Randy_Hillebrand
“Christianity was nothing more to me than a crutch thatmany needed to hold them up as they hobbled through life.”
Cross Plains, a small town in south central Wisconsin, is where Iwas born and raised. The Catholic church in our community is where myfamily attended mass every Sunday. And like my four older siblings, twobrothers and two sisters, I also went to Saint Francis Xavier GradeSchool which was run by our church. After eight years of parochialschooling, I then attended Middleton High School in a communityapproximately eight miles from my home. Following graduation in 1976,I enrolled at Madison Area Technical College to study in the field ofelectronics. Two years later I graduated receiving an Associate ofScience degree in the field. With this training I was able to obtain ajob in the area of Quality Control in a company that producedmain-frame computer systems for hospital use. It was while I wasworking in this position that I came across 2 unusual fellows, the kindthat I usually only had contact with when they picked me up as I washitch-hiking. They were born-again Christians. Throughout my timethere, one of the two specifically made an impression on me, a man bythe name of Mike Clemens. He lived out his faith before me withconfidence and conviction, something that I admired, even though Iviewed his beliefs as nothing more than a crutch. Our friendship grew,and even years after we both went our separate ways, we still stayed incontact with one another. Even when I was later married, Mike was in mywedding. By this time in 1980 when I was married, my spiritualcondition could be shown by the fact that I was an agnostic on my wayto being an atheist, even to the extent that I told the priest that Iwanted all references to God taken out of the mass. My new wifeAnnette and I moved to Bartlett, Illinois, since I had been working forthe past month and a half in Chicago as a Quality Assurance Engineer.
During this time Annette and I started our own business which weoperated out of our home. It was through this venture that the Lordstarted to open, not only my eyes, but those of my wife also. As Istated earlier, Christianity was nothing more to me than a crutch thatmany needed to hold them up as they hobbled through life. To mysurprise though, I started attending seminars of and getting to knowpeople who in my eyes had it together and that were also Christians. And as I attended more and more seminars where they closed by tellingquickly how Christ had made a difference in their lives, I started tolisten. Not that I wanted Christ of course, but I wanted the successthat He seemed to bring. So at one of the meetings, I finallyapproached a man that was a Christian and asked if I could become likehim in my approach to people without becoming a Christian. He flatlystated “no” and told me that I needed to pick up a copy of the Bibleand read the Gospel of John. His advice I followed, though not stoppingat John, I read the whole of the New Testament along with some of theOld Testament books. This reading was supplemented with six otherChristian books on various subjects as well as with Christian radio. After a four- to five-month study, God revealed to me that He was. Hedid this as His Spirit opened my eyes to the truth that Jesus Christwas who He said He was, that He died for my sins and rose again fromthe grave. And when I realized that this was true, I then knew thatthere had to be a God (John 1:18). So on August 18, 1982, sometimearound 10:40 p.m. I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. It is alsointeresting to note that about the time I started my study, my wife hadjust accepted Christ and was no doubt in prayer for her pagan husband.
Since that time, I felt God’s leading to attend Bible school, andthe following year after I was saved, my studies began at the MoodyBible Institute. Then in May of 1986, three years later, I graduatedwith a Bachelor of Arts degree in Evangelism. Since that time I havebeen involved in various ministries such as being a Chaplian’sassistant at Cook County Jail, doing street evangelism to the homeless,was treasurer and board member of The Cornerstone Church, and for aone-year period, the interim Pastor of the same. While Pastor, I waslicensed and commissioned as a minister; and this day, May 30, 1989, Iam seeking ordination through this same body.
In the future I hope to serve God as an evangelist through ministryin the local church; and if He would someday lead, as a missionary in aforeign field.
Randy Hillebrand