I was born in Newark NJ but grew up in a small suburb town in Colonia.  Where I indulged in every thing life could offer to the flesh.  When I was 6, I noticed I was alive and asked my mom about how everything got here, like who made the trees and where do the stars come from.  My mom would just tell me God made them.  I never asked my mom who is God, I always knew Him and felt His presence in my life.

    When I was 14 I told God I needed to leave Him because every body would think I was crazy talking to Him.  And that I needed human friends as I was in a band called The Brotherhood.  After that the hippie thing came along with Viet Nam and all the drugs came into my life.  And by the age of 19 I found my self selling my music equipment for heroin.

    It was then I decided to kill myself and told God I was going to see Him one way or another.  I believed in the hippie movement of freedom and human rights, but I saw that not every one who called them selves hippies was one.  Kinda like the Christian thing today.  Tom means seeker of truth.  I wanted to know the truth even at the expense of taking my own life.  But the Lord intervened and the next day as I was picking up an acquaintance, his mom was a born again Christian.  She was begging her son not to go with me and was talking about Jesus in a way I never heard before.  So I asked Mrs. Knoaks if she knew Jesus.  Her eyes widen and asked me If I believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.  I heard a voice in my head telling me to get away from her.  But crying on my bed to God the night before and seeking Him all my life since I was 6,I said yes.  I felt something leave my body, I was demon possessed, and then Mrs. Knoaks asked me if I felt a heaviness on my shoulders, and I d id.  This frightened me especially when she told me that was the Holy Ghost coming on me and she started praising God.

    That was 33 years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday.  I give that same testimony now as a missionary in Costa Rica and Nicaragua and the alter is full with new converts and rededicated lives every time I preach it. 

    It's not enough to go to church or even have a ministry.  It is important to know that you have the Holy Ghost and are born again.  Jesus said that He would come to every one who asks Him, we only need to ask Him to forgive us our sins, turn from our former life and live for Him, every day.  Then you will see Him like I did.  Jesus Christ has a great plan for your life, God bless you, Tom Pope