Six years ago Victor was a long-haired, pot-smoking, metal-head rocker, determined that his heavy metal band would become the next Metallica. He had already moved away from his hometown to San Francisco, where he briefly attended SFSU before dropping out to spend his time and energy in his band.
Although he lived in anything but a holy atmosphere and had anything but Christian friends, he still had a few seeds of biblical truth planted in his heart from his childhood through his father. Victor shares, “Although these seeds were dormant, they were certainly not dead. God was merely waiting for the right time in my life to water them.”
At the age of 23, God woke him from his spiritual slumber. Through a series of events, he quit his band and gave his life to the Lord. “I made the greatest choice I would ever make in my entire life.”
One pivotal event that led to his conversion was an invitation by his dad to an Amazing Facts prophecy seminar with Doug Batchelor, who was being broadcast via satellite. This seminar left Victor with many thoughts over the next few weeks.
He remembers later sitting alone in his apartment and watching the Final Events DVD, his eyes glued to the TV. He explains, “This led me to be a frequenter of amazingFacts.org, where I watched every sermon and read every book and article on the website. With much wrestling and prayer, I finally began attending a Sabbathkeeping church in San Francisco, a church where I now work full-time giving Bible studies.”
The Bible captivated Victor as he began to read it with intense interest. He found the person of Jesus to be the most remarkable (and challenging) character he had ever encountered. “It was a joy to receive Him as my Savior,” he shares. “I also noticed that, in addition to being woken up spiritually, I was woken up intellectually. As a new Christian in the secular city of San Francisco, with all my old friends being atheists or agnostics, this naturally led to my study of apologetics and reaching the secularly minded.”
Now, as a full-time Bible worker, Victor uses resources available through Amazing Facts that once drew his attention to the Bible. “God used Amazing Facts to convince me the Bible is true. If these resources worked for me,” he shares, “they can help others.” He especially values the Final Events DVD. “It’s my ‘go-to’ handout when I sense someone needs a dose of conviction about the times in which we live, just like I once needed.”
When Victor looks back on his heavy metal band days and where I stands today, he says, “It’s hard to grasp the magnitude of change in my life!” But, he adds, “While getting a new job and moving to a new place is a change, being crucified with Christ and raised to a new way of life is not really change, it is a new birth. A rebellious heart cannot be cured; it must be replaced.”
A key step in Victor’s new life began when his dad invited him to an Amazing Facts prophecy seminar. The Final Events DVD was another vital turning point. He now says, “I believe Amazing Facts to be the quintessential resource center for reaching and educating new believers. It serves me well in training others to witness for Jesus. I know firsthand that God is using Amazing Facts because it made a big impact on my own life.”