Speaking of beginnings, I thought it might be appropriate to start at the beginning... the beginning of my life. It's not when I was born, it's quite some time after that. Let me explain.

Yes I was born and grew up day by day experiencing many different things that people experience normally and also things that were not so normal. Some of these I might blog at a later stage, but for this post... I'll concentrate on where it began.

Well, there were a few key moments in my life that stood out so much that I can remember them like it was yesterday. The first was when I was about 7 or 8. I had just been to Sunday school and it was about the wisdom of Solomon. I wasn't a christian, just a child that had been to Sunday school. Well I remember looking up to the sky and as sincerely as only a child can prayed, 'God give me wisdom, not riches, make me wise' because I remembered that God blessed Solomon for asking for wisdom, not riches. I felt that God had heard me.

The second was in High school (around grade 11) there were these Christian outreach teams witnessing at our school. Well there was a lot of debate and negative response to the teams and eventually they got fairly fed up and said well those who wish to leave may leave and those who want to stand up for Jesus, stand up. All my friends left but somehow inside myself I said "I will not deny Jesus. I'm going to stand up!" I didn't become a Christian but it was a significant moment in my life.

The third was one cold evening. It was clear and you could see thousands of stars. I remembered a song we used to sing at school, "Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the works your hands have made..., I see the stars..." and I said "God, if you're real, show yourself to me."

Three weeks later I was in a big charismatic church... the kind I had never been in before. I remember walking in and being immediately impacted. The man who shook my hand at the door looked into my soul. The team praying on stage prayed with power and conviction. The songs we sang were filled with life and meaning. But before anybody began to preach, just after we sat down, one of the pastors said to the congregation, "if you are a believer, stand up". At first it didn't register, but as soon as most of the congregation had stood up it registered and I suddenly I felt the conviction of sin in my life. In that instant, God spoke to me and said "if you don't go down to the front and confess me before men I cannot call you like I'm calling them". It hit me square between the eyes, I couldn't deny it or hide from it. However it took me three weeks to get to the front (it was a big church and I thought a lot about this before I could do it). Finally I surrendered my life to Christ. It was like the first day of my true destiny, the moment my heart had been waiting for all of my life. I just didn't know it until then. That was the true beginning of my life, when I was born-again.