Service Times: 
As I begin to write this testimony for you to read I want to make it very clear that before I knew Jesus as my best friend, Lord and God, I was a very confused and hurting young man. Yet, by God’s amazing grace and love for me I have been transformed into a totally different man. All this is because of God and to Him I owe my life.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
- 2nd Corinthians 5:17
I grew up in Monroe NY. I was the first born of four. We were a church going family, yet I had no clue who Jesus really was or who He wanted to be in my life. At a very early age I was introduced by a “friend“ to marijuana and pornography. Both of which quickly took control of me and I was fully addicted to the party lifestyle and drugs by age 15. I barely graduated high school and then went off to an automotive trade school were I quickly learned the art of living wildly on the college campus.
After a semester of partying I had met a girl who I thought was “the one.” Man was I wrong. After seven months of living in sin together, she left me and I was totally depressed. I spent the next four months strung out and in a serious state of depression. One morning I woke up and drove to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I thought I could escape my problems and start a new life. After a year of trying things out in Florida I realized that I could not escape all the problems I had, because anywhere I went, I was there. I was the problem! My life of sin and selfishness had caught up with me. I was so low I thought the only way out was to end my life.
As I started to get a gun in my apartment to end it all, I suddenly fell to my knees and in great desperation, I cried out,
“Jesus, if you are really who you say you are, I need you to change my life.”
It was the strangest thing, but after I said those words I found a Bible in my closet that was given to me when I was twelve. It was right next to my scale that I used for measuring drugs. The scale was clean but the bible had an inch of dust on it. I have no idea to this day how that Bible got there. As I opened it up I found a card that my mother had given me. It read,
God is greater than any problem I may have.
That hit me like a ton of bricks and I cried myself to sleep. Surprisingly that day, September 2, 1990 was the first day of a new Owen. That was a Tuesday and on Sunday I went to church. It was a good church, the worship was great but the speaker was lame. I was then invited that evening to another church service at Calvary Chapel of Fort Lauderdale. This was crazy, I had not set foot in a church for years and here I am going to church twice in one day. I am so glad I went because the worship was good but the teaching of the Word was fantastic. I can only say it was like being in a desert with no water for days and coming up to an oasis. I could not get enough of the teaching of the Bible. I was working as a mechanic at a garage during the day and every night I would go to the church just to be around people who loved Jesus and wanted to get to know Him better. This was better than any drug or any party I had ever been to. It seemed as if when I went to church the teaching of the Bible would fulfill me and get me ready for the next day’s experiences.
Three months later I went home to New York for Christmas. This was the first time I had been back since becoming a Christian. I was nervous but wanted so badly to share my new faith in Jesus. To my amazement I was able to tell many of my friends what had happened to me and I was asked to share my experience at the church I grew up in. There was not a dry eye when I was done, correction, when God was done speaking through me. On that trip my best friend from high school gave his life to the Lord and is still walking to this day with Jesus. I could go on and on about what God has done in my life, let’s just say that those were the beginning miracles that Jesus began to do in me just because I simply prayed,
Jesus, if you are really who you say you are, I need you to change my life.
If you would like to read more about what happened and how I became the Pastor of Calvary Chapel Orange County, New York, please read the " Orange County Beginnings" section of our website. May God bless you incredibly as you let Jesus have His way in your life!
More information coming soon!
More information coming soon!
Email: jimyoung@calvaryocny.com
More information coming soon!
More information coming soon!
Email: eddiepinero@calvaryocny.org