God is My Father Divorce and death were hard hits during his childhood, but God turned this young man’s life around. By Nathan Andrews

I was born in Medford, Oregon on February 4, 1974. My family has attended the Apostolic Faith Church ever since my grandfather, Paul Andrews, was a young boy, and I was raised knowing the doctrines of this church. My mother and father were saved shortly after I was born, but when I was four years old, my parents ended their marriage in divorce. At that time, no one in my family history had ever been divorced. My father gained custody of my sister and me and he also took on the responsibility of raising us in the Gospel. He was faithful to ensure that both of us were in church whenever the lights were on.

From a very early age, I knew that I should be saved. My grandfather was a preacher, and so I heard about salvation and saw many of my family members’ lives and testimonies lived before me every day. As a young boy, I felt the conviction to get saved, and at a youth camp in Southern Oregon, when I was eight years old, I did! When I got home and went back to school, however, I let the love of God slip out of my heart.

The summer that I was eleven-and-a-half years old, I was on vacation with my sister in Portland, staying with my mother for visitation. We received a phone call from my aunt informing us that there had been an accident at the church site of our new church in Medford, Oregon. She went on to tell us that my dad had been badly hurt when he fell from the top of the steeple and that God had called him home to Heaven. At that young age, I could not grasp the reality of the situation. It took quite some time for it to sink in that my father had passed away.

Soon after, I moved to Portland to live with my mother, who was not saved at the time. I was way out of my comfort zone; I had moved from a small country town into a big city. I didn’t quite rebel, but I stopped going to church and found myself becoming more involved in school and sports. I started to take sports very seriously, wanting to compete at the state level. This ate up most of my free time, so there was rarely any time to attend church.

Eventually, my mother decided to move to Eastern Oregon. I lived there with her for a period of nine months. Even though I was away from the church, every day I lived in fear of the Lord, and found that I could never go deeply into sin. During this time, I turned sixteen and my sister came to visit me in Eastern Oregon. She quickly saw that I needed a change in my life and invited me to live in her home in Portland. I accepted the offer and moved once again to Portland. That summer, I attended the Portland youth camp. The Thursday night of that youth camp, God saved my soul and my life was dramatically changed!

At the age of seventeen, I decided that I needed a place of my own so I moved out of my sister’s home. I worked a graveyard shift to put myself through a Christian high school and pay the rent on my own place. I knew that I needed more of God, so I decided to go to church as much as possible. A couple of years later, the Lord wonderfully sanctified me.

I thank the Lord that He sent a young girl from this church into my life, who later became my wife. Eight months before we were married, though, the Lord saw fit to take my mother. She had suffered for many years with bone cancer and then she passed away. I’m thankful that I had the privilege to pray with her, and before she died, she testified to me that she was saved and ready to meet God.

The Lord has blessed my life with a wonderful Christian wife and three beautiful children. God gave me the privilege to come to Camp Meeting 2001 in Portland, and on Sunday evening, July 8, He gave me the baptism of the Holy Ghost. I now want to continue to serve the Lord with all my heart and do whatever I can to see the Gospel go forward.