Wealth and the good life was not enough! Even though we had a great house, a swimming pool, fast cars, and exciting holidays, there was something missing. My parents argued a lot, at times resulting in violence. It left me feeling terrible and afraid. My big brother would try to stop them and would end up getting a beating himself. All I could do was cry. In my desperation, I would cry out to heaven, "Is anybody there? Can nobody help?"

Without direction, I went to school parties and began drinking and smoking at 14. All the cool people were doing it – or so I thought! All I knew was that I wanted to be "in". So when my friends suddenly seemed to go off without me, I asked why. They said it was because they were smoking marijuana. "That’s not a problem," I insisted. My only priority was to be accepted; I didn’t care about my life or anything else.

Starting to go to the casinos, I thought that luck was with me and I was a good poker player. For the next four years I gambled for an average of five hours per day. In the end I had not only lost a fortune, but also my self-esteem. What was worse was that much of the money I had lost was borrowed. At one point I had four cars and a motorcycle, and I had friends in other countries. Still seeking the "high life," I turned to the "mother of all drugs" – cocaine.

The girls and my society friends thought it was "cool". I was only sixteen when I started using cocaine every weekend. At first I was a scared, but my pride and the acceptance of my peers was more important to me than my fear. I would do anything for that. Wanting to be noticed, I was always getting into fights. It gave me quite a reputation. We raced our cars down the highway in the wrong direction just for "kicks". It was suicidal, but we didn’t care.

My friends and I used to put guns to people’s heads and threaten to kill them, just to watch them "freak". We wanted to be known. Bankrupt, I was down $100,000, and that is a lot of money in my country. I had two choices: to run away and see how my dad would take care of it, or to try this Jesus that everyone was talking about.

My father and I used to laugh at Christians on TV. We were very ignorant. In fact there used to be a church near us where the people sang and praised God. My dad didn’t like the noise they were making and so called the police. Eventually they stopped their meetings. We thought they were crazy. Then my uncle, who had once been the third most important man in the country, went to a Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship (FGBMFI) dinner. The testimonies people shared about their relationship with God impressed him and he invited Jesus Christ into his life.

In his excitement he took my father to the next meeting. When they started to sing and praise God my uncle joined in. This infuriated my father, who blurted out, "I am ashamed of you! You are a powerful man. What are you doing?" Nevertheless, something was happening in my father’s life. He began to change and soon he, too, had committed his life to Jesus Christ. Previously it had not been unusual to find my dad in bars with other women, but he would give me money and I would say nothing.

The thing that had finally convinced him that God was real was when he had attended a meeting where he saw people praying for a demon-possessed person. People who make a pact with the devil demonstrate real power. This is something that is not often seen in Europe or the USA. The demons are real. This was something my father could plainly see. He witnessed these satanic forces, who manifested themselves unmistakably in all kinds of ways, being defeated by people who read the Bible. Seeing the power of God changed his life.

That summer he took our family to the World Convention of the FGBMFI in Dallas. By that time my mother had also committed her life to Jesus Christ. She used to have a problem with depression. She was always so very sad – she never laughed. She had not had a very pleasant life. The doctors could not help her; they just gave her pills. Despite the fact that I used to steal money from her handbag, I did love her and something inside me wanted to make her feel better.

One time at the end of a meeting they asked those who were sick to come up for prayer. When they prayed for her, to my shock, she fell to the floor. This was something totally new for me. Having grown up in a traditional church, all I knew was form and liturgy. I hadn’t seen people praying for the sick or anything like that. My shock turned into surprise when she got up crying, "I’m free; I’m healed." At first we did not believe her – we even laughed at her, but when it became clear that she had totally changed, becoming a joyful person, and even throwing out all her medication, we could see that it was real. We thought that Jesus had died 2,000 years ago, but here He was doing miracles now.

By this time my parents were excited about the things of God and brought the family to the Convention to learn more about Jesus. We knew it would be a big event and that lots would happen. While we were there my father invited Richard Maiden, who was one of the speakers, to our room. In a move that seemed out of the blue, he put his hand on my head and said, "God is going to lift you up in your country as a leader and you will go to other nations proclaiming that Jesus is your Lord and Saviour."

Being far from a "good boy", you can imagine what I thought when he said that. I figured he could not possibly know who he was talking to. At the time I was on drugs and had bought stolen cars, trying to improve my image. I even thought my activities might put me in jail sometime soon. Looking for an answer, and not knowing if this Jesus they spoke about was real or not, I decided to try Him. I declared, "Jesus, if you’re real, I have big problems, but I want to be good and serve you. Help me out of my problems – show me that You are real." It is sad that I had to get into such a desperate situation before I understood that there is no real life without Jesus.

I got a loan from the bank and started to work, believing God for a miracle. To the natural eye it was impossible, but, incredibly, by the end of the first month I had earned enough to pay back the bank. By then I knew Jesus was doing something wonderful. I had started reading my Bible and attending church. However, I had not yet totally given up my drugs. One day I prayed, "Jesus, this is my last time to buy cocaine. Please do something in my life. Give me the strength to stop." When I went into a bathroom to use it, it had fallen out of my pocket. That was it – there was no way I would try and get more; it was too difficult.

My life was changing. I didn’t go out drinking anymore, I was free of drugs, and the financial problem had been cleared away. People had been so kind and loving. At church they must have smelled the whiskey on my breath, and yet they had hugged me and talked to me as if I mattered. I did not become a committed Christian overnight. God cleaned me up bit by bit. He truly delivered me. It was not a matter of quitting things out of some sort of religious guilt. The fact is that as Jesus filled my life, I simply did not want to do those other things that had seemed such a big deal before.

My life became full, with more joy and excitement than ever before. I began attending FGBMFI meetings and met other young people working with the youth. We now have 700 members in fourteen "Youth Chapters" and we are growing fast. We have new groups, which draw a couple of a hundred people. God had told me I would be going out to the nations. Now it is happening. I regularly travel around, proclaiming that Jesus is alive and, what is even more important – He cares for you!

We have teams working with the gangs and have many stories of God changing lives. One guy used to seek out rich people and go after them to kill them. You would never imagine he is the same man. One of my old buddies has also committed his life to Jesus Christ and is preaching about Jesus every week. Sadly, another one "fried his brain" on drugs and is a walking vegetable. Some of my other friends are now dead.

When I first committed my life to Jesus, I remember noticing beauty all around me. Jesus has made my life real and there is no turning back. Since then my elder brother has also become a committed Christian. My little brother, who I used to take out drinking, teaches Sunday School at church.

Sometimes young people feel lonely. Well, God can give you friends. Whatever your need, Jesus is the answer; He can change your problem. Don’t wait till you are bankrupt or involved with drugs. I tried drugs, gambling, and wrong businesses, but it is Jesus who has fulfilled my life – He has changed everything. That is why I feel called to reach other young people. God really loves us each as we are.