 Hi, this is Pastor David Rosales of Calvary Chapel of the Chino Valley, California. I was recently thinking of the fact that I have been doing Facebook Live broadcasts for a while now and have not taken the opportunity of actually introducing myself. With that in mind, I want to introduce myself to you by sharing a bit of my personal testimony. I was born in Whittier, California in 1950 and I grew up in Norwalk, California. I was raised Roman Catholic and was baptized in Los Angeles at La Placita Church. I went on to receive my first communion when I was 8 years old and my confirmation when I was 12. In spite of my basic religious training at the age of 15, I began to experiment with alcohol, moved on to marijuana, finally began to experiment with hallucinogenics. From the time I was a small boy, I longed to be in love and to be loved. Like all of you, this kind of longing is natural because it is God-given. My problem was that I longed to be loved by a girl, then later by a woman. And there was more than just loneliness in me. There was an aching void that just never seemed to be filled and I thought a woman could feel it. As I grew older, I came to realize that I did not trust anyone. Of course, there were many reasons why this was so, not the least, being my mother's serious and frequent illnesses that left me extremely insecure. As a child, I didn't think that she would survive because of her illnesses and I grew up with a deep fear that one day I would come home and find her dead. This fear led me to, on one hand, to desire a loving relationship with someone, but on the other hand, it caused me to be certain that such a thing could not really happen because you never really know when the one you love will vanish from your life. When I grew into a young teen, I had typical crushes, but many of them were just quick. I was the guy who didn't really have a lot of relationships. I'd pretty much care for somebody, but not really allow myself to care too deeply for her. At the age of 16, I really only had two girlfriends and both of them cared for me, but were hurt by my crazy life and selfishness and they eventually just couldn't put up with me and they broke up with me. The first breakup didn't bother me too much, but the second breakup devastated me because I really thought I was in love. When the second breakup occurred, I went into a huge tailspin, began living a dangerously crazy life. I was never consciously suicidal, but I began taking risks that, if continued, could have ended up with my death. I just didn't care anymore. I began to drink more heavily to mix drugs and alcohol. I was so lonely, so brokenhearted that I just pretty much gave up on life and lost any hope that it would ever get any better. At this time, I began to see friends die tragically. One was under the influence of alcohol, reds and acid. He drove his motorcycle into the back of a parked truck, killing him instantly. Another died of a drug overdose. Another was stabbed to death. What hit me the hardest was the death of a childhood friend that I had known from the age of five. My dear friend Ray was shot to death in a backyard across the street from where I lived and I began thinking that I too might end up dead if I didn't change the way that I was living. It was during this time that my friend Bill began attending a small church in Costa Mesa called Calvary Chapel. At that time, I was a hippie and Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa was a church gaining national fame for being a hippie church. In the late summer of 1970, I went to this church for the first time and I was impressed by the love that kids seemed to have in their lives. My first visit to the church was made after drinking beer and smoking marijuana, but nobody noticed. All I knew was that there was something there that I didn't have and I was impressed. Shortly after visiting the church, I almost overdosed. I drank nearly a half gallon of wine, took five reds and almost died. I was lying in my station wagon on a mattress. I felt the urge to vomit but was paralyzed, not able to turn my head. I knew that if I began to vomit, I would suffocate on my own vomit and would drown. For the first time in many years, I prayed, I prayed, God, please don't let me die. I'm only 19, don't let me die. I remember thinking about how terrible it would be for my mother and father to discover my body and I asked God for help. God spared my life, but it didn't cause me to turn to the Lord. When I survived this near-death experience, I began seeking an answer for the pain my heart was feeling. It was about three months later that the pain and the hurt that I was feeling, not to mention the huge amount of guilt I carried, was used by the Lord to bring me to Him. The date was December 27, 1970. I met Jesus at a youth concert in Hollywood at the invitation of a street evangelist by the name of Arthur Blessed. My life was changed. I went into the military three months after being saved and served in the army in the 82nd Airborne Division. After being discharged, I attended Biola College in Lamarota, California and in 1973 I began teaching a home Bible study in Norwalk and then in 1974 I began teaching a second Bible study in the city of Ontario, California. I wish I could say that the loneliness that I lived with was instantly removed, but it wasn't. I kept longing for love. One day the Lord made it clear that my plans were not His and I submitted to Him my hopes, my dreams, wishes and pains and asked Him to place me in the same place He had put Adam in before He brought Eve to Him. I asked God to put me to sleep to my longings and determined to delight myself in Him. It was at that time that I met the girl who would one day become my wife. I met Marie. Marie married a man under construction, but she married a man who had learned to love Jesus more than anyone else. I've never placed her before the Lord. I've never looked at her to be my savior, the one who would fill all the empty spaces of my life. Only Jesus has ever been able to do that. And the blessing is that she married a man who did not have such a great need to be loved who actually wanted to learn to love other people. I began ministrying in a Calvary Chapel in Claremont, California. I was ordained as a pastor in 1979. On July of 1981, I planted a church that is known today as Calvary Chapel of the Chino Valley. Over these many years, I have seen God bless in so many ways, beautiful babies, precious grand babies, friends, church members who are too numerous to count. At this time, I have taught the Bible for almost 45 years and am now in my 37th year of pastoring this amazing and loving church. 37 amazing years filled with lessons, hurts, disappointments, losses, and sorrows that have been healed by God's amazing goodness, love, grace, mercy, compassion, and care that have overflowed in my life. I thought it right for me to introduce myself to you. And as I close, may I say that it is my sincere prayer that you know the Lord and that you love and serve Him every day. There's no greater joy than serving Jesus. May God bless you as you do. This is Pastor David Rosales of Calvary Chapel of the Chino Valley, California.