Southcoast Church International, San Clemente, CA

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Lives God has changed

John 14:4-11
Jesus Answered, "I am the way and truth and life. No one comes to the Father except through me"

Chris S.|Barbara C.|Gene D.

Lives God has changed

Chris S. “Is God real?
I didn’t really know or seem to care for the early part of my life. My story is sadly not so different from many people. My dad left us when I was

three with two kids from his previous marriage and another from my mom’s previous marriage. From about the age of seven, I was left alone in an apartment in New Jersey, while my mom worked and mostly lived in New York City. Once the authorities discovered this, I was bounced around over the next few years, from grandparents, to family friends and even the private school route.
     Eventually, when I was thirteen, I ended up back in New Jersey, in an apartment, with a buddy of mine. I found it pretty hard to fit in at first and by my sophomore year I was into girls, drinking, smoking and doing drugs, trying to find my place. I grew my hair long, bought a motorcycle (though too young to legally ride it) and started even dealing drugs a little on the side. It got so bad, that within two years, even my mom realized that I needed a change. So off I went to another private school, this time in Connecticut. (I’m leaving out a lot of details, sorry)
    Things changed a little for me there. I became an athlete again, playing football, basketball and baseball, but I was partying now in a whole new way. Oh, it was the same thing, girls and drinking, but now I was too ‘smart’ for the hardcore drugs anymore, now it was just the real expensive ‘recreational’ types. It’s there I grew physically strong and big and even started bouncing at local bars. Amazingly, I graduated in the top of my class, with honors, and took off to college in Whittier, California. I went to school for 2 and 1/2 years and just got more ‘crazy’. I helped start a pseudo-fraternity, partying all the time and forgetting about schoolwork most of the time. Fights and drunkenness became my MO. Finally I left school to pursue managing a local health club... (continue)