Johann's Testimony

My name is Johann, I’m 15 and I have been saved for about ten months now.

I grew up in a catholic church I knew my good from bad but I was still a corrupted youth. I attended church every Sunday and I was an ‘Altar server in the Church but even though I was doing a type of ministry in the Catholic church I was still caught up in a whole load of madness.

Before I got saved I was into all kinds of madness, when I was young and growing up I saw quite a lot of stuff that made me a very angry youth and this anger grew and grew throughout my childhood and as I got older. I was a rude and arrogant person to everyone and anyone and I didn’t care, I was just doing my own thing. I would be cunning and devious to my parents and would lie to them and wouldn‘t care at all. I didn’t really care about other people and how they felt, I just wanted to do my own thing and keep my respect in my area.

When I was 14, I came to a point when I had enough of the way I was living, I was a vexed youth and my state of mind was messed up. All I wanted to do was to make my own money, buy myself material things that I didn’t really need, reminisce with my friends and hang around the area.

I became really close friends with one of the elders in my area, he started giving me drugs to sell and he told me to keep whatever the profit I made out of it. Then it came to a point when I had enough of selling drugs because I thought that the money I was gaining was ‘petty cash’ and it was too much for me to handle seeing I had to stab one youth to get away from being robbed. So I got involved in card scams. I was so hungry for money, I went around asking everyone at school and in the area if they had debit or cash cards, and when I got the card, the credit card seemed to be no use, it always ended up flopping, so I got fed up and I started hanging around with the elders again in the area and started going around with them and robbing people. As there were 6 of us doing it the stuff we got we had to split it upon 6 people and no one was really getting anything big so I just hung out with the person who helped me when I was in need.  He showed me morals in life and the attitude I should have on the streets, even though he was a bad person he looked after me and I looked up to him like an older brother.

One day when me and my friend and half of our friends, were walking home from some area in Tottenham, the rest of our friends went to a party and I knew that my friend had trouble on the road we was on so I stayed with him. Then 2 elder boys surrounded us and a fight started to build up and my friend ended up getting stabbed 3 times and died in my hands. I cried out to God when he was in my hands and I said “God I know you’re there, please God, come and help me to leave this life”

Then about a month later Ruby and Pearl, who are close family friends, asked us to come to a service in the Potters House church.  I went and from that day on my life changed dramatically. Even though I was attending church and still corrupted I knew what I was doing was bad so on July 1st I gave my life to Christ and since then I stopped all the road thing, and I started focusing on God. God has done a lot in my life by reducing my anger helping me to be humble and he taught me how to love and be loved. Since I asked Jesus to come into my heart and life I have never looked back.  I now have high expectations of the future and I’m looking forward to what God has for me.