A Letter to Pastor Tim

Many people have asked me how my road to Christianity started. It started with a letter and a sheep named Snowflake…

Hi Rev. Patch,
I hope all is well for you tonight. The children’s pageant was great today!

I am a newcomer to your church, you spoke to my wife briefly today about us becoming members. I wanted to take a moment and share my story.

During my childhood, I was raised by a Mother who was Catholic and a Father who was atheist. While my Mother believed in God, she allowed the children to determine their own faith. Having no exposure to Christ, I went on through my years sometimes believing, sometimes not.

It wasn’t until after I got married and had children that I started to really question the existence of God and like so many others, it was always in times of hardship. We’ve had some hard times throughout our life together (23 years), and we face some now. My wife Jennifer lost her job and our house is in jeopardy of repossession.

Needless to say, I questioned why God would do this to me. I was a faithful husband and a good father, why is it that I should have these troubles when I see so many evil men prospering? Why would an almighty God allow this to happen to his children?

Things got so bad at one point I started calling myself an atheist. Things just got worse… Now having said I felt I was an atheist, I still read the bible from front to back, studied all the religious stories and got married in a church.

One thing I never noticed though was that every time we were in real trouble, things worked out in the end. For some reason. Yes, it was an inconvenience, but they worked out (Usually for the better).

I started seeing that friends of mine who had accepted Jesus into their life and into their heart where always doing well. Things were always working out for them. I started to feel jealous that they should prosper and I sit and wallow in my own pity.

I feel that I am a successful man. I have a good job, I have great children and a loving wife. I served on the Rochester Hills City Council for 8 years allowing me to full fill a lifelong dream. But still something is missing in my life.

When I found out about the back taxes we owed and the fact we were going to loose the house, I asked myself why? Why is this happening to me again? Many a sleepless nights have been had questioning what I’ve done wrong.

The answer was simple.

I never fully accepted Jesus into my heart and into my life.

As you may know, my daughter played snowflake in the children’s pageant this year. She participates regularly on Wednesday nights. Two weeks ago, she told us she needed to go to church on Sunday as they were going to practice. I thought this would be a great chance for us to go to Sunday service and see what the church was about.

We attended Sunday service and felt so welcome by you and the other members of the church, we decided that we want to be part of Redeemer. I couldn’t help but to hold back the tears in my eyes last week and again this week as we stood to pray and talked about Jesus’ love. I know he forgives me, but now I have to forgive myself for not accepting him for so long.

Personally, I feel a man needs to live life by seven values that make up the principals of Courage, Love and Truth. Those principals are Compasion, Honesty, Honor, Justice, Sacrifice, Valor and Spirituality. It is easy now to see my life was incomplete.

Now I know my problems are not going to go away just because I started going to church. After all, God gave us free will and it was my free will that got me into this mess. I can only ask for his forgiveness and guidance to get me out of it and hope that you and the members of the church will accept Jennifer and I into your church as well.

Your kindness and the kindness of the members of the church touched me so much that I wanted to give something back in addition to the offerings during service. Seeing that God has given me a talent, I felt I should use it in his name. I have reserved the domain name http://www.redeemermissionary.org and would like to create a website for the church as my gift to you. For making me feel Jesus in my heart and for filling a spot that has been empty for some time.

Thank you again, for all you have given me.

See you Wednesday Night,

Gerald Robbins