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It created an ever deepening since of conviction of sin. I had never heard people talk about God in an open and personal way before. It was the first time in my life I was in a meeting with true believers. The speaker that night had to cancel so they had a testimony meeting instead. Mike took me a meeting of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship with him. My heart began to long for what they had. When I was headed out to the bars I would see them going to a Bible study with their nice clean girlfriends. Mike Davis and Rich Gill befriended me during the course of the school year and often came to my room and confronted me with the Gospel. However, there were two young men on my floor in the dorm who were God's key instruments in reaching me. I read over the plan of salvation in the back of that Bible many times.Ī lot of Christians began to pray for me during my sophomore year. I would often come in so drunk I could not walk, but would still read something from my Bible before falling in bed. That started a habit of reading the Bible each day which God used to enlighten by soul. One day as I was passing through the Student Union Building, a man from the Gideon's gave me a little green New Testament. If I was drunk enough, I was not afraid to talk to them. At college it seemed everywhere I went I ran into Christians. A 1.50 gpa at the end of the freshman year was required to return next year. I nearly failed the first year due to excessive drinking. I graduated high school in 1979 and went to Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. I had dreamed that Jesus came back and I was unprepared.

I was so covered with sweat I looked as if I had just stepped out of the shower with my clothes on. One day I woke up screaming and trembling in a state of sheer terror. When I would use drugs or drink, I would go into "panic attacks" thinking I was dying. Yet, the whole time conviction of sin was growing. I lived for the weekend and the next party. By high school I was using and selling drugs. Conviction of my sin had begun in a way that from that point on I could not completely escape.įor a while, I tried listening in church but found nothing that could help me there. I didn't get saved that day, but something definitely changed in my life. I began to think on the fact that I must spend forever somewhere. As I read it, the thought struck me that I too would die some day. High when I knocked on a lady's door who gave me a tract called "This was Your Life". It told the story of a man who died and went to hell. I don't recall having much of a serious thought at all about God until one day when I was about 12. So in my teen years I was introduced to drugs and drink largely through contact with the church youth group.

Our youth minister was known to have underage kids at her house for parties with alcohol present. It turned out they were a first time visitor. I only remember one time seeing someone carrying a Bible with them to church. The ministers ridiculed the Bible and those who believed it. I hardly remember anyone ever speaking to me about my soul or the things of God in a meaningful way. However, the church we attended was a dead, liberal church. I was born 1961 in Walkertown, North Carolina to a good, church-going family.