Ever meet someone briefly and wonder what their life is really about? What’s their story? What’s up with them? What has shaped them? I have to admit I do this all the time.
I’m assuming that we met briefly and somehow you were referred to this page. Maybe I gave you
I’ve written this because I wanted to share with friends and acquaintances about something that changed my life and I want you to know about it and experience it too. It has to do with faith.
Stick with me for a minute.
A little background.
My story starts in Africa. I was born in Malawi in southern Africa. Grew up living in the outdoors. Africa is a beautiful continent. My home life was loving and caring, but I grew up with some challenges. My dad developed Multiple Sclerosis (MS) when I was very young. I don’t remember a time when he was well. When I was 6 my mother and father divorced. My dad died when I was 12. This experience got me thinking about what happens after we die.
I’m sure your life has its share of problems too.
When I was 13 my family moved from Zimbabwe (in southern Africa) to Canada. Zimbabwe was at war with terrorist factions and the future of the country seemed bleak. So I’m an immigrant, wonderfully adopted by Canada, of which I’m so thankful. We lived in Toronto and I went to Ottawa to go to university after high school. There I met my wife Tracy.
It was at university that I was gently challenged by someone to consider how the Christian faith has some good reasons for why it’s true. The whole idea that faith could be thoughtful and reasoned was intriguing to me. I had not grown up attending any kind of church. In Africa, we had religion classes in school, but they seemed empty and boring. My step-dad George was Greek and so we visited a Greek Orthodox church from time to time. But it was all in Greek and I had no clue as to what was being said.
After university I went to work for a restaurant company – The Lone Star Cafe. One of the owners (Larry) talked about how his faith was changing his life and giving him hope. I had heard that the Bible was able to predict the future and mentioned to Larry that if he ever came across a book that showed how that worked, I’d be interested. Soon after Larry gave me a book called The Late Great Planet Earth. The first part of the book talked about how the Old Testament of our Bible (the part the Jews hold as their Bible) predicted many things around the life of Jesus. Very specific things that Jesus had no control over – like the number of pieces of silver he was betrayed for and what the money was used for after. It rocked my mind.
I came away beginning to believe that the Bible has some sort of power that I couldn’t explain. After joining a group that was studying the Bible, I realized that Jesus had a lot to say about me, who I was and how I could live a life full of meaning and significance. I started to see myself and the people around me with whole new eyes. I realized just how selfish I was. I became so fascinated and attracted to the person of Jesus that I took up his offer to follow him.
I was 26 when my journey with Jesus started. I’ve had my up and downs, but mostly ups. Not all of my problems are solved, Jesus never promised to do that. I’ve sensed his love and provision that have been deeply meaningful at
Tracy and I have raised 3 kids who I love deeply. I think I’ve been a better dad with my Christian faith, but we have our struggles from time to time. I’ve made some mistakes as a dad, but I know that Jesus can cover them.
I hope you’ve read this far. I just wanted to be clear about something that has been the most important thing in my life. If you’d like to have a coffee sometime and hear more, or just email me with a question, feel free to reach out. I’d love to hear your story. My email address is: mark@peterkins.ca.
God bless you.
Mark