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My Testimony
I was raised in a strict Irish Roman Catholic home, and from childhood my one goal was to be a priest. I was wholly dedicated to my faith and to God as my church taught me to understand Him. I had no concept of His grace or salvation outside of sacramental works and the perpetual propitiatory sacrifice of the Mass. Despite all my works of charity, penance, and sacramental participation, I never knew the power to resist temptation, nor did I know peace within myself or with God. In April 1969, I was in my second year of study for the priesthood with the Order of Mary (the Marist Fathers) at a minor seminary in Langhorne Pennsylvania. I had a rare opportunity that Easter time to visit my family in Maitland, FL, where God had a divine appointment waiting for me.
That divine appointment was with a malevolent friend who was also a Catholic. Just a few months prior to my visit, this vicious man had a dramatic encounter with Jesus Christ and surrendered to Him. I found myself interacting with a verydifferent person. I can only describe him as having been transformed. When I asked of the source of his transformation; he told me of his encounter with Jesus Christ, and then he read to me Hebrews 9:24-28, Romans 5:1-11, and 1 John 5:9-14. Through those scriptures, God’s Spirit opened the eyes of my understanding. At my friend's leading, I knelt with him and repented of my sin, asked for, and surrendered to God's FREE gift of eternal life.
God on that Easter Saturday in 1969 filled me with a previously unknown peace, a release from guilt, and a sense of His presence that strengthened me through the next two years of some deep theological and spiritual conflicts. I returned to the minor seminary with a King James Bible (an offensive version), and many, many questions. All "Hell" broke loose as God's Spirit through His Word challenged my childhood faith, and I in turn challenged my Marist teachers. Looking back, I am very thankful that my Father confessor and spiritual advisor was a kind and merciful man who was also searching.
In late 1969 I found the Delaware Valley’s WCHR Christian radio (heard across PA, NJ, and DE. I listened daily to the teachings, systematically shifting my faith and practice from Catholic dogmas to Biblical directives, based on a "Literal Cultural Critical" interpretation of the Bible as my radio teachers and their books repeatedly modeled for me. For the next four years, I bought or borrowed every book and audio series available from Dr. James Boice, Dr. John R. Rice, "Back to the Bible", Dr. Lehman Strauss, the Moody Bible Series, and others. I could not absorb enough of God’s Word and the tools to grasp it. I also read many biographies. God used the stories of David Brainerd, John Stam, Jim Elliott, and a young Christian martyr in the Soviet Army named Vanya to inspire me to a life sold out to evangelism and missions.
In July 1971, as God led me from the Catholic Church (I had not entered a Protestant church), I "won" a national lottery (the Vietnam War draft). I immediately joined the Navy. In seven years with the Navy, Coast Guard, and N.O.A.A., I had the honor of leading dozens of shipmates and others to saving faith. I could not often attend church, so I started fellowships at sea, with those I led to Christ. In my last year in the Navy and for two years before joining the Coast Guard, a friend and I planted a church in Tampa, Florida by taking the gospel to the University of South Florida. In June 1975, I married my best friend; Diane Gleason from Cocoa Beach. God opened Diane’s womb on our honeymoon, and child number four was born on our fifth wedding anniversary. I joined the Coast Guard in 1977, and while at sea off the Oregon coast in February 1979, I was seriously injured and flown from my ship by helicopter to a government hospital in Seattle. It was determined that I was no longer fit for sea duty, and received a medical discharge. I have never recovered from those injuries or the chronic pain.
God used that awful event in 1979 to begin our training for missions. After two weeks of fasting and prayer, Diane and I resolved to begin radical preparations for foreign missions. We knew from living in and visiting other countries in our separate pasts that the places God could call us to, would not likely have the well-to-do lifestyles we grew up with, or enjoyed in our first five years of marriage. It was easy to say that we would go and serve Him anywhere; but could we really do it? We were challenged too concerning our love for God. Was our love based on all the good things we expected from His hand; or was our love based on who He is regardless of what we had? Did we love God or His gifts? We were challenged by Job 1:9-11. If we had nothing would we still love Him? It took us a year to painfully give away nearly all of our possessions.
In the summer of 1980, with no debits and few possessions; we began an experiment in simplicity which continues today. To further wean ourselves from materialism, we traded our only car for a dilapidated 1951 school bus. We lived that summer with our four children ages 4 years to 3 months in a derelict goat shed in Washington State's Olympic Mountains until our school bus was livable. I combined my life-long art and craft skills with my marine mechanic skills from the Navy and Coast Guard to convert an old bus into a cozy motorhome for six. Eighteen years later our youngest child graduated high school and moved out of our fourth bus home while Diane and I were in Siberia. God had weaned us from personal materialism, from the expense and burdens of superfluous things, from the bondage of impressing others, and from the tyranny of seeking contentment or significance apart from knowing and doing God’s pleasure.
