My life story - by Mark

I had been waiting for this moment for years.

I was a high school senior playing high school football.

Like many boys, playing under the lights of Cedar Rapids’ 15,000 seat Kingston stadium had been a dream of mine since I was young.

It was where I had grown up watching my high school’s football team as they went on to 4 state title games in 6 years.

Here I was, a starter on a famous team.

All the TV stations and newspapers were present.

That night and every Friday night, play after play, I got to level opponents, intercept passes and be known as a Linn-Mar Lion.

I had popularity and friends.

I was loved and respected.

Beyond my wildest dreams, in the years that followed I was able to find something even better than sports.

Today I want to tell you how I became a Christian AND WHY I AM
IN JAPAN

My name is Mark Wolter

I am from THE STATE OF Iowa

THAT IS RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF AMERICA

I’ve been happily married to Maki for a year and a half.
I grew up in a happy family with good parents.
Of course my parents were NOT perfect but they loved God and they loved me.

As a boy I saw that everyone around me had many problems, mistakes and sins, including my parents and myself.

I realized that this world was NOT a perfect place,
And even Christians were not perfect.
But I learned through the Bible that God IS perfect.
Our whole family went to church every Sunday.

There I learned about and personally experienced God’s love through other people.

I came to believe God is the God who made the world and everything in it.
As I grew a little older I learned that the first man that God made, Adam, rebelled against God.
Ever since then, doing wrong things and going away from God has been natural for humans.

I came to believe (as the Bible says) that God came to earth as a baby (Jesus) to live and die on a cross for the punishment that my sins deserved.

In junior high I learned that if I would confess my sins against God, He would forgive me
.
Though I had all this information, it was just head knowledge.
I thought that God was for after I died, not now.
God wasn’t related to daily life.
Christ was not my Lord.
I was in charge of my own life.
Rather than seek God, I would pray only to get things for myself.
I began to seek what the media and current culture says I should seek in the world.

I thought that if I had money, popularity, and fun, then I would be satisfied.

To be continued...