My Journey of Faith

Lord! I am Yours! Use me.” I still remember that night, crying out to God in desperate agony and pain. I was done running; I was a broken man. Amid a flood of tears I promised God, “I will go wherever You lead.”

Just hours earlier my wife and I had buried our 10-year-old son—a victim of leukemia. Drawing close to God after many sleepless nights spent in anguished prayer, I made a promise to Him, not knowing where this journey of faith would take me. In a crisis I remembered: “With earnest, fervent prayer, plead for purity of soul. Plead as earnestly, as eagerly, as you would for your mortal life, were it at stake.”¹

Fifteen months later, in May 2001, we flew to the United States to spend time healing with family. I began volunteering at an Adventist academy in Maryland, developing their technology program. Soon afterward I was asked if I would be interested in interviewing for a position at the Ellen G. White Estate. This was a direct answer to prayer. I had been praying that God would open the door for me to become a digital missionary.

Six months later I began working for the White Estate. Always be faithful and put your trust in God, “believing that He loves us, and knows what is for our best good. Thus, instead of our own way, it leads us to choose His way.”² Ellen White wisely says, “By prayer, by the study of His Word, by faith in His abiding presence, the weakest of human beings may live in contact with the living Christ, and He will hold them by a hand that will never let go.”³

IMPORTANCE OF PARENTAL GUIDANCE

My conversion began in eighth grade while attending an Adventist school in Australia. I still remember riding home in the back of a school bus with friends when some of them started doing things that made me uncomfortable. I walked to the front of the bus and plopped down beside a classmate that everyone called a Goody Two-shoes. He was shocked! That decision started my journey toward a new life, one in harmony with my Adventist upbringing. The Bible states, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6).

Several weeks of deep conversation during our 1.5-hour daily bus ride to and from school resulted in my friend and I deciding to take baptismal classes with our local pastor. I remember him handing us Steps to Christ, the familiar volume with a picture of Jesus knocking on the United Nations building on the cover.

It was the first time I read an Ellen White book for myself. Its words spoke to me personally, bringing hope and a desire to follow Jesus. I highlighted the following passage when I was 14, and it prepared me for when I needed it most in the future. “God desires to heal us, to set us free. But since this requires an entire transformation, a renewing of our whole nature, we must yield ourselves wholly to Him.”⁴

ALWAYS FOLLOW GOD’S LEADING

Twenty-one years later, while standing in my new office looking at shelves of Ellen White books, I reached for my favorite well-marked copy of Steps to Christ. Thumbing through it, I stumbled upon the quote that, years earlier, had begun my journey of faith. I thanked God for leading me to my new home at the White Estate.

My first task was developing a new strategy for sharing the gift of light—Ellen White’s writings. By the grace of God, the White Estate now has three websites and four Ellen G. White (EGW) Writings apps detailed below that reached nearly 92 million visitors from 200 countries during 2021. Ellen White stated, “My writings will constantly speak, and their work will go forward as long as time shall last.”⁵

ELLEN WHITE ONLINE RESOURCES

Each of our websites focuses on different aspects of our ministry. Our most visited website, egwwritings.org, is an extensive database of both Ellen White and historical materials that encompasses 801,331 pages of digitized data contained within 2,908 books, documents, periodicals, and pamphlets.

The ellenwhite.org website is a complete digital resource study center. Some of its collections include: 1,895 answers to frequently asked questions; 6,570 articles and documents; 53,330 scanned letters and White Estate correspondence; 6,988 archive photographs; a virtual tour of the White Estate visitor center; information about our 23 global branch offices and research centers; lessons plans for teachers; and a Pioneer Adventures section full of activities, stories, and games for children to enjoy.

The whiteestate.org website provides information about the life and ministry of Ellen White and her estate. In addition, it features answers to key questions people may have about Ellen White and her prophetic ministry. It also provides access to featured EGW books, eBooks, and audiobooks on the site.

God used a crisis in my life to accomplish His purpose of providing millions of users, globally, free access to Ellen White’s writings. They have made the difference in my life and can do likewise for you. Remember: “God never leads His children otherwise than they would choose to be led, if they could see the end from the beginning and discern the glory of the purpose which they are fulfilling as coworkers with Him.”⁶

¹ Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1948), vol. 1, p. 163.
² Ellen G. White, Gospel Workers (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1915), p. 25.
³ Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1905), p. 182.
⁴ Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1892), p. 43.
⁵ E. G. White, Testimonies, vol. 9, p. 7.
⁶ E. G. White, The Ministry of Healing, p. 479.

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