Where do I begin, I guess at the beginning. I have been blessed innumerable times by God. I was born into a Christian home, unlike so many others. If I had not been, I cannot say that I would be a Christian now. My family provided me with the guidance and model of a Christian life. My father was portrayed as the head of the house, but like so many Christian dads, it seems that through his servant-leadership my mother was.

When I was about 8 or 9,during a Sunday evening youth group, I prayed the prayer of salvation with the leader. I knew I was a sinner and Jesus was the only answer. However, I do not think I fully comprehended my decision.

For years, I considered myself a Christian. I could talk the talk, but my walk was anything but. I was not a "bad" kid, but spiritually I was an infant.

Later, when entering college, I knew my life was not what it should be, I felt lost. I had one relationship with a girl I thought I loved, and was entering a state college with no goals, but the Lord had other plans. After a year, my "girl-friend" found someone else (thankfully). I was still searching under my own strengths, or actually weaknesses.

One day I was walking through the woods behind my parents' house and sat by a tree and poured my heart out to God and re-dedicated my life to Him. I then decided to transfer to a Christian school, Messiah College. There, I met my wife, the most wonderful woman in the world! She had been waiting for me and I her. I found my career path, and began to grow spiritually.

Since then, God has blessed my family and myself in so many ways. As an example; last year we decided it was time for a larger house. We put our home on the market and started looking. As it turned out our house sold in 4 days. We were not ready to move. We found a house we liked but I knew in my heart the price was a little too high. I worked out the numbers and finally convinced myself it could be done. As it turned out, there were problems with the house and God directed us that this was not the house we should buy. Later, we found another house, in a similar price range, we placed a bid and lost, due to God I'm sure. We were now in a predicament, we were without a house to move to. However, we were able to move in with my wife's parents until we found a house.

Before we moved in, one Sunday I stayed home with my sick child. I was hitting bottom with the decisions facing my family with moving. "Was it the right choice to sell? Where will we live? When will we move?, etc." I cried out to God on that Sunday! I didn't know if I could take much more, but as God always does, He didn't let me "suffer" more than I could handle.

I had been using the Internet and a realtor to find a house, but couldn't find one that suited our needs and in our price range. After putting our sick child to bed, I picked up the Sunday paper and thought, "Oh, well, I guess I could look in the real estate section." Sure enough, there was a house listed that was in the right price range, location, etc. I was so excited and praised God! When Kim came home, I rushed out to the car to tell her I think I found the house, let's go, there having open house today. We knew it was right as soon as we walked in, so we placed a bid. However, there were other bidders. We placed the house in God's hands and won the bid. The house had been on the market for 6 months, they just dropped the price, Praise God!

To be honest, since my re-dedication, there have been good days and bad days. I have not always been true in my walk, but continue to grow, through God's grace and mercy.

Jeff F