a five-minute drive, and about two minutes 01:59 into it she starts sobbing uncontrollably. 02:01 She pulls into the parking lot and she is just breaking 02:04 down and crying. 02:05 I'm in fourth grade, mom is crying, she is supposed to 02:10 comfort me, I'm not suppose to be comforting her. 02:11 She's just sobbing and sobbing and she finally 02:13 gets composure and breaks the news that dad is going to 02:17 jail and they are getting a divorce. 02:19 So that's when I started to realize that we are not 02:23 a functional normal family, and that happened 02:25 at fourth grade. 02:27 That is where everything started to change, but you adapt 02:30 and you get used to the fact that you have two sets of 02:33 Christmas, two sets of birthday gifts. 02:36 Dad felt guilty and spoiled us rotten. 02:38 I had every video game system I wanted and you get used 02:42 to it, I don't know Jake how did you feel about the divorce? 02:46 I was really too young to understand what divorce was. 02:49 I just know my dad kind of looked like Santa Claus and 02:53 he acted like Santa Claus. 02:55 It's true, it's absolutely true. 02:56 - I mean I appreciated the gifts, but really growing up 03:00 it didn't change much because my parents maintained good 03:05 friendship and that was a healthy dysfunctional thing. 03:10 So it wasn't a radical change, but I think where the radical 03:15 change comes into place was in 1996. 03:20 My mom was driving me to an intermediate basketball 03:24 game for junior high, and we were in a little 03:26 Ford strawberry red escort and she makes a left turn like 03:30 on a country highway or a road and we get hit by 03:34 a full sized Dodge pickup truck. 03:36 The collision made the car go kitty corner to the other 03:40 side of the intersection. 03:42 It made the width of the car, almost, where the driver's 03:46 seat was a motorcycle width. 03:49 My dad went and saw the accident and said that the car hit 03:53 these trees and slid a couple feet up where you can see the 03:56 scrape marks as it came back down. 03:58 That drove us instantly into commas.- Both you and your mom? 04:03 Yes - you were how old again? - I was 13. - wow! 04:07 I was home playing video games and what happened was 04:11 It was back. - playing every game available. 04:14 Actually this was on the computer and what would happen 04:16 you would play on the modem and this is when modems made 04:19 noises and so what happens is when people try calling 04:23 you it would interrupt the game. 04:26 So someone kept calling, kept calling and I was getting 04:28 mad because it was interrupting my game and I was really 04:30 whopping my friends because you don't want to be 04:33 interrupted during that time. 04:34 So I end up getting the phone and by this time dad is 04:37 out of jail and someone is calling for him. 04:40 I figure you're with somebody trying to get money, 04:42 someone trying to get him back into trouble, 04:44 so I will cover for him a lot of the time and say oh 04:46 he is out of town or he is not around. 04:48 Well the person was pretty emphatic because they kept 04:51 calling and finally they said you need to get a hold of 04:53 him because your mother and brother were in a car 04:56 accident and you need to get down to the hospital right now. 04:59 So I get a hold of my dad and he rushes over and when 05:02 he comes into the door my dad is crying, 05:04 my dad doesn't cry. 05:05 There was one time when he was unloading a motorcycle 05:08 and he got his thumb stuck between the spokes and the 05:10 fork and ripped his thumb off and he just grabbed it and 05:13 held onto it and walked into the house and gritted his 05:15 teeth and said take me to the med Center so 05:17 I can get it sewed back on. 05:18 I know you're dad and he's a tough cookie that's for sure. 05:21 So he's bawling because He still loved my mom, they're 05:24 divorced and he always admitted that was the worst 05:27 mistake of his life, he always said he loved her. 05:30 She was the best woman he ever met, but he was bawling 05:32 because he saw the car on the way over. 05:35 So we rushed to the hospital, wait for ever in the 05:38 waiting room, Jacob gets rolled by and he is out cold. 05:42 But there was just him in the bed and they were 05:45 just wheeling him by sleeping, but when they brought my mom 05:48 by, it was like she was a bionic woman. 05:51 There's so many things plugged into her, so many tubes, 05:53 so many machines, they have like 3 people wheeling her by. 05:56 There was a person pushing the bed, then the machine 06:00 people were rolling machines by and you are just like 06:03 what! There are the screws screwed into her and it was 06:06 like what is going on? 06:08 When I first saw that it was the week after, I woke up 06:10 a week later and they wheel chaired me down and I had 06:13 a tremendous headache and I don't know what's going on. 06:15 The nurse says you were in a car accident and she fills 06:18 in the whole details and then they take me down to see 06:20 my mom for the first time and I kind of stand up and 06:24 I'm shaky and I see her kind of lifeless form almost. 