Randy Hillebrand
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.