My Personal Testimony
I was born in Lebanon in 1966 and was brought up as a catholic Maronite, I’m the second youngest of eight brothers & sisters. My parents migrated to Australia when I was 3 years of age. I lived and grew up in Wollongong NSW- Australia. My siblings and I grew up with a father who was very aggressive, violent, a gambler, immoral man, and one who didn’t show any affection or love to his family. I had no healthy male role model in my life, which led me to do and live in the same footsteps as my father. I got caught up in the wrong crowd and environment. Because of my emptiness i started to drink, take drugs, steal, be involved in gang fighting and immorality, which caused me a lot of problems with the law and heart ache.
By the age of 21 years, i had a successful business, I had everything that a young person at my age desired and wished for, but i was still unsatisfied and feeling empty in life. I thought to myself, how can this be? I have a lot of money, I’m popular among my friends, and yet I was still unsatisfied and miserable in my life. I thought to myself that there has to be more to life than all of this. Ieven contemplated suicidal thoughts.
In 1988 at the age of 21, while at my workshop, I became friends with my next-door neighbour. The good life style and example of my next-door neighbour captured my attention. He befriended me, which then resulted us becoming best friends. Then he challenged and asked me if I believed in God. My friend showed me a bible and started reading the word to me. I had never seen or held a bible in my life, neither did my parents, grandparents nor any of my family members had ever read the bible before. When I started to read the word i thought to myself that if I truly believed in God, then why was i not obeying the bible. I knew that God existed, but I never knew him or had a personally relationship with him.
While reading the bible, the Lord revealed himself to me, leading me to repentance of my sins and total surrender to Jesus as my Lord. By God’s grace after the third week of my conversion, the Lord had filled my heart with such love, joy, peace, forgiveness, hope and purpose for living. I was dramatically set free from all my bad habits and addictions.
As I read the bible, I was led to Acts 16:31 which says that if we believed, my whole household would be saved also, therefore i started claiming all my family for Christ. I felt a great burden for all my family and friends, and immediately i started to share the good news to them all. And my first fruits were my brother Joseph, then his wife Jill and their kids. We went through two years of persecution from the rest of the family, my father told my brother and i, that he would rather go to hell but not change his religion, and he then threatened to shoot us if we didn’t come back to our old worldly and religious ways.
During those two years of persecution we continued praying for all family members, loving them no matter what they said and did, and wecontinued sharing the word to them. Then by God’s grace, they all started to surrender their lives to the Lord, one by one including Dad and Mum, the rest of my brothers and sisters, all their husbands and wives, my 40 nephews and nieces and even relatives and friends.
By God’s Grace today they are active Christians, serving as Pastors, Leaders,Evangelist & Missionaries. We are all involved in missions in Australia, Argentina, India, Lebanon, Egypt, Africa, Pakistan and beyond…
Paul Harb