06:27 It was rocking because they didn't want fluid to build up 06:31 into the lungs, but my mom was a very, very godly woman. 06:35 Although she did not practice all the right things, 06:40 she was connected so at that time I felt like God, 06:44 if You love Your people so much how could You do this to 06:49 one who loves You so much? 06:51 Now where you guys raised in a Christian home? 06:53 I don't know if you mentioned that. 06:54 We were raised in a very traditional Christian home, in 06:57 fact when this was going on I was going to be confirmed 06:59 into the church. - which church? 07:01 The Roman Catholic Church, so I was going to get a 07:04 confirmation where the bishop comes, a special ceremony. 07:08 They called me like a week later, two weeks later and 07:11 asked, the bishop is coming and we can schedule a date for you. 07:15 I asked them, I don't know if I believe in God anymore 07:18 because of this car accident and everything. 07:19 They said that does not matter. - No! 07:22 I just hung up on them and that was symbolically hanging 07:26 up on God, I declared myself an atheist at that point. 07:29 If God would do this. - so how old are you at this time? 07:32 Jacob was 13 and I was 16. 07:36 So you say you're ready to get confirmed, I'm not even 07:39 sure I believe in God, no problem that doesn't matter? 07:43 Yea, that's exactly what... 07:44 That's a church, hello! - that is what they said. 07:46 It does not matter and so I hung up the phone and it's 07:48 done. - so in your mind is like what is this? 07:50 I'm done with Christianity and I was hanging around with 07:52 friends at the time that were leaning towards that. 07:55 When I came into it we basically pushed all of us into 07:58 atheism so there was a circle. 08:00 I grew up in Grand Rapids Michigan and it is very rare 08:05 to have atheists in Grand Rapids at the time. 08:07 There is churches everywhere and I was just with a friend 08:10 that said man, there is a lot of churches in this town. 08:13 To be popular you had to be in the Christian youth group. 08:16 In a public high school. - like a social. 08:19 In fact when I was playing football I've got threatened 08:22 to be beat up my junior year because I quit believing in 08:25 God and wouldn't pray in the guys were like I'm going 08:27 to beat you up. I thought that's very nice of you, very Christian 08:30 - you will believe in God. - or we're going to beat 08:33 you up and it's not very Jesus like of you and he got scared 08:37 and didn't beat me up, but it was that kind of almost 08:41 a fake Christianity that drove me even further even 08:45 after the car accident. 08:46 It was like perfectly calculated to get you so I don't 08:49 want to miss that, you said when you saw your mom that 08:51 something was happening there? 08:53 I just realized that God wasn't the same in my mind. 08:57 Like before 13 I was, it was like mom's God and I really 09:01 appreciate mom's God but then I was like how could this 09:04 be mom's God if this is how He treats mom? 09:06 So from that point on I didn't make the step being atheist 09:10 but I didn't make any steps to get close to God. 09:13 So I just try to find happiness along with my brother 09:16 through all sorts of media type things, video games, 09:20 movies, sports, you know I tried to find happiness in all 09:24 this because what happens is I believe God was pouring 09:27 His love through my mom to her children. - okay! 09:31 But when she's gone and in a coma for three months, 09:34 there was a huge void. - I was going to ask did mom 09:38 make it? - yes she makes it but there is this huge void 09:41 in my life where this love is being poured out, it was 09:45 mom's love, it was God's love, or whatever it was it's 09:48 gone and so I had this empty spot in my life where 09:51 I'm trying to fill it. 09:52 So I was to the media thing, and the sports thing trying 09:55 to find a social life at school, junior high, and high 09:58 school just empty. 10:00 That's tough enough to navigate anyway and now your mom 10:02 is in a coma and your parents are divorced. 