“I was raised in a pastor’s home. When I entered my teens, I began to rebel against going to church. I didn’t reject God, but I rejected the church. I was committed to discovering truth for myself, and it left me with a fairly cold heart towards church right through my teens, until I was 20.

At uni I was doing what everybody else does who doesn’t know Jesus. I certainly wasn’t living like a Christian in any shape or form. Then, something happened to me three weekends in a row.

‘I’ve got a word from God for you.’

The first weekend, I was up at Noosa, and my father’s church had a family camp nearby. I said to the girl I was with that we could drop in on the church camp because we’d get a free lunch. It was honestly as deep and spiritual as that. Back then, I still went to church on Sundays because my dad had a simple rule that if I wanted to live in our house, I had to go to church.

So, we dropped in at the church camp, and, of course, everyone knew who I was. I walked in with my board shorts, t-shirt, and we sat up the back. Towards the end, the preacher pointed directly at me, and said, “I feel like I’ve got a word from God for you.”

He began talking about my future and God’s hand on my life; that God wanted to use me. He said that in all the wanderings in my life, God was still calling me, bringing me home. And I just stood there like a stone. I did nothing. I felt like it was a setup. I got my free lunch, and we left.

The next weekend I went to a concert with some Christian friends and the same thing happened, almost word for word. Someone up at the front had a word for me. God still cared about me. Again, I didn’t budge. I thought they must have been setting it up again.

I was mad about water skiing at that time. The following Sunday morning, I was doing some work on my boat in my parent’s backyard. I never went to church on Sunday mornings; I went on Sunday night. So, there I was, working on my boat when the guy who was going to preach that morning at church drove into our driveway and invited me to church.

I said, “I don’t go to church on Sunday mornings.”

He said, “You should.”

I said, “I know, but I got too much to do here.”

And this guy, who was dressed in a suit and tie, ready for church, said, “What if I help?”

It was Sunday morning, and he was preaching, but he took off his jacket and tie and he helped me. And lo and behold, we finished the job, and then I felt obligated to go to church. I walked straight to the back, with not a great attitude. When the guy had finished preaching, he singled me out.

He said the same thing as the last two guys said the two weekends previously. He said God cared for me and He had a plan for me. That was when I just gave in and said, ‘Okay, God.’ It all became clear.

Now it’s been 44 years I’ve been following Jesus! God has been so faithful!

God’s grace and kindness towards me brought me back to Him.  As a pastor’s kid, I already knew so much having lived my whole life in a Christian environment. So, I dived in, heart and soul, to surrender my life to Jesus. I was 21 and genuinely captivated by how much God was interested in me as an individual – not as my father’s son, but as me.

It was amazing. God cared about me! Sometimes, I think God’s got to get our attention. For me, it wasn’t anything catastrophic or tragic that happened. It was simply that God used these people to point me back to Jesus. And now it’s been 44 years I’ve been following Jesus! God has been so faithful!”

You can find out more about Wayne’s story here, and his book My Father’s Son: A Generational Journey is available from Koorong.

This article is part of Eternity’s Faith Stories series, compiled by Naomi Reed. Click to read more Faith Stories.