MY SECOND BIRTHDAY

                                                  MY SECOND BIRTHDAY

I was born September 4th, 1937; my father name, Victor Alton Romaine and mother, Rita Evelyn Senecal.  Cortland New York hospital was my place of birth.  I was the second of six children;  Grace, Joanne, myself, Victor, Michael and Mary Louise.  I have a half sister; Lori; and a half brother, Bryan.  My father was born In Wisconsin and my mother was born in Quebec, Canada.  My father had one sister named Grace, whereas my mother was one of thirteen children.  My father's parents were protestant and my mother's were Roman Catholic.   I was baptized Roman Catholic in a Catholic Church in Groton, New York.

My mother was very intelligent, and top student in his high school class; she played the piano and enjoyed reading, politics and had a wonderful sense of humor.  She had dark brown hair, blue eyes, stood at 5' 1" and was strikingly attractive.  My father also enjoyed reading, playing cards, hanging out with his friends, almost six foot tall, and had a dimple in his chin.  He was a young and handsome man.  They made a good looking couple and during the 1930s enjoyed the freedom that was spreading our land.

Now I had a second birth; and by that I do not mean that I was actually conceived again in a woman's womb, nor she a woman labor give in pain to me...what I mean is that my soul and spirit were born again.  On evening on May 28th, 1948, after my grand parents had their Wednesday night Bible study with the second coming as their topic after all the other folk had left I my brother Vic and I stayed behind and I asked my grand father to tell me all about it again.  He did.  As he was explaining those verses to me, suddenly I feel a deep fear grip my brain and I knew that I didn't want to go to hell, but desired with every cell in me to somehow make to heaven.

As we climbed those narrow stairs that night with the door at the bottom open just wide enough to let a little light in, I thought I would never be able to make it up those last few wooden steps.  When I came beside our bed, I knelt down and laid my head on the covers and began to sob and cry out to Jesus to save me.  I wasn't even aware of my brother kneeling next to me, I just wept on and one begging Jesus to come into my heart and to forgive me from all my sin.  I have no idea how long I was there, but very suddenly I felt free from all my sin, I actually felt the guilt pull away from me and it left me!  I can not find words to explain that sense of peace and joy the filled me totally that night.  When I finally climbed into bed tears of joy where streaming down my face and I just kept wiping my nose on one of my blankets...I knew for sure that I was saved and I began to say, "Thank you Jesus, I love you Jesus," over and over again.  I don't know what time I went to sleep and asked my brother if he was saved to and he said, "Yes I am saved too John".

The next morning I rolled out of bed feeling like I wanted to shout for joy and run down stair and tell my grand parents what had happened to me last night, but when they say me I didn't have to say a word, they could see the joy in my eyes and the new excitement in how eager I was to go to the barn to do my chores.  When I walked outside the whole of nature looked brand new to me...everything glowed with a deep sense of God's presence, even the cows looked wonderful to me...and the cow manure in the gutter seemed great!  Oh how I had been changed....and that experience that morning has always stayed with me...it caused me to make decisions later in my life and still does to his day, 65 years later.

Now I don't doubt that my grandparents had filled me with those ideas, and if you wanted to say that I was brainwashed, well I would agree.  But I just hope that a lot more people would be brainwashed as I was that day.  You see, I believe everyone of is some sort of product of the environment we are raised in...some us of successfully reject it, and maybe that's right thing to do...but looking back now it changed the whole direction of my like.  It took me many years of failing again and again, but slowly God has done s little work in my life...I know that harder I try to do it, I utterly fail...He started this job in my life, and if I go any further in making more progress I know it will have to be His work...I was never any good at that I I have concluded that I never will be.

As I continue these short stories of my life, please hold this memory because I think you will need to remember this as I share more of my true life story.  I am also aware that many people do not have this type of experience that I had; many come to the Lord little by little....they go to Sunday School and church as a very young person and grow in the a church.  Their lives reflect the fact that they have committed themselves to our Lord.  Everyone is pretty much different when it comes to their own spiritual development, I just happen to be one of them who had a dynamic beginning.

It really does not matter when, how, or who helped you there, it was the work of God through His Spirit who is the One responsible for those who become Christians.  Do we have a choice in the matter, of course we do, I could have just gone on to bed that night, but I decided that I wanted to hear more...and glad that I made that decision.