My Story… My testimony…
Some of you do, but many of you don’t know my story, so I would like to share it with you. I have grown up with some of you, both physically as well as spiritually. Some of us attended grade school together. Some of us attended high school together. Some of us attended college together. Some of us worked together in various secular jobs… and some of us have been separated by circumstances and time… so I would like to share my story with you.
I guess my story begins with being raised in a Christian household, attending our family church in Swoyersville, Pennsylvania, St. Nicholas Byzantine Catholic Church. I continued to worship there, with my family, until I moved away from home to attend college in Bloomsburg, PA. in 1975.
Before I talk about Bloomsburg, I’d like to back up a bit and mention a few things about growing up in Swoyersville. I had 2 older sisters and I was the only boy, and the youngest in the family. My older sisters were 6 and 7 years older than I… so when they turned 21, I was just 14 years old. Being that they were 21, I was able to convince them to purchase wine for me, the cheap $1.50/bottle Boon’s Farm stuff, which I hid in our basement. At 14, I got high on wine whenever I wanted to… which, in retrospect, became more and more frequent.
When I went away to college, there was no more need to hide it any longer, as a matter of fact; it was considered ‘cool’ to be indulgent… to get ‘ripped’ every weekend. Weekends began to expand into weekdays, and life began to be one never-ending party. My grades suffered, and I did manage to graduate, but I did so with a GPA that could have been much better – if I hadn’t spent so much time with extra-curricular activities at the local bars and fraternity parties.
The best thing that happened to me during this period of my life was that I met my wife to be, Sally. Sally and I were married in that same college town in 1980, and we have been married 30 years… and although I don’t say it as much as I should, I love her very much. Even though we partied together in college and in the years that followed, she turned out to be the anchor in my life, which kept me from going too far, from wandering too far down the wrong paths in the years to come.
Over the years I continued to drink. As the pressures of life increased; the pressures of my job, of children, of having to commute over an hour to get to work for more than 14 years, of dealing with the bills and mortgage payments, working 2 jobs to pay the bills, and whatever else… I tried to escape the pressures of life by drinking more and more, I tried to medicate myself. Eventually I was trapped, I became addicted, and I was out of control.
Looking back, I know that God was watching over me, even when I was living a double life, if not, I would have ended this life long ago from driving drunk or liver disease… possibly even taking innocent people along with me. Fortunately, I was never ‘caught’ in the act or hurt anyone.
In the 90’s it got to the point where I finally admitted that I had a problem. I told my wife Sally, and she laughed at me, until I took her to the basement to show her where I was hiding all of my bottles. I sought help from my friends and family and co-workers… they helped me get through that difficult time… and this was truly the lowest point that I ever experienced in my life… it was a hellish place to be.
A few days passed and things in the Hilla household became very quiet… I was getting the silent treatment… and Sally and the boys decided to attend a musical presentation at a church in Christiana, Delaware (we were living in Kennett Square, PA at the time). I asked if I could go along. At the end of the presentation, the pastor came out and had an altar call. They brought out a life-sized wooden cross and placed it on the altar and began playing the hymn “The Old Wooden Cross.” I stood up and I was the first to go down to that cross… I got on my knees and the tears began to flow. In that moment, I gave my heart and mind and soul to Jesus, I surrendered my life to Christ. In that moment, as I looked up through my tears, I envisioned God reaching down to lift me from the lowest place that I ever experienced in my life… and in that moment, God took away my addiction. From that moment on, until this day… I never had another desire to drink. God changes lives, and Jesus saves lives!
From that moment in that church, my life began to change. I began living for Christ rather than living for the things of this world. I began reading my Bible more and more; it was as if I couldn’t get enough of God’s Word! I began listening to Christian radio stations. I began writing deeply theological writings and poetry. Within the next year, I discerned that God was calling me serve Him and His people through ordained ministry. I admittedly wrestled with this call. I was making the most money I ever made in any job, we just built our own dream house overlooking the Amish farmlands of Lancaster county, we had three cars, a fireplace, a huge wooded lot, we had everything we ever wanted, life was good… this is what I worked for all my life! I felt like Moses… “Why me? I can’t speak well, and I feel like I’m going to faint in front of groups of people!” But regardless, I trusted and I followed God’s call, I was obedient to God. I resigned from my job as a manager for a national mail order pharmacy, and I enrolled in seminary as a full time student. I graduated from Lancaster Theological Seminary in May of 2004, Cum Laude. Today I am an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), joyfully serving God and God’s people in Iowa! Jesus changes lives!
God saves us from ourselves through Christ Jesus (John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave it his only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but shall have eternal life).
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:21).
Those who Christ calls, he strengthens and empowers, he sends them into the world to teach and to become servants (Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me”).
I hope and pray that none of you ever have to go through what I have gone through. I stand in testimony to the fact that drugs and alcohol have the potential to destroy your life, and certainly will destroy your life if you become their bedfellow. I escaped the clutches of death, both physically as well as spiritually, by God’s power, and only through Christ’s saving grace… and I am eternally grateful. I pray that you too, would come to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and to allow Him to take control of your life as well.
In Christ’s everlasting love,
Andrew Hilla
