Hi, I'm Ron, and my wife is Sarah, who serves in SEEDS, and this is my testimony. I was raised Catholic. It's pretty much by default in the Philippines. I grew up in the Catholic Church all the way through the early parts of college. Many things happened that made me question the sanctity of the Catholic Church, and by the time I graduated college, I was no longer Catholic.

I certainly did not behave like one. In college, I lost my full ride. I dropped my major and joined a fraternity where I began, or where I picked up drugs and alcohol. I was failing in college, and in order to recover, I started taking ADHD drugs, which helped me go from a 1.34 GPA to Dean's List by the time I was a senior.

Felt smart, accomplished. I had a success story, and that's all that mattered. That success story continued into my career in construction. In my first job, I went from making copies and filing documents to project manager within six months, but I continued to use drugs to help advance my career.

I had a list called the "How to be a Marketable Bachelor" list, and it was my vision to be the ultimate man. Over the years, I started checking off the boxes on the list, but drugs always played a role. I worked on the list for 10 years, and at the age of 33, I was making more money than most of my friends, cultured in the arts, good with my hands, a nice haircut, no cavities, low cholesterol, wearing designer jeans, and I could sail a boat, yet I didn't have a girlfriend to sail a boat with, and was addicted to drugs and feeling completely empty.

But one day, I got an email that changed my life forever. It eventually led to my salvation. I was selling something on Craigslist, and during the transaction, the buyer invited me to a program that was just starting at his Korean church in Irvine, introducing nonbelievers to Christianity. One of the items on my list was "Man of God" because of my Catholic upbringing, so I decided why not check another box?

And I drove to Irvine from Manhattan Beach for this eight-week program. During this program, I began to realize that the very manner in which I accomplished the things on that list was tainted with the existence of drugs. My success was a lie. It wasn't of my natural doing. I was trapped by addiction, and I feared that if I stopped, I wouldn't be able to continue being the person I've built myself up to be.

Each one of the items on that list was a mask that I put on, thinking it was going to make me someone of value, so I can be accepted and maybe someday loved. I just wanted to take them all off. The very person who I made myself to be was a product of sin, and I just wanted out.

Working on my "How to Be a Marketable Bachelor" list took over my life for 10 years, and many years before that was merely preparation to accomplish the list. I was a slave to the idea that I was in control. In 2 Corinthians 5:21, it says, "He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him." God provided me my only way out by sending me Jesus.

Christ became my sin. When he died on the cross, he took my sin with him, and his resurrection is my new life. During that eight-week program, it boggled my mind that about 20 to 25 people gave up their Sunday night for me and two other unbelievers. I asked myself, "Who are these people?

Why did they do all that for me and ask for nothing? What is this joy that they have? What is this secret that they all seem to hold that I can't seem to find?" I realized their desire for me to meet God was authentic. They were weird and kind because they served with this unnatural joy.

The secret I thought they all seemed to hold was, in fact, the very thing they had been trying to share, the love of God. I wanted to know the source of their unnatural joy. In witnessing their relationship with God, I realized I didn't really know God. So on the last day of the program, I prayed earnestly to meet him, and I wept for the first time in my life when I finally met God.

From then on, I drove hundreds of miles to attend this Korean church in Irvine. Although I met God at age 33, I am amazed when I realize God's hand in the events of my life in the past, right now, and as it unfolds. I believe there is a beautifully curated life that God has in plan for me.

Many times I have reflected on the events of my past, then realized how they affect me today, and I am comforted that God's love for me has no concept of time. I believe the very reason why God brought me to Irvine was to find Sarah, and then here to Burien.

I believe it all happened in perfect timing, and I'm excited to see the perfect plan God has in store. It's been close to 10 years since, but I was never baptized, so here I am to be baptized into Christ through immersion as the symbol of my union with his death and resurrection.

Thank you. >> You can understand Ron, and you want the water, you're hearing his heart's intent, and when you come out, you're in harmony with his resurrection life. I baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. (applause)