Hi! I’m Josh, and I’m preparing to go on a great adventure of faith around the world as a servant of the Living God, to share the Way, the Truth, and the Life with those I meet along the way, and I’d like to tell you a little bit about myself before I go.
Where do I start? Well, I am 34 years young, and live in the beautiful city of Savannah, Georgia. I am blessed to have a wonderful job managing the food and beverage for a nonprofit organization that runs 4 museums for the city and state. I enjoy using the skills that God has given me as I do my job ‘as unto Him’, but I know He is calling me to something greater, now. I have always known that there has been a calling on my life and I know that the events in my life have lead me to this point, preparing me for what is to come.
It’s funny how the little things stick with you. When I was about 6, I remember being at church when, out of the blue, a man walked up to me, knelt down on my level and said, “Joshua, one day you will be a mighty man of God.” Even at 6, I knew this man was speaking from the heart of God, he was one of the godliest men I have ever known, and his words have resounded in my heart and mind to this day. Through him, the voice of God spoke to my spirit and the Spirit of God has been working in my life to fulfill that prophesy ever since. I can’t think of any better way to put it, but those words would “slow my roll.â€� There have been so many times that I was about to do something that was just down right stupid and I would hear him say, “One day….” How mighty is our God! The simple words of an obedient man gently nudged me along the way, my whole life, as God prepared me to “go forth!â€�Â
I was raised in the church but never really got it, a late bloomer I guess! My family moved to Miami, Florida when my father got a job there.We never found a home church after the move, and at some point my parents stopped looking. At the age of 13, they divorced. I bounced back and forth between them, and though I’m not going to dwell on the issues that came from this, I’ll just tell you that I got dark in my heart and spirit. At that young age, I was exposed to drugs and alcohol. And from then, until I was 23, I was deeply entangled in the destruction of that lifestyle, an old school raver.
I have had many close calls in my life and too many near death encounters. The enemy is always hard at work to destroy God’s children before they are able to become what He plans on making them, and during that time, I was cooperating fully. It is only by the Grace of God that I am still here! Finally, at the age of 22, after so much pain, so much heartache, God brought me to a turning point.
By then, my mother had recommitted her life to Christ and had begun to pray for me. Parents, warn your children when you start praying “Oh God, do what ever it takes to bring my child to his knees and back to You.” That is a scary prayer, and my mother did warn me that that was what she was praying for, and let me tell you, it worked! He allowed events to happen in my life that rocked my world, closing doors that lead to destruction and opening doors that lead me into His abounding love and grace. That sounds kinda nice doesn’t it? Ha! The doors he opened, so he could mold me and shape me as He wanted me to be, was a jail cell door, where I spent 11 months as a “captive audienceâ€�, literally!
I was accused of a crime I didn’t commit but instantly knew that God allowed this to happen, in answer to my mother’s prayer, because she was praying His will and He knew that was what it would take to bring me to my knees. While I sat there, awaiting trial, he did things in me that have so profoundly altered my life, my views, and my desires. This is one of the best and hardest times of my life. After that 11 month period, I came out a drastically different man, forever changed, forever His. I thank God that He loved me enough to put me through the ‘refiner’s fire!’ By the end of that 11 month incarceration, I was an on-fire Christian, miraculously escaping a prison sentence and sent home with my mother, a new beginning in a new town, with a fresh start. TO BE CONT….
