BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

As he hurtled across the pavement, Matthew felt no fear. No emotions. No regrets. Why should he? For him, there was no God. Life was to be lived until you died. Then…nothing. Mother’s Day Gift “I lived through the accident,” Matthew recalls, “but I needed to go to the hospital. So, I called my mother to ask if I was still on their insurance. She’d always used tough love with me. She refused to give me money or enable me. But we’d maintained a good relationship, and she always reminded me that she loved me. She was out of town that day, though, so my dad answered the phone and met me at the hospital. Our relation-ship wasn’t good, but he was there for me.” Matthew was the oldest of three boys. With his middle brother already following in his footsteps, his parents were trying to protect the youngest brother from his influence, but without the benefit of any faith to back them up. “Mom had been a Christian when she met Dad,” Matthew explains, “but he was Jewish. So, they decided to raise us as neither. They wanted us to make our own choices. I had no idea who I was or why I was on earth. No concept of the meaning of life.” Then, in May 2007, 22-year-old Matthew got an unexpected call from his mother. “All I want for Moth-er’s Day is for you to go to church with me,” she told him. “Church?” She explained that a friend had invited her, and she’d attended a couple of times. “If it will make you happy,” Matthew said, “I’ll go.” The day Matthew showed up at church, the message was entitled, “I’ve Screwed Up Through Addiction.” “What’s that pastor going to tell me about addiction?” Matthew asked. “I’ve already been to AA, NA and outpatient rehabs. Besides, I’m not an addict.” During the service, everyone was given a river rock. The pastor explained that it represented addiction. The concept seemed odd, but otherwise for Matthew the service was uneventful. When he left church with the rock, he knew something was happening in him. That evening, Matthew sat alone and wept for three hours. All the pain and stuffed emotions poured out. The next morning, he awoke conflicted about the rock, so he stuck it in a drawer. A thought that sounded like a voice said, 'No, when you put it in that drawer, you can go back and get it when things get hard.' Matthew threw it in a lake. From that day on, he never used drugs again. Over the next weeks and months, he gave up alcohol and cigarettes. His desire for them was replaced by something new. He had a ravenous appetite for the things of God. A Different Man “I went to church and attended the college group,” Matthew says. “But I was a different bird. I had tattoos, and I was scary looking. I was a street thug and weighed 280 pounds. The church kids stared at me. They talked about Noah, David, Goliath and Samson. I’d never heard about them, so I started reading the Bible. My family was hopeful but on edge, waiting for the next storm.” While the church Matthew attended hosted 5,000 to 8,000 people in multiple services each weekend, only about 10 showed up for the college group. It seemed like a small number, but what could someone like Matthew do about it? The thought that sounded like a voice gave him the answer: 'Can you reach out to people like you?' 14 : BVOV

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