Testimony of Randy Hillebrand
Cross Plains, a small town in south central Wisconsin, is where I
was born and raised. The Catholic church in our community is where my
family attended mass every Sunday. And like my four older siblings, two
brothers and two sisters, I also went to Saint Francis Xavier Grade
School which was run by our church. After eight years of parochial
schooling, I then attended Middleton High School in a community
approximately eight miles from my home. Following graduation in 1976,
I enrolled at Madison Area Technical College to study in the field of
electronics. Two years later I graduated receiving an Associate of
Science degree in the field. With this training I was able to obtain a
job in the area of Quality Control in a company that produced
main-frame computer systems for hospital use. It was while I was
working in this position that I came across 2 unusual fellows, the kind
that I usually only had contact with when they picked me up as I was
hitch-hiking. They were born-again Christians. Throughout my time
there, one of the two specifically made an impression on me, a man by
the name of Mike Clemens. He lived out his faith before me with
confidence and conviction, something that I admired, even though I
viewed his beliefs as nothing more than a crutch. Our friendship grew,
and even years after we both went our separate ways, we still stayed in
contact with one another. Even when I was later married, Mike was in my
wedding. By this time in 1980 when I was married, my spiritual
condition could be shown by the fact that I was an agnostic on my way
to being an atheist, even to the extent that I told the priest that I
wanted all references to God taken out of the mass. My new wife
Annette and I moved to Bartlett, Illinois, since I had been working for
the past month and a half in Chicago as a Quality Assurance Engineer.
During this time Annette and I started our own business which we
operated out of our home. It was through this venture that the Lord
started to open, not only my eyes, but those of my wife also. As I
stated earlier, Christianity was nothing more to me than a crutch that
many needed to hold them up as they hobbled through life. To my
surprise though, I started attending seminars of and getting to know
people who in my eyes had it together and that were also Christians.
And as I attended more and more seminars where they closed by telling
quickly how Christ had made a difference in their lives, I started to
listen. Not that I wanted Christ of course, but I wanted the success
that He seemed to bring. So at one of the meetings, I finally
approached a man that was a Christian and asked if I could become like
him in my approach to people without becoming a Christian. He flatly
stated "no" and told me that I needed to pick up a copy of the Bible
and read the Gospel of John. His advice I followed, though not stopping
at John, I read the whole of the New Testament along with some of the
Old Testament books. This reading was supplemented with six other
Christian books on various subjects as well as with Christian radio.
After a four- to five-month study, God revealed to me that He was. He
did this as His Spirit opened my eyes to the truth that Jesus Christ
was who He said He was, that He died for my sins and rose again from
the grave. And when I realized that this was true, I then knew that
there had to be a God (John 1:18). So on August 18, 1982, sometime
around 10:40 p.m. I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. It is also
interesting to note that about the time I started my study, my wife had
just accepted Christ and was no doubt in prayer for her pagan husband.
Since that time, I felt God's leading to attend Bible school, and
the following year after I was saved, my studies began at the Moody
Bible Institute. Then in May of 1986, three years later, I graduated
with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Evangelism. Since that time I have
been involved in various ministries such as being a Chaplian's
assistant at Cook County Jail, doing street evangelism to the homeless,
was treasurer and board member of The Cornerstone Church, and for a
one-year period, the interim Pastor of the same. While Pastor, I was
licensed and commissioned as a minister; and this day, May 30, 1989, I
am seeking ordination through this same body.
In the future I hope to serve God as an evangelist through ministry
in the local church; and if He would someday lead, as a missionary in a
foreign field.
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