New student Ethan Sowders looks back over his life and is so thankful for God’s grace and how He has brought him to the place he is now.

“I was born with a disease called achromatopsia, which renders me legally blind and light sensitive,” said Ethan. “I didn’t grow up in a Christian home. My father got involved in some things that eventually sent him to prison. At the time, I was sheltered from the details of all the things he was involved with, so I believed he was innocent. I really wanted him to be found innocent of the crimes he was accused of, but he was not.”

“When he was imprisoned, my mom took the burden of providing for both of us upon herself,” recalled Ethan. “We stopped attending church. I became disillusioned and began questioning any kind of a faith in God. When I was 13, I became a fully committed atheist and rejected Christ. I spent the next four years in bondage to pornography, depression and anger. Much of my time during these years of my life was spent debating with Christians about why the Bible was a book of fairy tales, why Jesus was a myth, and why their God was a figment of their imagination.”

“When I was 17, I attended a revival service with my mother,” said Ethan. “During the service I heard a worship song playing, and I felt something cut right through me. Suddenly I felt the weight of conviction on my heart and a profound sense that I was deeply wrong and guilty before God. During this service God spoke to me and told me that He loved me and that He forgave me, and He wanted me to come home. That night I surrendered my life completely to Jesus Christ.”

“Over the course of the revival I began to feel the call of God on my life to full time ministry, said Ethan. “My life has never been the same since then. I praise God for His grace in saving a sinner that was so hostile to His word and His Son. He has given me a sense of freedom, drive and purpose that I’ve never known before.”

Donnie Fox is president of Clear Creek Baptist Bible College, 300 Clear Creek Road, Pineville, KY 40977; toll-free: (866) 340-3196; ccbbc.edu; email: dfox@ccbbc.edu.