10:05 What happens here with the family dynamic after this 10:08 accident, what happens with mom and dad and her coming 10:11 out of the coma? Talk about that! 10:12 Dad came back to take care of us which is an interesting 10:16 story in itself because he was making good money and 10:19 he could have just said forget the situation and 10:22 find someone half his age, he could have just left us. 10:24 But he moved back into the house and started taking care 10:27 of us, it is not like the movies where the person 10:30 wakes up from a coma and everything is all fine and 10:33 maybe they have some amnesia, it's quite the process 10:36 to get them back into the home. 10:38 There is a huge, I think she remembered me as in 10:41 fourth or third grade, she doesn't even 10:42 remember them being divorced. 10:44 Like that is fuzzy, so there is this huge section wiped 10:47 out and she doesn't even act the same anymore because it 10:50 is worse than a stroke. 10:52 She can't move her left arm and her left leg. 10:56 You talk to her and she can't speak as fast, it's like 10:59 this is not really mom anymore. 11:01 - this is not Hollywood. - what does this drive you to? 11:03 This drives me farther and for either a way from God and 11:06 my hole is even bigger. Sure I had mom back 11:09 she woke up but there is this hole, it's just not 11:14 being filled with anything. 11:15 I had a lot of success in school, marching band national 11:19 champion and we ended up being a state champion football, 11:22 so I had success and it wasn't fulfilling anything 11:25 didn't like skateboarding got in punk rock music, did the extreme 11:30 stuff so I was trying doing all the successful stuff and 11:35 the crazy stuff at the same time. 11:37 Dad gave us no curfew, the rules got much more slack 11:42 but in an all one positive thing that immediately 11:46 happened in a few years after, mom and dad got remarried. 11:49 Amen, well she doesn't even remember that they weren't 11:52 married in the first place. 11:53 She was like why it this happening but the amazing thing 11:56 is dad could have just taken care of the kids and gave us 11:59 money, but he came back a remarried her and because of 12:03 the accident there is no physical act of love making 12:07 that can take place. 12:08 So he is and I am remarrying someone in principle 12:11 because I want to take care of her, not because I want 12:14 some gratification for my flesh. - wow! 12:16 So that was amazing because he is taking care of my 12:19 family. - your dad is an amazing man. 12:21 So he went from being a kid and partying and doing whatever 12:24 to I'm going to take care of my family. 12:27 So there is a turning point in the story though because 12:29 eventually you do end up coming back to the Lord. 12:32 Nate tell us a little bit? 12:33 - or in some case coming to the Lord? 12:35 Well that's quite the end process of trying to find 12:39 something for the hole in my soul. 12:41 I found the thing that came the closest, but was the 12:45 most deceptive was actually a girlfriend. 12:48 When that fell through and I got dumped right before 12:52 prom, that made the hole even bigger. 12:54 It was like a fake covering and when that got ripped up 12:58 I dabbled with alcohol and marijuana and it was like 13:01 you know what, marijuana is always there for you when 13:04 you need it and you are not going to get dumped by marijuana 13:06 You just buy it and it's there. 13:08 So the drugs got worse and worse to the point that 13:11 I dropped out of college because I was making good money 13:16 and I can party and I was like I'll go back. 13:19 What happened is I went to Mardi Gras and I ended up 13:23 taking in the process of partying down there I ended up 13:27 taking, an eye dropper full of LSD. 13:30 You only need a few drops, but I took a whole eye dropper. 13:32 I didn't even know afterwards I hadn't realized how much 13:36 I took so I took an eye dropper and tested it. 13:38 Every time I did it, it always came up somewhere between 13:41 40 and 60 drops in each drop being a hit. 13:44 So I took 40 or 60 hits and woke up in the hospital with 13:47 temporary amnesia strapped down because I guess I tried 13:50 attacking one of the nurses that was trying to save my life. 13:53 What happened during that time was very spiritual. 13:59 I had some stuff going out of my mind where I thought it 14:04 was the devil and then. And - because of the drugs. 14:07 Because of the drugs messing with me so there is this 14:10 thing where I'm staring down and this voice, very 14:14 seductive, very melodic, a nice soothing voice saying 14:17 if you go down into this tunnel I will make you this way. 14:21 I will give you these powers the rest of your life. 14:23 Then this voice was very calm, my conscious which I hadn't 14:29 heard for a while basically was like you don't want 14:31 to do that so there was this wrestling going on now. 14:34 I finally turned to the voice said okay why not, why wouldn't 14:38 I want this? This is great! 