Alrighty then! To begin with my name is Allen and I am the second youngest member of TOW at the ripe old age of 19.
I have been the band geek music kid since I was in middle school. I picked up the trumpet at 10 years old and played it all the way to 1st chair in high school. Around freshman year I picked up the guitar again, which I had tried to learn several times in the past but this time it stuck.
I have been an active Christian for the past 10 years but in 2006 I got lost along the way. In my youth group I was the eldest guy who was active in his faith and it got really hard for me. I went down some really tough roads that led and made me into something I hated.
God wasn't through with me yet.
In the spring of 2008 Tim, who had been teaching me some guitar on the side for about 5 years invited me to come Jam with this band that had been formed by some of the members of our churches worship team. I started coming to practice and really fit in well. But I still wasn't right with God, something was missing. I continued to make bad decisions trying to fill that hole that I knew only God could fit, but I wasn't ready to hear that yet.
In October of 2008 TOW played our first big gig for Cogs for Christ, where my now best friend Seth gave his testimony. I was rocked, this kid had been the biggest jerk around and I had seen him go downhill while he attended my church, but he was different. He talked about a bible study he had started, so I went and my life changed.
My journey back has been a speedy one with great friends pushing all the way back to where I am today. I now am co-leading the bible study with Seth and never have been happier in my life.
My Prayer
I pray that we will get off our haunches and start doing what God called us to do and get out into the world and start being witnesses, and not ONLY for other Christians in sheltered Christian environments, but the world.
1 Cor 9:19-23
19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