While serving with N.O.A.A., I read that Philadelphia College of Bible had purchased my old Catholic seminary campus, and in 1984 I earned my BS in Bible from the same Langhorne campus where I had studied for the priesthood thirteen years before. Then from 1985 to 1992, I walked the streets and alleys of an inner-city Philadelphia drug slum from 11 PM to 5 AM, six nights a week ministering to drug gangs and street people, holding weekly midnight church meetings in a notorious crack house. For most of seven years I watched God miraculously transform many young men and women.
To get our children through high school and for me to attend Reformed Theological Seminary, we moved to Orlando, in 1994. It was then that I heard God’s call to Siberia. From 1994 to 1996 I did evangelism on the campus of the University of Central Florida, and we prepared for Siberia. In June of 1996 we received a call from a Russian man charged with finding us a residence in Siberia. He was much distressed in that he could only find housing too small for Americans-a narrow 250 sq. ft. We really brightened his day, by informing him that his provision was perfect, at ten sq. ft. larger than our comfortable school bus home. God is so wonderful!
Through my years at sea in the Navy doing undercover narcotics work, as a Coast Guard search and rescue boarding officer, as a pastor in the gang turfs and crack houses of inner city Philadelphia, and as a pioneer evangelist, living through five horrific winters in the isolated and infamous "Black Hole" of Siberia: God miraculously rescued my life many times. Each time I escaped certain death, I had a stronger sense of resolve to live in loving service for my King and His Kingdom.
I surrendered to Christ while studying for the Catholic priesthood and learned to transfer my faith and practice from human traditions and institutions to God's infallible Word alone. In the Navy I learned boldness in witness and how to live (incarnate) before men in close quarters, my faith without shame. In Luke 19:10 says that Jesus came to seek and to save (S.A.R.) the lost. In the Coast Guard I learned search and rescue and physically laid down my life to rescue the perishing-most in peril while engaging in illegal activities. In inner city Philadelphia, I learned that while men and boys put on tough menacing exteriors to elevate self and intimidate others through hate, drugs, and violence; all human hearts are wracked with inner pain and emptiness that only the love and Spirit of God can heal. In Siberia I learned that my God is not impressed by or bound by satanic walls built to obstruct His gospel message. He would not let us be discouraged or hindered by angry Russian Orthodoxy, rabid Islam, atheism, shamanism, cruel and corrupt police, isolation, anti-missionary laws, brutal living conditions, perilously high nuclear fallout, malnourishment, or pandemic disease.
To the most closed and hostile region of north-central Siberia’s infamous "Black Hole" God sent two Americans, who were certified physically and psychologically unfit for missionary service by 26 American mission agencies. With just $5 in a checking account, two Delta Sky Miles tickets, and no promise of support from anyone, we went by faith. For six plus years we watched in awe as God used us to bring faith and relief aid to many isolated and hurting villages, one divine appointment and miracle at a time.
In thirty-five years of service to my King, I have learned that the safest place on this planet is in the middle of God's will, regardless of what men say is too dangerous or who they say is unreachable. I have learned that God honors no man-made barriers, nor does He honor human wisdom which discounts His power, His love, or His Spirit.
I have learned that the word "worship" comes from "WORTH-ship." Worth is the value I assign to things, ideas, or persons; not in words but by what or who receives the best of my time, finances, and energy. I serve with my time and strength what or who is closest to my heart. God’s worth is not found in expensive church buildings erected for my comfort. His true WORTH-ship is found in the price I will pay in service to Him. Jesus placed His worth on me by laying down His life for me. That means I am very valuable to Him. 1 John 3:16 is my fitting Biblical and love response to John 3:16. The transmittance of His Gospel and the glorification of His name are of far greater value than my paltry sacrifices to accomplish them. It is my passion to do and teach the pioneer evangelism and missions I have lived whenever and wherever God would permit me to do so.
Today, we are a ministry conduit to fledgling churches in the Siberian wilderness. We are also blessed grandparents deeply contented with our Father’s provision in all things. Our home in Siberia is a primitive log cabin, and our home in America is a delivery van I converted: both are effective tools for God’s kingdom. We are able to go where and when He leads. How wonderfully wealthy we have become; to be servants of the most-high God!
Dr. Michael V. Meagher, SR
Founder, Siberian Mission
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