14:39 And everything went black and I am in a thinking man 14:43 position and I say these words, I've been here 6000 years, 14:47 what's a thousand more? I have never read the Bible, I read 14:51 Revelation like once and read it through really quickly 14:55 and didn't comprehend a thing. 14:57 So you're not like a biblically person? 14:58 Now this is interesting I heard a movie about apocalyptic 15:02 stuff and wanted to read about the four Horsemen, 15:04 just read through and it makes no sense, and forget it. 15:08 It said this, what's 6000 years, what's a thousand more 15:13 since I have been around for 6000 years. 15:15 That was my thought and the next thing I see I'm 15:18 riding some monster and fire coming down from heaven 15:20 and I am like yes this is not what I want. 15:22 I snap out of it. - change, reset, control auto-delete. 15:25 Oh no I'm out of here and I wake up and I'm on trolley 15:29 tracks and there is a trolley headed right for me and 15:32 I jump out of the way just right when it goes by. 15:35 - now is this real life? - this is real life. I snapped 15:38 out of it, I just get out of the way and run into a hotel room 15:41 and get into the fetal position and just start crying. 15:44 I don't remember much from there, I woke up in the 15:46 hospital, temporary amnesia, don't know where I am. 15:49 I don't even know how to go the bathroom, I don't 15:51 remember, they say if you go to the bathroom we will let 15:53 you go and I couldn't remember how to go to the bathroom. 15:56 Because you had so much substance in you, you're done? 15:59 I was just done. - you checked out. - I'm starting to 16:02 repeat stuff and they basically say we can help you. 16:06 I'm like really, so I wish I would've figured it out 16:09 because getting a catheter in you is not fun. 16:11 So that's the kind of help you were talking about? 16:15 We'll help you go to the bathroom and then I was able to 16:19 leave, just walk out of the hospital, never paid for it, 16:22 I just walked out and went to my hotel room and laid there 16:26 and tell my friends came. 16:27 My friends were, where have you been? 16:29 Oh I was in the hospital and I had the band you know. 16:33 I thought was great but deep inside I don't think I could 16:36 party much harder than this and I still feel empty. 16:40 How about still stay alive? - yeah that's true too. 16:43 But that's like you are at the brink there realistically. 16:46 So Jacob where are you at in all of this? 16:49 From 13 like I said before I was in the media and 16:53 then I got into drugs. 16:54 - were you following your older brother's lead? 16:57 I actually experimented before him and then we did it together. 17:02 He went of course faster downhill than I did. 17:06 So when he was, how old were you? - 20. 17:11 20, I was about 17, a junior in high school. 17:14 I sort of sense in my brother there were some real 17:19 bad issues going on. 17:20 I was on a summer trip, I was on a canoe trip and I was up and 17:27 down with God, sometimes I would believe because things 17:30 were going wrong, and since things were going wrong in 17:33 Nate's life I said God, just help him out. 17:35 Little did I know God answered my prayer on this random 17:39 canoe trip because when I got back home he had some 17:43 sort of weird invitation to some weird meeting. 17:47 I'll let him share that. 17:49 Well what happened was I was trying to find help at any 17:54 way possible and I ended up going back to church. 17:58 While there. - the Catholic Church? - the Catholic 18:01 Church, I went to Mass and when the priests talked as if 18:05 the peanuts cartoons where it goes wa-wa-wa-wa-wa and 18:09 I am sitting here, I can still comprehend things and get 18:12 straight A's and I'm like this is not good, where is God. 18:16 I prayed God if you exist show me the way. 18:19 A few days later I get back from work, because I work 18:21 third shift, I'm clicking through channels and there is 18:24 a knock on the door, I opened it and I get blasted by 18:27 these two happy girls. Do, do, do, do - I know those two girls. 18:31 - they're twirling their hair and I was like going 18:33 whoa, I'm not ready for this. - like super bubbly, 18:36 ya-ya-ya-ya okay. - I'm like oh no and I'm trying to get 18:41 rid of them as fast as possible and I realized it was 18:45 religious but I took it as something local and 18:48 I knew what the local religion offered and 18:50 I didn't want anything to do with that. 18:52 But the guy in the back his name is Jason and he grabbed 18:55 the flier and shoves it into my personal space and 18:59 I grab it and he says what's it going to hurt? 19:02 And I said I have my own church and I slammed 19:05 the door in his face. 19:07 In that process the voice came back that I had heard before, 19:11 just basically my conscience speaking to me. 19:13 Read the flier, read the flier. 