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my name is Adam. And I would like to share a little bit of my testimony with you this morning. You’ve probably figured out if you didn’t already know, that I have a bit of a disability. And you’re right. I have a rare disability called Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita Amyoplasia. it’s a mouth full. Arthrogryposis means there’s a fixture of the joints, and a constriction of the muscles. Multiplex means multiple limbs are affected. Congenita means from birth. Amyoplasia is the type of Arthrogryposis that I have. Due to the fixation of joints and tightening of tendons my muscles in the affected areas don’t develop properly. This disability has obviously affected every aspect of my life, both positively and negatively But it has taught me the importance and my personal need for 1. Sense of humor. 2. Relationship with God. 3. The power of prayer. And that’s what I’d like to concentrate on this morning I. Sense of humor I have been very fortunate to grow up in a strong Christian home. And for the first 5 years of my life, my family and I lived around Grunthal. My Dad then joined the RCMP in 1990 and so my family and I moved to Devon, Alberta. I’m the middle child of three. I have an older sister and a younger sister. I became a Christian when I was three years old. While my mom was putting me to bed she asked me, “Adam, have you asked Jesus into your heart yet?” I simply said “nope”. Now I grew up in the church and my Sunday school teacher always said that God holds the whole world in his hands, like the song. Right? So how could this great big God get into me? So my mom says “would you like to ask him?” I said “sure.”..So we bowed our heads and my mom started to pray the sinner’s prayer. But you see, I then had a great idea. I was going to watch the window and maybe see God come down from the sky. Because if God is going to come down I guess I thought he would make an entrance. Well he didn’t and my mom caught me looking at my window so she asked me to pray. Now lets fast forward a couple of years.When I was in kindergarten kids would always ask me “why are your hands like that?” or “why do you look funny?” I would respond with the obvious to me “I was made like this.” Or “God made me this way”. As I got into the elementary grades, the kids would often reply with “you’re wrong” or if the kid was a Christian they would inform me that “God wouldn’t do that!” I would get into verbal fights with these kids trying to get them to understand that God did actually make me like this. It was ridiculous. It just drove me nuts. Now can I get a show of hands of everyone whose broken a limb? if you have ever broken their arm or leg or something, you can understand that everyone asks what happened right? And for some reason it seems like there’s a line up of people wanting to ask what happened. So naturally I got fed up explaining to people that God made me like this, being told I was wrong, and started looking for a way to spice up my story. Now something you have to understand is that I’m very comfortable with my disability, much like you’re all probably comfortable with being normal. This is where the sense of humor comes in. Anyway, the bus ride to and from school was the prime place for people to ask me Questions. But this time I was ready, I had been practicing, and my dad had even been helping with the details. I was in grade one and this kid sat beside me and asked the big Q. “why are your hands like that?” I looked at him… smiled and said I’m glad you asked. I began to tell him this lengthy story of how my family was vacationing in Florida or some place and was viciously attacked by a shark! He said “WOW… that’s awesome” and he left and sat somewhere else. Well! at this I was dumfounded. No fight why or how or disbelief. I thought “this is great!” Next kid asked the famous Question “why are your hands like that? I then told him the tale of how I was playing in traffic and got hit by a car. He, like the first kid, said “WOW… that’s awesome” at this point in my life I was having a blast telling people why my hands were the way they are. I always had a different story for every kid. It was awesome! This continued until the story where I was an alien sent to blow up the world via, Toronto. Why I picked Toronto I’ll never know, but her family was heading for Toronto the next week and she was in tears that they were all going to die! As usual, I would go home and repeat my story for my family. I was very proud of how clever my stories were getting. When I got to the part where the little girl is crying, my mom’s ears perked up and new rules were established. I could tell any story I wanted, but before I left there I had to fess up that it was a made-up story. Now I didn’t just spend my time growing up telling kids stories. In my 20 years of life I’ve had roughly 24 surgeries. The first surgery I underwent was when I was 4 months old so I am no means a stranger to hospitals. Which leads me to my second point.2. Relationship with God. My relationship with God started when I was 3 years old, like I mentioned previously. Since then I’ve always viewed my physical disability as an advantage as far as having the willingness to accept the fact that I can’t get through this life by myself. I simply need help. God has always been the common denominator to everything good in my life so I would cling to Him with everything I’m worth. Psalmsit says “I look to the hills, Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord who gives me strength!” The realization of what this passage means at an earlier age has helped me to keep a lot of situations in perspective. As I said before I’ve had 24 surgeries. Now surgeries as an adult can be scary at times so naturally it can be extremely scary for a little kid. But I think it really helped jumpstart my faith in God and who He is to me. Now with each surgery my family and I have been left with two choices. The first being- “do it on our own” or the second “admit before God that we can’t do it on our own and need Him to intervene. And my family and I made it a priority to come before God on a daily basis, sometimes on a minute by minute basis, just simply asking for His strength and courage and wisdom to get through the day. My relationship with God is everything to me. He is the very air I breathe. He is my best friend, my support, my strength, my all. He’s the very blood in my veins. I wish that I could describe the relationship with God that I’ve experienced and continue to experience on a day to day basis in words. But I’m left speechless. Which brings me to my third point.3. The Power of Prayer. Prayer has been the focal point of my life. Without that communion with God I would certainly not have made it this far. Like I mentioned before my family and I came before the throne every time I underwent surgery, and I remember on most occasions I could sense so strongly that God was with me, it was like he was in the room. I can’t explain it but it was awesome. But there are a few stories I would like to share with you where God has answered my prayer in a big way. Near the end of grade 12 God was really calling me to the ministry but the problem was I need money to live. But not just that but as I mentioned before and you’ve figured out, I’m handicapped and things cost money. So I wasn’t so keen on that idea. But then I got a job offer to work at E.A. as a computer graphic artist. I thought YES my way out. I’ll go work for a computer gaming company. remind you of anyone…. Jonah maybe. I thought I could do better then him and besides that was thousands of years ago and is God still do that kind of stuff. (side note. God is the same yesterday today and forever.” So don’t kid yourself) So God sent a whale my way….. well it was more of a vehicle then a whale. and I’m sure that the vehicle was going much faster then Jonahs whale but that is a story for another time. As many of you may or may not know I under went surgery on my left leg in May of 2004. The goal of this surgery was to correct the angle of my ankle and lengthen the tibia and fibia.