There’s nothing more powerful than the testimony of someone whose life was spared and transformed by the power of Jesus Christ, and that’s certainly true for Chris Lane!
“My parents were divorced when I was just four years old,” he begins, “and ours was a non-Christian home where we never read the Bible, and we never talked about God.
“It was hard to make friends because we moved around a lot,” Chris continues, “so I started playing sports—and that’s where I found acceptance. But when a friend showed me the drug stash he’d found in the basement, I quickly discovered they would solve all my problems! I used drugs every chance I could, because I was always looking for that good feeling where my mind was clouded and I didn’t have to deal with the reality of my bad life.”
Hitting Bottom
Chris continued using drugs until depression finally caused him to drop out of school. “My mother had kicked me out when I was 13, so I lived with my grandmother for a while. But when that didn’t work out, I began living with friends for a month at a time,” he says. “I enrolled myself in high school and managed to get by for a year. But it was too hard to use drugs and go to school, so I finally dropped out and began selling drugs, instead.”
As his world crashed, Chris finally turned to a friend in desperation. “What should I do with my life?” he asked, and his friend answered, “Why don’t you read your Bible for ten minutes every night?”
“I honestly tried,” Chris says, “but my brain was so fried I couldn’t focus for more than five minutes! Someone told me the Old Testament had been done away with, so I began reading the gospels. When I got to Matthew 7:7 I read, ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.’ So I begged God for another chance.
“‘I’ll do what You want me to do!’ I promised—and I instantly knew Someone had heard me and answered me, because I was completely delivered from drugs that day! Immediately the Holy Spirit began showing me the things I was doing wrong, and I had no more desire to do evil!”
Through a series of miracles, Chris was given a place to stay and enrolled in a Christian university. Then he met a young man from Spain who invited him to visit in the summer. “I met his father, who worked across the border in Morocco,” Chris says. “He risked his life every time he talked about Jesus or the Bible, and after that, the Holy Spirit began impressing me every time I prayed that if I wanted to be a Christian, I’d have to do the same! Sometimes I’d go for weeks without praying because I just couldn’t get that thought out of my head!
“Finally, I broke down and said, Okay, Lord, I’ll go anywhere. I don’t care how dangerous or disgusting—I’ll do it! It was a frightened prayer, but it was the prayer He wanted!”
Mexico
Soon Chris found that a non-denominational school in Nava, Mexico, needed a physical education teacher, so he went for a summer, expecting to learn Spanish first. “As soon as I arrived, though, I realized no one spoke English, and that they expected me to start teaching immediately! It was sink or swim, but I managed; and by the time I was supposed to return to the States, I knew this was the life God intended for me.”
Questions—and Answers!
Despite loving his job, Chris was distressed about how things were being managed, and several months later, he returned to his grandmother’s home in Tennessee.
“Then one day I turned on her TV and saw someone preaching on 3ABN, a channel I’d never seen before,” Chris says. “But this guy wasn’t talking all crazy like the people I was used to. He was backing up everything he said with Scripture! So I’d write down all the verses in the morning, study them all day, then watch the repeat at night. Soon I was convicted about the seventh-day Sabbath! And here’s the strange thing,” he adds. “My grandmother was the only one who could pick up 3ABN!” (We’ve heard this before!)
Chris found the friendly Maryville Seventh-day Adventist Church, and a month later, joined it by profession of faith! Excited by new truths, he couldn’t wait to tell his friends in Mexico and soon was back there again, trying to study the Bible with anyone who would sit still long enough!
“There was a huge need for Bibles, so I prayed for God to send us some, then e-mailed my pastor back in the States,” he says. “But when he wrote back saying someone had just walked into the church and donated 1,000 Bibles for Mexico, it blew my mind! That was definitely the Lord!”
Chris began distributing the Bibles immediately, but his excitement about the Sabbath was not shared by the school leaders, who followed him around, telling the people not to listen to him.
Facing an uphill battle, Chris returned to the States and enrolled in a school of evangelism where an anonymous donor helped pay for his studies.The next summer he mentored young people who were learning to conduct evangelistic meetings. Finally, he received a call to be a Bible worker in Wenatchee, Washington, and the next day Chris was flying out west!
“Despite some people’s doubts, the Lord blessed there, too,” Chris says. “I was able to give hundreds of Bible studies in 70 different homes—65 of which didn’t have a Bible—and we gave away hundreds of Bibles, and thousands of books! That just proved to me that the Lord will bless if we show up.”
New Mission Adventure
Currently, Chris works as a missionary to Bangkok, Thailand, a city of 12 million souls—and only 1,200 Seventh-day Adventists. He’s learning the Thai language, teaching English, and making trips daily into the unentered areas of that city.
In his typical manner, he is upbeat about this new experience. “I’ve been handing out basic Christian literature to taxi and motorcycle taxi drivers,” he says. “A previous missionary painted a mural of the Second Coming of Jesus on the side of a building, so I get a taxi to that mural, give them some literature, and point to the painting. I think I have shown it to all the taxi drivers in my area!” he adds with a laugh.
“I’ve also decided to use the Bible as our textbook in my English classes. The other day we studied salvation, and since I know so little Thai, I tried to explain everything by drawing pictures on the board. When I drew a picture of Jesus being crucified, it really touched the people in my class and they started crying! The mercy of God was revealed to four new Buddhist souls, so I asked them if they wanted to accept Jesus’ free gift of salvation—and two of them did! We knelt together and asked Jesus to forgive us. I’m not exactly sure how much they understood, but I did my best, and I know the Holy Spirit will do the rest.”
Because of the the prayers and financial gifts of our supporters, 3ABN was there when Chris was desperately searching for answers. His heart eagerly embraced the Bible truths, and he immediately responded to the call of the Holy Spirit. We know the Lord will continue to bless Chris, and all those who join us in proclaiming the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14 to a lost and dying world!