I was born and grew up in Geelong, Victoria which is a small town on the Southern coast of Australia. My memories of my early childhood are mostly happy; I lived in a nice neighborhood with a mum and dad who loved me, had two sisters close in age to play with and an abundance of cousins, friends, and pets.

When I was in Fourth Grade at school, things at home began to change. My youngest sister had started school that year and mum decided to go out to work. Mum changed too. She was suddenly angry a lot of the time, and far too readywith a slap or a harsh word if we got in the way. My sisters and I quickly learned not to get in her way.

Often, I would be awoken late at night by the sound of my parents yelling at each other. It frightened and confused me, but I was too scared to say anything. Mum and dad were away from home more and more. Dad had always been my mainstay in life, I had been like his shadow following him around and asking him a million questions a minute, but now, with him away so much I began to withdraw into my own little world. I became a quiet, shy, loner. I was picked on at school and called nasty names, and had only one or two close friends. Somewhere during this time, I am not exactly sure when, one of mum's brothers, sexually molested me and later, one of my cousins did the same. This only added to my fear and confusion and I withdrew even further into myself.

When I was twelve, it seemed like the world blew apart at the seams. Mum left dad in the middle of a cold blustery Victorian night and took my sisters and I with her to live with a man we (my sisters and I) had never even seen before, in New Zealand. We stayed with this man in New Zealand for 6 months, but he became more and more abusive. Eventually mum decided to leave and return to Australia, where we settled in Northern Queensland.

When I was just 15, Dad came to Queensland and took my youngest sister and I back to live with him in Geelong. He was living with a woman whom I had always thought was my aunt, but who turned out to not be related to us at all. She had three of her children living in the house too and while she seemed to care about her children, she didn't have much time for my sister or I. Both of us were lonely, frightened and confused but we received nothing but abuse at her hands.

And dad? Well, dad was always away working. I remember one particularly cold winter morning, I had wet my bed and This "Aunt" sent me outside with the sheets in the icy weather and forced me to wash them by hand in a bucket of cold water. About this time, I met a girl named Helen at my school. Helen seemed different to the other kids I knew, there was something about her that made her seem very (for want of a better word) attractive. She and I became firm friends and over the first months of our friendship. She told me of how she was in foster care with one of the teachers from the school. This teacher owned a small hobby farm outside of town and on the weekends he would invite kids from the school out there to "get away from it all".

The only thing that was expected of any kid who went out there was to help out with the chores, follow the farm rules (which were nothing really compared to the rules at home) and go to church with his family on Sunday. I thought I could handle that and it would be nice to get away from the "Aunt" for a weekend. Helen said she would try to arrange an invitation for me and before I knew it, I was being dropped off at "The Farm" by my dad on Friday afternoons.

Time is too short here for me to go into everything that happened at the farm on the many visits I made there. But the end result of it was that one Sunday Evening, the Pastor at the little Baptist church the family attended spoke about Jesus in a way I had never heard before. Even though I had been raised in a family that believed in God, and even though I'd had an awareness of God and Jesus most of my life, I had never been brought face to face with the fact that Jesus Christ died for "me".

And even if I had been the only person ever to exist, besides Him, even if I had killed Him myself, He would have still died for me, and he would still love me. It was shattering! No one in all my life had told me they loved me enough to die for me! When the Preacher asked if anyone at the church that night wanted to accept Christ as Savior, my hand went straight up and I walked to that altar rail with tears streaming down my face.

After I had prayed, a young woman named Angie took me aside and showed me in the Bible all the places where Jesus said He loved me. I laughed with pure joy, especially when she turned to the book of Revelations and read: "Behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me!" (Revelation 3:20)

I opened the door to Jesus that night. I have walked with him since that time; not always perhaps as close as I should have, but I know He has never turned away from me once in all those years and I know He never will. I encourage you, if you are reading this and you have never opened that door and accepted Christ into your heart and life, please do so right now, wherever you are. I can assure you that you will never regret it!

I was also surprised to know that when you invite him into your heart, he comes to reside there forever. He says he will never leave or forsake us. He comes in the form of the trinity which I have come to realize is God the father, God/Jesus the son and the Holy Spirit. A part of those 3 live in each of us and that is so great. I don't have to look up to heaven and holler to God or ask where is he? He says our body is the temple that they live in.

Guess what? God never sleeps either. So, when I am sleeping he is sitting right there with me along with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. When I get up, they walk in my shoes and look through my eyes, so I (and you if you make that choice,) have favor wherever we go. It is special to know I am never alone and the 3 most powerful in all the world are with me. Now, I'm never lonely any more.

The most important thing is that with them living in me, my heart wants to do right things every moment, because I do not want to disappoint them. I have come to realize the things they teach me are also for my own good. The bonus is that when I die and we all will, I am guaranteed of going to heaven where I will see the Pearly Gates and streets of Gold, rather than burning in Hell for Eternity which is a much longer time than I will ever live here on earth.

It's kind of cool that God didn't just leave us here and say good luck, hope you make it, but he gave us an instructional manual (the bible). There is nothing in life that you can ever experience that is not already in the bible. It shows us the right way to handle things in order to get the best results for our efforts. Another great thing is that Jesus has become my best friend and no other friend could ever compare with him. I don't have to worry about him moving away and my having to make new friends ever again.

All you have to do to have those benefits too is invite Jesus into your heart. You can admit you are a sinner, which we all are, ask him for forgiveness and repent, which means not to do things that same way again and the Holy Spirit will help you with that part and you will be living a new life as a new creation in your heart and God will see you as pure and clean (that's past, present and future sins).

That doesn't give you a license to do anything you want to or be as bad as you want, but immediately you will no longer have your sinful nature, so most of the decisions you make will now be right. All day the Holy spirit will whisper in your ear and heart the proper way to do things and if you follow his lead, you can't go wrong. Guess what? (It isn't hard either)

I joined a local church as you should and they are like a huge family that loves me and encourages me every time I see them. Now I have tons of friends who also help guide me and I get to help guide them too.

I do try to read a little from my bible each day so I can get to know God a little better each day. Actually it is so interesting to know the history and promises of God and Jesus,

which are still relevant 2000 years later. It's special to know the bible will never be outdated or will need to be changed since it's the same yesterday, today and forever.

Your circumstances may be different than mine, but I'm sure you too need that kind of love and acceptance. I'm willing to share the Lord with you, because there is enough of him to go around the whole world and he is so brilliant that he can hear our prayers all at the same time if necessary and answer each of them personally. It is awesome to realize he is better than superman, stronger too and wants to love us more than anyone else ever could. (Even our parents)

So, what's it going to be? Are you ready for that kind of love and forgiveness? He is waiting with open arms and if you invite him into your heart, all the angels in heaven will be singing and rejoicing when you do that.