Antonio
Don't walk. Run!
Antonio ("you can call me Tony!") was born in South Africa, where he lived for most of his life, moving to England in 1992 and now living in London. He is married to "my lovely Naslie" for four years and they are expecting their second child. "Our first child is with the Lord" Tony explains. He works for a large relief organisation as a computer systems developer, a job which he says "is really challenging, but enjoyable".
How and when were you introduced to Jesus?
I was brought up a Roman Catholic by my parents, who are both very faithful, God-loving Christians. Because of them, I always believed in God, and had a very deep faith as a child. As I got into my teenage years, I drifted away from the God, and was very much pulled into the world. I had quite an awful, rebellious time in my middle to late teens, and into early twenties. It was a very dark period but throughout, I always felt a feeling of remorse and regret, though I felt powerless to do anything about it.
I knew there was something more to life, and some explanation of what seemed to me to be an awful state the world was in. I have always been very aware of the dreadful things in the world, not only the physically visible, but also the things going on in the hearts and minds of people. I was very depressed over this time, and could see no way out.
Around this time, I met person who was a Christian and we became very good friends. I felt very drawn to him, or more accurately, what he seemed to have. I felt very at ease in his company. I knew that he had something that I needed. I was very wary of Christians because they weren't Roman Catholics. This is probably the fault of people I came into contact with as a child who were Roman Catholics and would have nothing to do with anyone who was not, at least nothing to do on the religious front. My friend never pushed anything though, and we just used to talk about his faith. We spoke very little about my faith at the time because I didn't really have a relationship with God, only a belief that he existed somewhere up there.
Over time, I was meeting more and more Christians, who shared their faith with me.
I felt that over this period, I was gently and slowly being introduced to Jesus. Actually, I was being re-introduced to the Jesus that I knew and loved as a child. One day in my car on the way home from work, I was filled with an incredible sense of joy and peace as I contemplated these things. Through a flood of tears of joy, I asked Jesus to come back into my life, and asked him to forgive my sins and help me.
What difference does knowing Jesus make?
My life changed completely. I was completely transformed. "Born again" is such a good description for it. Although life is still a struggle sometimes, I now see life, especially it's struggles and tragedies, in the context of eternity. Knowing God makes it a lot easier to cope with life, and to see things a little more from Jesus' perspective makes life make a whole lot more sense. No longer is there senselessness and hopelessness.
What advice would you give to others looking for faith?
Don’t walk, Run! You will never look back. It is the most important decision you will ever make, and the one that will change your life the most.
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