It's a long way

PatinSopchoppy · 08-05-2020, 02:01 AM

Hi,
Pat here and this is my testimony.I hope to keep this very honest ,it is easy to color our stories the way we want them to appear.My story is not a great one.I did not grow up in the church.My Mom was (still is) a Mormon,COC not LDS,my dad raised Catholic but left it before I was born.We probably went to church a few times when I was a kid but I can really only remember once.I have however always believed in the Lord.As long as I can remember l have had a prayer life ,and have always felt his hand on my life , watching me and taking better care of me than I ever deserved.By the time I was a young teen ,in the mid seventies,I was getting into trouble.Smoking , drinking, partying.Graduated high school in 1980 and by 85 had had a son , gotten married and was divorced in less than a year.It is hard to look back on this time of my life.I know that the sins I committed then had consequences that hurt not just me,. but many in my life,as sin always does.Having a son made me realize how wrong I was living and after a close brush with some real trouble began to turn my life around.I cut myself off from almost all of the people I knew and spent the next year's working and raising him.In 2004 at a time when I deeply needed the Lord in my Life I began to look through a blble.No person was involved ,I was alone in my room and found the sinners prayer in the back.I prayed the payer.Within a year I met my wife ,was married and my life began to change dramatically.We soon joined a church and I met some of the finest people l have ever known.Many who influenced me in great ways.Being a carpenter I was led into mission work, mostly disaster recovery, mostly domestic but twice chosen to serve in Saipan.I never dreamed I would have such opportunities.I am grateful to the Lord so much for blessing me as he has.I don't know why though.I look at a great man of God like Watchman Nee who gave his life to the Lord and spent his last twenty years in prison, where as I seem to be carried through life in such a way.Only God knows.

08-05-2020, 02:01 AM	#1
PatinSopchoppy Member Join Date: Aug 2020 Posts: 2	It's a long way Hi, Pat here and this is my testimony.I hope to keep this very honest ,it is easy to color our stories the way we want them to appear.My story is not a great one.I did not grow up in the church.My Mom was (still is) a Mormon,COC not LDS,my dad raised Catholic but left it before I was born.We probably went to church a few times when I was a kid but I can really only remember once.I have however always believed in the Lord.As long as I can remember l have had a prayer life ,and have always felt his hand on my life , watching me and taking better care of me than I ever deserved.By the time I was a young teen ,in the mid seventies,I was getting into trouble.Smoking , drinking, partying.Graduated high school in 1980 and by 85 had had a son , gotten married and was divorced in less than a year.It is hard to look back on this time of my life.I know that the sins I committed then had consequences that hurt not just me,. but many in my life,as sin always does.Having a son made me realize how wrong I was living and after a close brush with some real trouble began to turn my life around.I cut myself off from almost all of the people I knew and spent the next year's working and raising him.In 2004 at a time when I deeply needed the Lord in my Life I began to look through a blble.No person was involved ,I was alone in my room and found the sinners prayer in the back.I prayed the payer.Within a year I met my wife ,was married and my life began to change dramatically.We soon joined a church and I met some of the finest people l have ever known.Many who influenced me in great ways.Being a carpenter I was led into mission work, mostly disaster recovery, mostly domestic but twice chosen to serve in Saipan.I never dreamed I would have such opportunities.I am grateful to the Lord so much for blessing me as he has.I don't know why though.I look at a great man of God like Watchman Nee who gave his life to the Lord and spent his last twenty years in prison, where as I seem to be carried through life in such a way.Only God knows.