TES:Testimony of Tim Nesham

   This is my testimony of how I came to know Jesus Christ.

   I had rejected Christianity when I was a teenager as being a crutch
for weak people. To me, I had thought that people were just avoiding
responsibility for their own lives. When I was 18 my mother died an
alcoholic. It was a shock to me. One that I couldn't express very
well--especially to my own family. They had wanted the city of New York
to bury her. One of those mass graves--something like that. I insisted
and we paid for a grave site. The rest of my family wasn't too
sentimental since my mother had been very violent and caused years of
grief to our family. But I had been the youngest and didn't see a lot
of the troubles.

   I decided to drop out of High School and work or join the Army.
Anything to escape High School. I had usually skipped all that I could
get away with. Suicide was on my mind but I usually found escape
through Science Fiction, music or chess. When I turned 19 I entered a
Community College and made Dean's List. After a year there I
transferred to Miami University of Ohio. It was too lonely for me and I
dropped out.

   When I got back home I got a job as a slag grinder making $7/hr. I
had started to meet new people and those new people introduced me to
different drugs. After a year working, taking drugs and a few affairs I
was almost wasted. I got into Eastern religions and Timothy Leary type
enlightenment.

   I was searching VERY hard for an answer so I could stop the pain I
was in. I decided to quit work and join some friends westward to live
communal-style. The bus they acquired broke down not far from the
starting point and my girlfriend at that time went with me in her car
to Washington state from Northern Ohio in Jan. of '78.

   After a few weeks in Washington State, Tamara and I decided to
hitch-hike to Los Angeles to visit her uncles. I had a different plan
than the one I let Tamara in on. I wanted to visit a famous Zen
monastery in San Francisco and leave Tamara with her uncles in Los
Angeles since we had been fighting to an intolerable degree.

   The trip was exhilarating as we saw the Cascade mountains dwarf us.
We did not find getting a ride to be easy. Many were short rides. That
day we made it down to mid-Oregon and camped out the night in a
pup-tent I carried. In the morning we left our site and saw a car with
California plates parked at the rest stop. We asked the driver, a
Vietnamese person, for a ride which he allowed. His English wasn't too
good but beggars can't be choosers. He told us he was going as far as
southern Sacramento but when he pulled the car off the highway north of
Sacramento I became worried. I asked him where he was going and he told
me to a free phone to call his girl. What he said made no sense so I
had him take us to a motel. Tamara and I went to a Greyhound bus stop
the next day--a little pessimistic with hitch-hiking.

   At the bus stop we met some 'nice' people. They invited us to a
dinner in Berkley. I was tired and free food sounded good. Tamara
thought so too so we had dinner there. There were a lot of people there
and they invited us to their farm for the night. Again it sounded
interesting so we went with them in their bus to a farm outside
Booneville. They told us at the farm that we couldn't sleep together
which annoyed Tamara but I didn't mind. I slept on a wooden floor in a
barn with a bunch of others spread about. The next day Tamara wanted to
leave but I was interested in the goings on at the farm. Nonetheless,
we left and arrived in Los Angeles later that day.

   Tamara's uncles were interesting but they had a lifestyle that made
me feel uncomfortable. They gave me drugs I'd never tried before which
messed me up. I decided to get away from them and go back to Boonville
to figure out why those people were so 'nice'. I went to San Francisco
and notified the 'nice' people that I was there. They told me to come
over the next day. I did but I had mononucleosis and didn't know it
except that I was extremely tired.

   When I got to their house in Berkley I looked for a place to rest. I
wandered through their house for a place to lay down and ended up in
the basement. There I accidentally discovered pictures of Rev. Sung
Yung Moon and his family reverently displayed. I realized I was with
the infamous 'moonies'. Some of the moonies found me looking through
the books so I played stupid and they let me go outside. I waited for
the bus to their farm.

   When I got to the farm they paired us with 'buddies'. The buddies
rarely left us alone. The more I was there the more I felt something
wrong with the whole place. I finally cornered my buddy into a lie. I
asked him for his real name and he changed it on the spot. The whole
place took on a different meaning to me. One of evil. I had placed my
trust in Buddhism and its reassuring doctrine of "good and evil" as
being illusions and at that time my whole 'mind set' was blown away.
All of a sudden I knew there was evil and I knew there was good. I also
believed there was a God and I started praying. The moonies loaded me
into a bus the next day. I had spent the night praying and I was
reduced to a praying vegetable. But I believed and all I could do was
praise God for the things He made. I didn't even remember Jesus' name.
I prayed, "Father". They were driving me away and I didn't care where
to. I was praying. In my mind I said something to God about getting off
the bus and heading for a mountain. As soon as I thought that there
were two large claps, the bus went off to the side of the highway and
stopped. I left the bus and wandered around. I went inside a church and
saw a picture of Jesus and stared knowing that was Him--Jesus! The
pastor of the church contacted some friends. They were born-again
Christians in Novato. They led me to pray to God the Son--Jesus Christ.

   A number of years have passed since then--march of '78. My life
didn't change into what it is today overnight. Jesus taught me, and
teaches me, to trust ONLY in Him. Today I am a graduate of two colleges
and have a beautiful family. I owe it all to Jesus.

   I condensed a lot of this testimony for brevity. But you, too, can
know Jesus because He died for you--in your place that you may know His
truth and His love. Ask Him now to forgive you of your sins and be the
Lord of your life.

   Tim Nesham
