I'm going to attempt to write this as best I can because, after all it's not my story-it's my hubby's. But I think i've heard it enough times to be able to tell it pretty acurately.
I've always thought my husbands testimony was so awesome so now I want to share it with you all. Hope it encourages you today. God can do great things when you least expect them.
My husband was raised to not think too much about God. His family considers themselves Catholic, but none of them really practice. He did have a first communion and they did go to mass every once in awhile but once he entered middle school they sort of stopped going. He wasn't raised to believe that we should have a relationship with God and no one told him how he could be saved.
Fast forward to June, 2010 and my husband had just gotten done smoking(most definately not cigarettes)
with his friends. This was a normal happening for him. He was very lost and felt very much alone. All Louie really cared about at this time was how he could get his next smoke.
He and about 4 of his friends decided to randomly drive to Colorado. I really have no idea why. Just because. Keep in mind, from Omaha to Denver is about a 10 hour drive and they didnt have much money.
Without even a word to his mom Loujo left for Colorado. The plan that they had was to stay in Colorado for ONE day and come back so Louie could be back to work on Monday. (He was still thinking semi-rationally at this point.) The next day was spent smoking in the mountains and taking in that "fresh" mountain air. At this point they were seriously running low on money and they knew that they had to get back.
So they made the long treck back to Omaha. At about midnight, an hour after Louie was supposed to be to work, their tire pops during a dramatic thunderstorm. The tire was changed within 10 minutes and they all decided to stay at a hotel in Kearney with one of his friends, army money. The next morning, the group decided to dine at a Chinese restaurant.
During said meal, Louie and one of his friends, Amy, had a conversation about loving Colorado and wanting to go back. Before they knew it, they had a full fledge plan to get back. The whole group was up in arms because they were ranging from the age of 17-19 years old with no money and no where to stay. What would their parents think? Even though there was no sense in going back, Louie and Amy decided to turn around and go back. They waived to their friends as they left the parking lot, not knowing if they'd ever hang out again.
With literally the clothes on his back and almost no money to his name my husband decided that Colorado may become his new home.
Now the two were in really deep. They boarded the bus back to the mountains. In 8 hours, they arrived and embraced the brisk air that they were longing for. Amy called her friend as he was the only one they knew that had a car and could help them.
Louie's wild side came out during this next week. He, Amy, and this other friend would smoke everywhere they could. When he had no clothes to where, he stole from a local store. He even shoplifted alcohol. He hit rock bottom at the highest altitude. The void in his soul was deep and he couldn't figure out how to fill it. During this time, Louie became very outgoing. At one point he randomly spoke to people in parks and people on Denver's train system. Just imagine a long haired, bearded man coming up to you- would you be scared? He seemed to think they weren't. In this fashion, he met a group of friends that took him in. He and Amy went their separate ways for the next few days. While hanging out with the new people in his life, he went out nightly and partied with them. He drank and attempted to be the "cool" guy he always wanted to be. In a warped view, he did.
A week passed by. He made a few calls to his mom to tell her he was okay. She pleaded for him to come home and he did become somewhat homesick.
Amy's mother had made an offer to return them both safely to Omaha by paying for plane tickets. They both accepted.
On the morning of the plane ride, Louie was driving with his new friends to meet with Amy. He was seriously considering staying. This whole trip was eye opening for him. He could finally be someone different and that someone was popular...and crazy.
On the way, yet another violent thunderstorm shook the earth. Louie sincerely thought it was a sign to stay. He thought everything leading up to that moment was supposed to happen so that he could be in Rocky Mountain state. To an extent, he was right.
In the terminal he was going back and forth in his head. "Should I stay or should I go?"
He even asked a random airport employee on a smoke break what to do.
"You have to do what your heart tells you," the worker said.
That made sense to Louie. For some reason, that phrase resonated in his soul and caused him to stay put. He went to Amy in the terminal and said im not going. Amy tried with all her might to convince him to go home.
She even cried. Nothing could sway my husband. This was his destiny.
He walked out of that airport that day knowing he was supposed to be there.
He had no clue where to go or how to survive, but he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was to be there. From there, he went to one of his new "friend's" house to sleep in an El Camino--but after that night, he was on his own.
In the middle of the night, he went for a walk. There he felt protected, as if someone was there with him that night.
Loujo knew that the only way he could stay there was if he found a job so he started applying everywhere he could. Finding a job was not the easiest thing for him, though because he looked like a mountain man. Seriously. He had pretty long, shaggy hair and a scruffy beard. He was looking pretty rough. After all, he was homeless. He had been sleeping on a park bench at night.
One day he woke up and decided to go to some outdoor mall to apply at different places. While there a man, a complete stranger told my husband he looked tired and offered him a cigarette. So my husband stood there and smoked and talked to this stranger whose name was Eric. He began to ask Louie what he believed in and Louie gave him some mumbo jumbo about being his own god or something like that. It was pretty crazy. Then Eric told him about Jesus-about Salvation. Louie accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior that very day. Because of a complete stranger, he found the reason he was meant to be there- to be introduced to the creator of the universe, the name above all the names, our redeemer.
Loujo became a new creation-the old man passed away, behold all things became new.
Thereafter, Eric gave him a place to stay for the night. He fed him, let him shower, and even bought him clothes to wear all while preaching to my beloved husband.
The next day Louie was at the homeless shelter waiting to be let in. They turned him away, as the place was full. He spent one night by a river, fully accepting the consequences that his actions brought him.
After that night, the group he had been with before got in touch with him.
Though there were things that Louie had done during the next week that shouldnt have been done, he was provided with shelter and a place to lie his head.
Louie called his family and shared his good news. He shared how he had been saved, how his life was going to change. It just so happened that his brother, Anthony would be in town a few days later for a baseball tournament and they had an extra seat on the bus to go back to Omaha. Since the mission was accomplished, Louie decided to return home as a changed man. He gave up all drugs, alcohol, and smoking. About 7 months later God brought him back into my life and I'm so so thankful.
There's a saying that I hear alot of Christians say. They start out their testimony with, "When I found God..." My husband doesn't like that wording. He prefers to say, "When God found me..." Because it wasn't his doing at all-he wasnt looking for God when he got saved. God came when he least expected it and flipped his life around. There's nothing my God cannot do!
