Brian Bolt

His Testimony:

By 19 yrs old Brian was drug-trafficking across the border from Tijuana to the United States. His addiction to heroine was driving him to do terrible things-posing as a U.S. Soldier of the Army serving as a double agent for the drug world. He eventually got caught by the Army and got into serious trouble, but then later returned to drugs again after he was released.

I found this particularly riviting to me personally because I came from a similar addiction to drugs and riotous living. Its amazing to to me to know where God will dig up His tools to build magnificent things!

By 23 yrs old in San Diego he got caught up in a bad drug-deal resultig in his being shot in the face at a bar. He made the statement: "I was actually glad to know that I was going to die; that it was finally going to be all over!" Before he was put in an ambulance, someone noticed he was not going 2 make it to the Hospital & asked him if he knew Jesus as his Lord & Savior. He said the sinners prayer right there. He miraculously recovered over an extended period of time. His face was a mess-replaced with titanium and plastic surgery. The government spent nearly a million dollars to fix him all up. After the hospital however, he went directly out to get high all over again.

This points out to me that it doesn't matter how miraculous God may go out of the way to prove to us that He is there-we will still exhibit our stubborn inheirent nature! But the best ones sometimes come from a stubborn background.

Somehow there were people who noticed Brian and began to minister to him, telling him that God had placed a call on his life and that there was something important that God had to do yet with his life.

Somehow through compelling ministry and evangelism, his heart was pulled into the church. He found himself later in East L.A. from San Diego. The pastor from East L.A. had a heart from Pittsburgh. They flew out there to get a scope on possibly planting a church there. There, he met a woman he began to share with and she gave him a card for Masters Commission. There a seed was planted for him to begin an educational process to become a minister. Brian was in Masters for a couple months & broke one of their major tenants: he went and got married. (the rule was not to date)

Church Planting Assessment (Tom Rees): competencies of those who have established successful Churches. The assessment looks at a number of differing factors: the ability to communicate with unchurched people; the progressive growth between weeks of an established meeting/group.

Jeff Leek heard of Brian's heart to plant a Latino church in Pittsburgh. Tom's support and the prayers of many brought him finally to the place where he is today! (Pittsburgh City Outreach)

Brian's church was actually started from a "Men's Home" (Drug Rehab) as a result of disciple-ing them to become good stewards of God's will.

Funny Story: the store across the street from the church had pornographic material posted up on its windows. Brian went across with some guys and asked the man to take them down. At first the man wouldn't agree to it. But Brian later came back with the guys, this time with a baseball bat. The man agreed at that point (lol).

I thought this story totally ROCKED!!! I'm one who believes the best testimony is the story of a changed life! Brian's life is a trophy of just how bad things can get in a person's life, and yet the marvelous potential it holds in the eyes of our Lord!