My Story Part 1

I sent my applications to Westminster and MARS yesterday and some have asked me to share the testimony I included in that application process. It is rather long so I will break it up over a few posts. So hear goes.

A Story of One Called by God to Preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ
My name is Alan Gielczyk, and this is my story. I was born in total depravity, an enemy of the God who formed me in my mother’s womb. I hated God and every day of my life tried to show that I knew better how to live my life than He did. Of course, I did not realize this. I thought I knew god and had a pretty good relationship with him. He did not interfere in my everyday life and lived up to every expectation I had of him. He never made any demands upon my life and was thoroughly obedient to my every whim. Of course he never really helped me when I was struggling with drugs and alcohol, but hey, our relationship had to have SOME limits, did it not?

I was baptized Roman Catholic when I was an infant, raised by my divorced mother as a nominal Episcopalian, and knew just enough of the Bible to think my standing with God was fine. As a teenager, I struggled with depression, dropped out of high school, and started working. I married, and before I knew it had a son. My life spiraled out of control as I got divorced, became addicted to drugs, and began a fifteen year love affair with a bottle—all before my twentieth birthday.

I will skip most of the gruesome details of life lived in a hazy, drug-induced, alcoholic blur, save to say that even at my lowest point I still deluded myself into thinking I was ok with God. The lengths one will go to in deceiving oneself amaze even me, the one who did the deceiving. I wonder who the people I was comparing myself to (and deciding I was better off than) were comparing themselves to.

After the divorce and wearing out my welcome at the home of every relative that would give me a chance, I moved in with my best friend. We had the “party house”. Both of us worked at a pizza place, and since we were a bit older than the average teenager there, they all enjoyed coming to our house where no parents were to be found. One of those who would frequent our abode was a guy named Tom. Everyone knew Tom was a Christian, but that he would not condemn us for our lifestyle. He would simply come over and talk with us while we were doing drugs and getting drunk, and eventually the conversation would move toward religion. He would patiently answer all my challenges and questions and did a lot of planting in my life.

to be continued.....