Gallagher 1 Brian Gallagher Stephen Gallaher Youth Min 1 September 7, 2013 Faith Journey My faith journey is defined by my mother

answering the call that God had on her life. My faith journey started when I was not even born. My mother and father married into the Catholic Church, but my mother, within the next ten or so years, converted to Christianity when I was still in the womb. I was the first member of my family to be raised as a Christian. I grew up in a Christian household and I started going to the Christian church at a young age. When my mom became a Christian, my entire family, but my dad, went to the Christian church. My dad became a Christian ten years after my mother, and now we all go to the same church, which is Windsor Baptist Church. Growing up as a kid, I had a good family and a lot of good friends, but hardly any of which were Christian. I never really had a youth group, because every time I tried to join one in the first church we went to, it would change leadership and a lot of kids would leave the youth group and it would never amount to anything. I felt when I was growing up, I adopted my mothers faith and never made it my own. She would always read us devotions. She would always want us to go to church. She would always be the spiritual leader in our household so my mothers faith is all we knew. I never had the opportunity to stretch my own faith and make it my own, but there were some life defining moments that made me do so. There were a couple defining moments in my life that made me the person I am today and solidified my faith. November of 2009, my church was having a service with a holocaust

Gallagher 2 survivor. He had an incredible testimony about all that happened to him and how he has forgiven all the Nazi soldiers who had killed all of his friends and family. God had a hand on his life and spared him so many times, stories that I wish I could write about. His incredible story touched me so much, and I went up to talk to him and thank him for coming. We talked for a little bit and I found out that he was going to speak again in January. So I went in January and heard the rest of his story and again was completely touched and moved by Gods grace in his life. When I went to talk to the second time, he put his hand on my shoulder and said You are the reason why I want to finish my book. I truly believe God was spreaking through this man and giving me a message that pierced right to my soul, and I broke down in tears and gave him a hug. I really feel that God was trying to tell me that he wanted me to do something for him in this world, that my life is going to have more of an impact on people then I thought I knew. God was preparing a way for me, and my first test right after that happened 4 months later. It was Wednesday April 19th, 2009 and I was late for work. I was at a big intersection, two lanes going east, and two lanes going west, with a turning lane in the middle. I was in the turning lane wanting to go left. The light was turning yellow and I was in the middle of the intersection waiting for the traffic to pass by so I could turn. There was a white painters van coming down the road and it appeared as though he was slowing down to stop. I tried to go and turn left, but my car hydroplaned to the right in the middle of the road. The painters van tried to beat the red light and sped up while this was happening, and slammed into me when he was going over 45 MPH. He spun my car around a couple times and left me in the middle of the road, car totaled, airbags deployed and completely scared. When I got out of the car, the van was nowhere in sight and a woman who was on the other side of the road told me to get in her car, because she didnt know

Gallagher 3 where the van was either. We drove a quarter mile down the street and then turn around and we saw him on the other side of the road smashed into a sign of the bank on the side of the road. It turns out that after he hit me, he went up onto the grassy hill to his right, went down that hill and crossed five lanes of traffic and was not hit until he hit the bank sign. All in all, the accident ended up being my fault, since he technically had the right-of-way. It turned out that this painters van was actually a daycare van, and there were five or so kids in this van, all of which only had minor injuries, like me. After coming back from the hospital, I just had this sense of recognition of Gods merciful hand. He spared my life that day. That accident could have been a lot worse for me, the other driver and the kids in the van. God showed me that he wanted me on this earth for a reason, and that there was something he wanted to accomplish in and through me. He made himself known to me in more ways then I could have ever hoped to experience. He took a lousy situation and turned it for his good and spurred me on to fall more in love with him. From that point on, I took my faith more seriously and honestly committed my life to Christ. I was baptized a year later and decided to go to Messiah College to further my knowledge of God while getting an education. After an experience like that, my life was a spiritual and emotional high of who God was. God finally became real to me and wasnt just something my mom taught me about. It was a huge mountain top experience that lasted about a year. But when going to Messiah my first year, life started to set in and my emotional high of God started to disappear. I had to learn to be disciplined in my faith, and this is when my love for the Bible started. I realized just how much I needed it and wanted to constantly know more, but in the beginning of this phase, it was in hopes of getting my emotional high back. Through Messiah, God gave me a lot of opportunities to grow in my faith by Powerhouse, playing drums in chapel, getting connect with Salt N Light

Gallagher 4 Youth Ministry and other things that I never had the opportunity to experience when I was growing up. God has shown me that in order to know who he is, you have to follow him and learn about him and love him. Life is going to have a lot of mountain top experiences, but also a lot of valleys. He is the only constant thing in this world that I can rely on. Now, I think I know what the calling is. I think God wants me to work in ministry and minister kids and maybe even adults for him. He has put incredible people in my life to spur me on and to encourage me in this. When I look back and think about the boy I was, the guy I was in high school and where I am now, I am completely thankful for all God has shown me throughout the years. All the struggles and all the mountain tops, it all has been carefully orchestrated by the creator of the universe and I am so excited to see what God is going to use me for in this life.