About Me
When I was younger, I noticed that my friends began to become attracted to girls and that I wasn't. I felt really out of place and thought well maybe I was just developing slower than they were, but as they were beginning to become attracted to girls, I begun becoming attracted to guys. I knew from having a mother and a father, that I should one day figure out that girls don't really have cooties. However, through my teenage years, my attraction to guys grew even stronger and I never became attracted to girls.
In 1998, I moved from the small town of Carrsville, Virginia, to the City of Chesapeake, Virginia, where I found out that there were other people my age like me. I slowly came out of the closet as a homosexual/gay guy to classmates and co-workers, and then to family. However, something didn't feel right.
I felt like I needed fixing. I spent time going from church to church, trying to find the cure, trying to get God to fix me. I went from Pentecostal to Baptist, to non-denominational. Still no cure found. In 2005 I went to a Mormon church with some co-workers and fell hook, line, & sinker. However, please finish reading this, because Mormonism was NOT the answer!
In 2007, I moved to Salt Lake City to join a Mormon group for people who suffered from same sex attraction, called Evergreen International. In this group I met some of the most miserable people on Earth and determined it was not for me and neither was Mormonism. I can go on and on about how Mormonism is not the answer, but that is for a different place and time!
By the end of 2008, I had left the Mormon church and found some anti-Mormon preachers on YouTube to help me get over it.
I briefly dabbled with Christianity for a bit, but became angry at God. I came out of the closet again as a homosexual/gay guy and I joined the Facebook group Atheists of Utah and became friends with many atheists. I was mad at God and because of that He did not exist to me. However, I found out that He still exists even when you don't want him to. I spent many many years and seasons bouncing from trying not to believe in God to forming my own kind of Christianity and living a life I had chosen for myself.
I lived in Salt Lake City, Utah for 11 years where I went through many seasons of trying to make it on my own, fighting with God, and trying to figure out who I was. In 2015, I made a silly comment on a church's Facebook post concerning their faith in God while closing their eyes to pray for and at a dangerous motel in the neighborhood. Later that year, another Facebook post led me to visit that church to hear a sermon on a topic I was particularly interested in. This decision to visit the church and attend a worship service ultimately gave me the opportunity to feel Christ come into my heart, and led me to surrender to God. For the first time in my life, I was able to choose Christ over my fleshly desires, and this was just the beginning.
After the worship service, I was invited to a Bible study with a small group of believers in the living room of a church member during the middle of the week. This is how I became to love small group church meetings! In this small group, I was able to bare my deepest struggles with loving people who did not turn me away. For the first time in my life, I shared my sin of homosexuality to Christians and I had zero fear while doing it.
That small group led me to the beginning of a continuous walk with God and my desire to share Jesus with others, and open the doors of churches and small group meetings to people from all walks of life!
I now live in the Franklin/Southampton/Suffolk area of Virginia. I am a sinner who is saved by grace and grace alone. I am a follower and ambassador of Jesus Christ. I am forever grateful for that invitation that led me, a then homosexual, to come to a sermon, a bible study, to meet and know Jesus Christ, and to the opportunity that God used to grab me up out of darkness.
I want to do church with you! I look forward to being invited to your small group church meetings, and together, lets brings the light of Christ to others and watch God move in their lives!
In 1998, I moved from the small town of Carrsville, Virginia, to the City of Chesapeake, Virginia, where I found out that there were other people my age like me. I slowly came out of the closet as a homosexual/gay guy to classmates and co-workers, and then to family. However, something didn't feel right.
I felt like I needed fixing. I spent time going from church to church, trying to find the cure, trying to get God to fix me. I went from Pentecostal to Baptist, to non-denominational. Still no cure found. In 2005 I went to a Mormon church with some co-workers and fell hook, line, & sinker. However, please finish reading this, because Mormonism was NOT the answer!
In 2007, I moved to Salt Lake City to join a Mormon group for people who suffered from same sex attraction, called Evergreen International. In this group I met some of the most miserable people on Earth and determined it was not for me and neither was Mormonism. I can go on and on about how Mormonism is not the answer, but that is for a different place and time!
By the end of 2008, I had left the Mormon church and found some anti-Mormon preachers on YouTube to help me get over it.
I briefly dabbled with Christianity for a bit, but became angry at God. I came out of the closet again as a homosexual/gay guy and I joined the Facebook group Atheists of Utah and became friends with many atheists. I was mad at God and because of that He did not exist to me. However, I found out that He still exists even when you don't want him to. I spent many many years and seasons bouncing from trying not to believe in God to forming my own kind of Christianity and living a life I had chosen for myself.
I lived in Salt Lake City, Utah for 11 years where I went through many seasons of trying to make it on my own, fighting with God, and trying to figure out who I was. In 2015, I made a silly comment on a church's Facebook post concerning their faith in God while closing their eyes to pray for and at a dangerous motel in the neighborhood. Later that year, another Facebook post led me to visit that church to hear a sermon on a topic I was particularly interested in. This decision to visit the church and attend a worship service ultimately gave me the opportunity to feel Christ come into my heart, and led me to surrender to God. For the first time in my life, I was able to choose Christ over my fleshly desires, and this was just the beginning.
After the worship service, I was invited to a Bible study with a small group of believers in the living room of a church member during the middle of the week. This is how I became to love small group church meetings! In this small group, I was able to bare my deepest struggles with loving people who did not turn me away. For the first time in my life, I shared my sin of homosexuality to Christians and I had zero fear while doing it.
That small group led me to the beginning of a continuous walk with God and my desire to share Jesus with others, and open the doors of churches and small group meetings to people from all walks of life!
I now live in the Franklin/Southampton/Suffolk area of Virginia. I am a sinner who is saved by grace and grace alone. I am a follower and ambassador of Jesus Christ. I am forever grateful for that invitation that led me, a then homosexual, to come to a sermon, a bible study, to meet and know Jesus Christ, and to the opportunity that God used to grab me up out of darkness.
I want to do church with you! I look forward to being invited to your small group church meetings, and together, lets brings the light of Christ to others and watch God move in their lives!
My Baptism
On Resurrection Day 2016 (Easter day), I gave my life to the Lord. As a person who struggled with homosexuality, I am grateful to have found a Bible-based Christian church where I could confide in believers about my struggles. It is written that we should be able to confess to one another. Holding on to darkness such as this only gives power to the Enemy. No sin is significant enough that any one person should be kept from the love of God. It is God who has the power to change people. People cannot change people. Lead people to God and see God move in their lives.
March 27, 2016: Nikki Ortez and Brandon Myers publicly profess that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior.