Testimonies From The Lighthouse
Frank Amantea
I grew up in a Catholic family and went to church regularly as a child. Even though I was an altar boy at our church and knew about Jesus, I didn’t have a personal relationship with him at that time. As I grew up I became disillusioned with church, so around the age of 15 I decided to stop attending. I said, “God, I believe in you, but I don’t believe you are in church.”
At the age of 16 I made the decision to start smoking. My life was spiraling downward. I started experimenting with drugs and alcohol. One time I was doing drugs with some friends and I over-dosed. I ended up in the Hospital that night. In the morning the doctor told me I had almost died. I remember slipping in and out of consciousness that night. Suddenly a pit would open and tentacles would come to grab me and drag me into the pit. I would fight to wake up and the pit would close. This happened over and over again all night. I am thankful I didn’t die that night and that my soul wasn’t dragged down into that pit.
There were many more negative experiences over those teenage years. I didn’t know it then, but now I realize I was trying to fill the emptiness in my life. On the weekend of my 21st birthday, some friends through a party for me. I can’t remember what happened that night. However, I do remember waking up on Saturday morning face down in my own vomit. As I sat on the edge of the bed I remember saying, “there’s got to be more to life than this!”
That Sunday evening I went to see a friend who had become a “Jesus Freak.” She was an old flame and I still liked her. That was the first time I felt the presence of God in church. As I stood there people were raising their hands to worship and there was singing in the Spirit. After the message there was an “altar call.” They were singing a hymn about Jesus dieing on the cross and calling people forward to receive him. As I stood there with tears in my eyes someone noticed and asked, “Would you like to go forward to receive Jesus?” I said, “Yes, I think I do.”
That night I surrendered my life to Jesus and everything changed. My emptiness was filled and all the things I was doing to fill that emptiness dropped off. I became a new person in Jesus with new direction and new purpose in life. That was in February 1973. I am so thankful for God’s grace in my life.