{"id":6178,"date":"2018-02-27T15:07:50","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T21:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/?p=6178"},"modified":"2018-02-27T15:07:50","modified_gmt":"2018-02-27T21:07:50","slug":"conversion-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2018\/02\/27\/conversion-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Conversion Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0By Kenneth Okwouno<\/strong><\/span>
\nWhen I was growing up as a kid,\u00a0I always struggled with the\u00a0identity\u00a0of\u00a0who\u00a0I was.\u00a0I am the youngest of four boys whose shadows I had to follow everywhere\u00a0I went, especially\u00a0in\u00a0school\u00a0from preschool to high school.\u00a0With only a\u00a0five year\u00a0gap between my oldest brother and me, many of my teachers would have had all three of my brothers in class\u00a0which\u00a0meant that they would have certain expectations of me.\u00a0My childhood was spent trying to meet or exceed those expectations.\u00a0I continued to do this until my senior year in high school.\u00a0I excelled in my academics and was an\u00a0all-district\u00a0running\u00a0back which\u00a0helped\u00a0provide\u00a0me some options for my future.\u00a0I was now faced with the decision of where I was\u00a0going to go to college.\u00a0My oldest\u00a0brothers attended\u00a0the\u00a0University of Houston\u00a0Downtown\u00a0which\u00a0was right by my\u00a0parents\u2019\u00a0house, and my\u00a03rd<\/span>\u00a0brother was at Southern Arkansas playing football. I wanted to get as far away from home as possible so that I could have an\u00a0identity of my own\u00a0and no longer walk in the shadows of my brothers.\u00a0I was given a full ride to the University of Missouri-Rolla to play football. Little did I know that this would be the place\u00a0where\u00a0my life would be forever\u00a0changed.\u00a0<\/span>
\nI was now a freshman in college and my parents were\u00a0nowhere\u00a0to be found.\u00a0I was free to make my own decisions and free\u00a0to live life the way I wanted.\u00a0I didn’t have to follow in anyone\u2019s shadow.\u00a0My college professors were going to meet an Okwuonu for the first time.\u00a0With all this new freedom came curiosity.\u00a0I\u00a0had\u00a0never\u00a0been\u00a0interested in girls or the party lifestyle, but that was also because my parents kept us very sheltered from the outside world.\u00a0(Now as a\u00a0Christian, I have come to appreciate why they did not allow us to get involved in those activities.)\u00a0My curiosity led me to fall into\u00a0the\u00a0party lifestyle that so many other college students do.\u00a0I eventually met a young lady who was\u00a0also\u00a0enjoying the freedoms that the college life had to offer with parents who lived a plane flight away.\u00a0<\/span>
\nI dated this\u00a0young\u00a0lady for about a year when I noticed that her behavior had changed.\u00a0She was no longer interested in going to parties,\u00a0and you could see a joy within her that I had\u00a0never seen before.\u00a0I asked her what was causing this change in her life and the response that I got was not something that I was\u00a0expecting.\u00a0She mentioned that she had met a man that had changed her life.\u00a0It made me angry to know that she was this happy about another man, and I was\u00a0determined\u00a0to know where I could find this person so that I could give\u00a0him\u00a0a piece of my mind.\u00a0She told me that I could find him in the\u00a0weight room, so I quickly headed in that direction.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nWhen I got to the weight room I found the guy, or I should\u00a0say\u00a0he found me.\u00a0This guy picked me up off of my feet, kissed me on my cheek,\u00a0and then\u00a0put me down.\u00a0I just stood there with my eyes wide open because I could not believe what had just taken place.\u00a0I later\u00a0realized that he was breaking down the walls that I had.\u00a0He then began to ask me a series of questions about the\u00a0Bible.\u00a0He first asked me what\u00a0swallowed\u00a0Jonah when he disobeyed God.\u00a0I said the typical response that\u00a0Jonah was swallowed by a whale.\u00a0The next thing he asked me was what\u00a0did Eve eat\u00a0in the garden that she wasn’t\u00a0supposed to\u00a0eat.\u00a0I responded like many people would have responded by saying\u00a0\u201capple.\u201d\u00a0He challenged me to find my answers in the\u00a0Bible.\u00a0When I went to look in the\u00a0Bible,\u00a0I found different answers than how I had responded.\u00a0This got my mind wondering what other things people\u00a0had\u00a0taught me that\u00a0were\u00a0not\u00a0actually\u00a0in the\u00a0Bible.\u00a0I had a new curiosity, and I wanted to know more. Willie Franklin was the name of this man\u00a0with whom\u00a0I had this encounter, but most people\u00a0referred\u00a0to him as\u00a0\u201cUncle Chocolate.\u201d\u00a0 For about a month,\u00a0I began to dig into God’s\u00a0Word\u00a0to find out more about what society had told me was truth but was contrary to God’s Word.\u00a0This was at a point in my life where I was questioning God and was unsure of how I could have a relationship with Him. I knew that I was not connected\u00a0to God, but did not know how to go about getting there.\u00a0I saw that there were\u00a0so many religions claiming to\u00a0have the truth, but I didn’t want to put my faith in any person or religion.\u00a0I wanted to know what God’s Word had to say about it.