19:15 I wrestled with it and threw down three times and every 19:18 time I would pick it up it would even more, drawing me more. 19:21 Like I would read the speaker at what happened to be this 19:25 guy in a punk rock band, and he used to have crazy hair 19:29 and a lot of the stuff, I was atheist and of course 19:32 that was you and I was wondering why he was wearing 19:35 a suit holding a Bible? 19:37 - don't throw down. - I threw down and then the topics 19:40 intrigued me, If God Is so Good Why Is the World so Bad? 19:42 Why Are There so Many Denominations? And then even the 19:45 Mark of the Beast and some of that scary stuff that is all 19:48 over the media right now, movies about it. 19:51 If God Is Real We Need to Know What That Is. 19:53 All right God if You exist send me back the guy by 20:00 himself and have him take me to the meetings. 20:01 - the guy that just knocked and shoved 20:03 the paper in your personal space? 20:05 Where the meetings starting that night? 20:06 No it is two weeks into the meetings, so it wasn't 20:09 even the meetings were the 14th or 15th night into the 20:11 meeting so I would sit back on my porch, I'm waiting, 20:14 I sold the world's finest chocolate before and you just 20:16 go down the street and get your quota and can go home. 20:18 So I'm thinking they're gone, God doesn't exist. 20:20 I'm about to go back into the house when I look back and 20:24 say God I knew You didn't exist and then he is walking 20:27 back down by himself, he takes me to the meetings. 20:30 - so he does come back? - he does come back. 20:33 He brings you to the meetings I remember what 20:35 you look like, I wish we had a picture but anyway 20:37 keep going, keep going? 20:38 I actually looked for pictures and can't find too many. 20:40 Some going to the meetings and midway through it 20:43 I'm totally, like the stuff is going over my head. 20:45 But I knew there were something special about them. 20:48 They were starting to talk about the Catholic Church 20:50 and stuff and I'm like what's wrong with that? 20:52 Oh, we need to catch you up. 20:54 So they give me a tape on the prophecy of Daniel 20:57 Chapter 2 and I listen to that and I was into history 21:01 and I'm thinking, this is impossible. 21:05 God exists. - I had the exact same response. 21:08 So I rewind it and listen to it five times that day. 21:11 I came back to the meetings and they were like here's 21:14 the next night, no, no, no give me all 14 or 13 and in 21:17 two days I listen to them all and got caught up. 21:20 Then after going to the meetings for two weeks I was 21:24 baptized. - Amen. - hallelujah and I have to tell 21:28 you this, he's coming to the meetings in a Hearse. 21:31 - I know - I can remember you and you came in with a 21:34 young lady, was it like a girl that came occasionally? 21:38 It was a girl I would hang out with. 21:39 - and you looked like me, you were a punk rock kid. 21:40 We were going to the meetings. 21:42 - and you get hallelujah, that's all I can say is hallelujah. 21:46 So I tried witnessing to my friends and to my family and 21:49 made so many mistakes. 21:51 You came back by to visit and I asked you where you went 21:54 to school and I applied there and you made a phone call 21:57 and basically three months later I'm trained to give 22:00 people Bible studies. - your whole life has taken. 22:03 So I am in Atlanta and my dad calls me up and he spoiled 22:09 me and gave me whenever I wanted. 22:11 He asked me what you want, anything you could 22:14 have, what do you want? Just go to these meetings. 22:17 This is another year later? - a year later. 22:20 You said bring mom to these meetings. 22:23 Yeah bring mom to these meetings bring mom and 22:25 I'm thinking he won't, he won't get converted. 22:26 - you probably should set a little context here, 22:28 dad is a tough big biker dude. 22:31 When he says he looks like Santa Claus, 22:32 you're not kidding. Big beard, big boy, Harley. 22:35 Jacob even told me - in his day he had an zz top beard 22:40 his beard combed and was into the drug life so he was rough. 22:45 Jake remember what you told me? 22:47 Pretty much I said you may get mom and she may join your 22:51 religion, you may get me but you will never get dad. 22:56 - so dad says what you want for your birthday? 22:59 He say what you want for your birthday and take mom 23:01 to the meetings and you can sit in the back row and play 23:03 handheld solitaire, one of those little computer games. 23:06 I just knew mom needed these meetings, well his solitary 23:09 game broke and the fans up front and he was sweating so 23:13 he ends up sitting in the front row and I get a phone call 23:15 a week later, my Pastor says hey, I just visited with 23:17 your father and he's going to get baptized. 23:19 So mom and dad a year later are baptized Seventh-day 23:22 Adventist Christians. - Amen. - okay so let me 23:26 just pick my jaw up off the ground here. 23:27 So where is Jake in this? Are you yet baptized? 23:30 No, no I was avoiding Nate at all costs. 23:33 Like whenever Nate would corner me in the room he would have 23:36 his Bible open and would be sharing with me things from the 23:40 Bible and I am uncomfortable, I don't want to be here, 23:44 I'd rather go with my friends and get high so I can 23:48 stop this God nonsense. 23:50 But he would share Daniel 2 and once he shared that with me 23:55 if God could predict the future I'm sure He could take 23:58 care of me. - so the same prophecy that so ministered 24:02 to you, you are now sharing with him? 24:04 Like he shared everything, everything, like if the church 24:07 had 400 beliefs I would have had it covered. 24:10 But what happens is like when my dad gets baptized 24:13 I'm like oh no, because of what I said to him. 24:17 I went to the baptism, I wouldn't go to Nate's baptism 24:21 but I would go to my dad's baptism because what he did for 24:25 us as a family was very good and so I honored him. 24:29 I think Daniel made a call, - that was your Pastor? 24:33 Not your Pastor but the Pastor. 24:35 God like put a call to me and it just seemed like all of heaven 24:41 was looking at me and I refused, and once I refused then 24:45 I went deeper and deeper into the world of just darkness 24:49 and blackness because I was trying to cover up that 24:53 voice that God was speaking that He was calling me. 24:57 - that small still voice. 24:58 I was doing whatever I could to make a brick wall around 25:02 me but what happens is I watch my family for a year after 25:07 this and I see my brother he was overweight and depressed. 25:11 I see my dad who had a hard life, his dad died when 25:16 he was 14, and his mom died of cancer and he has to deal 25:19 with this dysfunctional family and he is happy now. 25:24 - you're beginning to see your family and don't recognize them. 25:26 They are happy and this is something that I want. 25:28 Who doesn't want to be happy in this world? 25:31 I sense in my brother and his friends and the church 25:35 people they are always happy and nice and talking. 25:39 My friends are just bitter and I realize this is what 25:43 I want, and a year later I went to a party and I was like at 25:47 this critical point of thinking about God all the time and 25:52 I took some substances that really maybe lose control. 25:56 I really had a bad trip and at this moment I felt like I was 26:01 losing it all and I said God if You could help me with 26:04 my drug problem I'll follow You for the rest of my life. 26:07 At that very moment He got rid of all my drug habits, 26:10 my withdrawals and I woke up the next morning just 26:13 I really wanted to serve God. 26:16 It was almost instantaneous? - this part of my life 26:20 this was a stumbling block that was keeping me from God. 26:23 God removed it so I could go straight. - praise God. 26:26 Were you could go there Shandra? So you're converted 26:30 your obviously in full ministry and sharing the 400 fundamental 26:33 beliefs and now you are converted and so what 26:37 are you two doing now? I mean now, I'm talking right now? 26:40 Where are you and what are you doing? 26:42 Right now, well what happened is Jacob went back to school 26:46 and I was like no Jacob is going to beat me getting my 26:49 education, well he'll only be made by year so I went back 26:52 so we are both going to Andrews University to learn theology and 26:58 and to be able to minister and have more doors open. 27:01 The last nine years I have been doing the work Sharing 27:04 but I was like you know I want to do something more 27:08 advanced so that is what we decided to do is to go to 27:12 Andrews University and get our education. 27:13 So you are both studying theology? 27:15 I'm studying theology and I'm studying art. 27:17 Art has been one of my passions all my life and I want 27:21 to combine theology and art to reach that community 27:24 because I don't know if really the Christian Church has 27:28 good avenues into the art ministry, art minded people. 27:32 I would like to develop some sort of ministry to reach 27:36 these alternative thinking people. 27:38 And I will tell you what I think Nathan is going in up 27:42 doing, he is going to be professor Gibbs in the not too 27:45 distant future, When God Saves a Family, is the title 27:48 of our program, God has saved both of you and He saved 27:51 you to help save others. 27:53 Thank you so much for having join us today and what an 27:56 amazing testimony, send us an e-mail: engage@3abn.org 28:00 and thank God for what He has done 28:01 in the life of this family. |
Revised 2014-12-17