My testimony begins about 13 years ago when I first met Dave. We met in 10^th grade and quickly became friends. At that point in my life I really wanted nothing to do with religion. See, prior to high school, I attended catholic schools all my life so by the time I had met Dave; I had my fill of religion being shoved down my throat. Still though, God knew where I was at and had things in check.

As time went on, Dave and I began to hangout more. One common interest we shared was music, so we would often just hangout and listen to different albums and jam out on guitars. I had never heard many of the bands that Dave listened to but I really liked a lot of them, one in particular was Barren Cross. Later I found out that the bands Dave listened to were Christian Metal bands. I had never heard of such a thing. I never viewed Christianity as something that could be fun or down to earth, it was always about tedious ceremonies and several non-meaningful prayers. Who would have thought that Christian and Metal could be put together? Even though I was surprised to learn of such a thing, I still was not interested in religion, but I did like the bands. 

About a year later, in the 11^th grade, there was a new guy in my homeroom class. He was dressed preppy, with preppy hair and was extremely quiet. So being the friendly personable person I am (LOL) I began talking to him. His name was Alex Coyne. I had found out that Alex was really into metal, which was a bit of surprise to me considering his style of clothes, but hey whatever.  We began talking about different bands. Somehow I ended up finding out that he knew of Christian Metal. It wasn’t his main style but he knew of it, so I thought perhaps he could play for Dave’s band, which was doing Christian Metal cover songs.. I figured, hey, why not! So I introduced him to Dave.  I think you know where that ended up going.  

Now keep in mind, at this point, Dave and I had become pretty close friends, but I had still not come to know the Lord at that point. One time I decided to spend the night at Dave’s house. We were up all night talking as we have done so many times before. However, this night was going to be different. We got into many issues concerning my life, things that I needed to get off my chest, things that had been bottled up for years. At the time, I didn’t know why I just came out with it all, but now I know it was the Lord who opened me up. See, you need to understand that before this, I was more like the class clown.. Everything came out as a joke because that’s the only way I knew how to handle problems. It was hard to get me to give a serious answer, everything just came out silly. This night though, I wasn’t laughing, (well, maybe a little.. ok a lot but still) I just laid out everything on the table. At this point Dave told me about the relationship I could have with God. He told me about what Jesus had done for me and how He loved me and knew what I was going through. Dave told me the Good News!!  This was something I had never heard before… Sure, I had heard of Jesus and Him dying on the cross, etc. but this was different.. This wasn’t religion; this was about something personal between you and God.  Now, you probably think that I’m about to tell you that I fell on my knees and gave my life to the Lord that night.. Well….. I have to be the difficult case. No, I did not give my life to the Lord that night. Don’t get me wrong, I liked what I had heard, but it was one of those, sounds to good to be true.. Like I said before, I’m not going back to religion, and at this point wasn’t about to take the chance. 

After some time had past, Alex and I had gone to a local mall. I don’t remember why we went but I do remember we ended up getting thrown out for…….ahhh….it’s not important. Anyways, while standing at the bus stop, there was a lady standing there waiting for the bus too. She had noticed the charm I had bought for my necklace and began to ask me about it. As the conversation continued the topic ended up on Jesus. She began to share with me the same things Dave had told me that one night.. After sharing this with me, she asked if I would like to pray with her and accept Jesus into my life; I said yes. So we prayed and at that moment I accepted Jesus into my heart. To be honest, my attitude was more like….. well, it’s worth a try to see if what I have been hearing was true. I did want what they were saying, but I wasn’t totally sure if it would be true. 

Things began to happen quickly in my life. Shortly after I gave my life to the Lord, Dave found out that Barren Cross (my all time favorite band) was going to be playing in Ohio. So, Dave got some friends of his together and we squeezed in this tiny car for a long ride to the show. When I say "squeeze" and "tiny" I mean it!! We couldn’t even move during the whole ride, it wasn’t very fun but definitely worth it. God was really doing something great that day because there was such an anointing on the show. The bass player (Jim LaVerde) seemed drawn to me, several times he kept coming up to me, which resulted in him pulling me on stage for one of their songs. Now that I look back, I understand it was the Holy Spirit working through him to reach out to me and man did he! I play bass this very day because of the outreach and kindness Jim had showed me. Anyways, that day was really something. I had felt the presence of the Lord that day in away I had never known. It was this day that I knew all of it was true. God was real and I could have a personal relationship with Him.. It wasn’t about ceremonies and repetitive prayers it was something real!! For the first time in my life I felt complete. 

Since that time, the Lord has brought me a long ways.  Many things have happened in my life over the years; some good, some not so good. Through it all He has always been there. Sadly there have been times in my walk that I have backslidden from the Lord. I hate to think about those times, but I do like to share that even in those times when I abandoned God, He never abandoned me. It is true that He will “never leave you nor forsake you”(Hebrews 13:5) and I’m living proof of that. For that matter, through these hard times it has brought me even closer to Him and strengthened my walk.

Today, the Lord has me in Promise Land as well as other outreach ministries, which has been a blessing in my life. He has also blessed me with my wife, Jena, which we just recently celebrated our 2 yr. Anniversary. I look forward to seeing what God has in store for me in the years to come. 

Gary

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