\u00a0During one of my studies with Mr. Franklin, I came across the verse Romans 1:16 where it mentions that the\u00a0Gospel is God\u2019s\u00a0power to save.\u00a0That sounded good, but I had no clue at the time\u00a0what the\u00a0Gospel was.\u00a0As we continued our study,\u00a0I learned that the\u00a0Gospel was the story of Jesus’ death, burial, and\u00a0resurrection\u00a0and how we come in connection with Jesus through baptism.\u00a0No one had ever shared that with me, and even after reading it, the\u00a0importance of what I read\u00a0did not sink in until later\u00a0during the study when my girlfriend\u00a0at the time\u00a0was asked an important question.\u00a0She was asked,\u00a0“If Kenneth\u00a0were\u00a0to die tonight, what would happen to him?\u201d\u00a0 Her response was very sobering.\u00a0She said that I would go to\u00a0Hell.\u00a0I couldn’t believe what she had said, but at the same time,\u00a0I knew that she was right.\u00a0It was around 3\u00a0a.m.\u00a0the\u00a0morning\u00a0of\u00a0April 9, 2000, that I was baptized into\u00a0the family\u00a0of Christ.\u00a0I was so excited about my new life. At\u00a0the same time,\u00a0there was\u00a0a\u00a0heavy weight that came upon\u00a0me when I realized that there were so many people in this world who had not obeyed the\u00a0Gospel.\u00a0<\/span>
\nLife took on a new meaning for\u00a0me\u00a0and a new purpose.\u00a0I was so excited about my new life that the first person I told was my brother who was\u00a0playing football\u00a0in Southern Arkansas.\u00a0After a few months of studying,\u00a0he decided to put his Lord on in baptism.\u00a0Shortly after that, my oldest brother and his\u00a0girlfriend\u00a0became\u00a0Christians.\u00a0For the first three years of my\u00a0Christian walk, I traveled with Mr.\u00a0Franklin to youth\u00a0rallies\u00a0and\u00a0Bible studies, which was valuable training. It felt very similar to\u00a0how it was done during Jesus’ time when disciples would learn not in a classroom made with walls, but by traveling with their teacher getting\u00a0firsthand\u00a0experience.\u00a0During those first three years,\u00a0I learned\u00a0to lead public prayers, teach classes, deliver sermons, and lead singing.\u00a0These were valuable tools that would help me serve the church\u00a0wherever\u00a0I went.\u00a0After those years, I graduated from college with an electrical engineering degree and headed back to\u00a0Houston\u00a0to work\u00a0and find a congregation\u00a0where\u00a0I could be an active member.\u00a0The congregation that I\u00a0attended\u00a0had a\u00a0Spanish\u00a0ministry\u00a0where\u00a0I got involved\u00a0for three years.\u00a0During those three years,\u00a0I went on several mission trips,\u00a0which included trips to Mexico and Honduras.\u00a0After that, I left engineering to get involved in campus ministry with the\u00a0Christian\u00a0school that was started by the congregation that I was attending.\u00a0I have been working there\u00a0ever since.\u00a0This\u00a0Christian\u00a0school covers\u00a0grades K-3\u00a0through 12th grade.\u00a0There,\u00a0I strive to spread the Word through teaching\u00a0Bible\u00a0classes\u00a0and by coaching on the\u00a0middle\u00a0school and\u00a0high\u00a0school level.\u00a0I coach both track and football, but I view my coaching\u00a0as\u00a0an extension of my ministry.\u00a0These avenues have allowed me to study with students with the hope\u00a0that\u00a0the seeds that have been planted\u00a0will bear fruit for God’s\u00a0kingdom.\u00a0<\/span>
\nThe most important\u00a0part of my ministry today is guiding my family in the ways of the\u00a0Lord.\u00a0I have a wonderful\u00a0Christian wife, two daughters who were recently baptized, a two-year-old son,\u00a0and a baby due later this month.\u00a0I constantly think about the assignment that God has given me to minister to my wife and kids, and how it directly impacts my ministry with others.\u00a0I know that if I serve my family as Jesus served\u00a0His disciples, then they too will want to serve others\u00a0with whom\u00a0they come in contact.\u00a0<\/span>
\nWe will not be able to evangelize the whole world\u00a0by ourselves,\u00a0but we must\u00a0strive to reach one soul\u00a0at a time,\u00a0who\u00a0will,\u00a0in turn,\u00a0reach another.\u00a0If you read the first chapter in the\u00a0Gospel of John, you will see this\u00a0being modeled.\u00a0This is the pattern that I try to follow.\u00a0If we all teach someone, we will get much closer to\u00a0teaching the world about Jesus. Let us not\u00a0wait until\u00a0tomorrow but\u00a0let us get\u00a0started\u00a0today.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0By Kenneth Okwouno When I was growing up as a kid,\u00a0I always struggled with the\u00a0identity\u00a0of\u00a0who\u00a0I was.\u00a0I am the youngest of four boys whose shadows I had to follow everywhere\u00a0I went, especially\u00a0in\u00a0school\u00a0from preschool to high school.\u00a0With only a\u00a0five year\u00a0gap between my oldest brother and me, many of my teachers would have had all three of my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[1405,44,168,1051,47,1406],"class_list":["post-6178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-think-excerpts","tag-august-2013","tag-baptism","tag-conversion","tag-feature","tag-gospel","tag-kenneth-okwuonu","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nConversion Story - 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