Photo taken about 1966, when I was 19 years old.

"He did it for me and He can do it for you"

2O Years On

I am Andy Acamon and this is my true life story - how God entered and changed my life. Just over 20 years ago people knew me as a tough and violent person. You may not have been as bad as I was, but you need Jesus Christ, and He could change your life, too!

I was born in Oulton Broad near Lowestoft, England. I come from a family of five children, having two brothers and two sisters, with a Spanish father and an English mother. I was brought up with very little discipline and in my early teens started getting into trouble with the police. When I was about fourteen I was sent to a Remand Home for riding motor bikes under age, and at the age of fifteen I was in court for the same offence, but this time I received a sentence of up to three years in Kerrison Approved School in Suffolk. At first I was bullied and pushed around, but soon I learned to look after myself and became known as a fighter. After serving around nineteen months I was released, but soon after I was back in court, this time on assault charges. I was sent to North Sea Detention Centre, near Boston, for three months. After everything I had been through, I came out a hardened man and continued with my life of crime. I thought nothing of lying, cheating and stealing, and would do anything for my own gain.

In 1968 I married my wife Janet and had a son. My wife wanted him christened, but I would not set foot in a church for any reason. I became a bouncer at a seedy night club in town and then became a tattoo artist. My wife had always wanted another child, but seventeen years went by before we had a baby daughter. Once again my wife wanted to have our new-born christened, but this led to several arguments. In the end I agreed. At the time I was having a speed boat built, and when I went over to the boat yard the men who worked there had to shut the doors so the women could not hear my filthy language. One day I was talking about my wife wanting the baby christened, when one of the men at the boat yard asked me to go along to his church. He told me that they did dedications instead of christenings. Well, we went along one Sunday morning and continued to attend each week. By the time my daughter was dedicated to the Lord on her first birthday, the Lord had started to work in my heart. As the gospel was preached I gradually realised that God had sent His son, Jesus Christ, to die for my sins and that I had to ask Him to forgive me and come into my life. One Sunday afternoon in November 1986 I cried out to the Lord Jesus for mercy and asked Him to save me. From then on my life changed. I found that I could not swear or do any of the things I had been doing. A few weeks later I stopped tattooing because I knew this was not what He wanted me to do.

What has changed?

I agreed with God that I am a sinner. I accepted that Jesus' death on the cross was the only way I could get these sins removed. He did that to give me a new life, eternal life that will last forever. I did not become religious but found a person, God's Son, Who loved me and wanted me to be His. He promised never to let me go! Even if I let him down I am in His safe hands.

The Bible says.. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2 Corinthians ch.5 v.17)

Now I live each day for my Lord and Saviour who suffered and died for me so that I could have my sins forgiven and receive eternal life. I am now born again, I have eternal life, and through the grace of God I am going to heaven. Would you also like to go there?

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." (Ephesians ch.2 v.8)

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved." (John ch.3 v.16,17)

Recently, and for some time, there has been discussion on TV and radio about the mystery of out-of-the-body experiences. People who have been on the point of death, but have been revived, describe how they apparently left their bodies, so that that they could see their bodies, seemingly lifeless, below them.  When you die your spirit or soul - which is the real part of you - will leave your body as an empty shell, and, if you are born again, go to live in Heaven with the One Who has saved you. But if you rely upon your own merit, then you are not born again; you will come under judgement and will be sentenced to everlasting punishment.

Do you know where you are going? All who want to go to heaven "Must be Born Again". Jesus talked about heaven, and He said, "In my Father's House are many mansions." Also He said "I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me". (John ch.14 vs.2,6)

The Lord Jesus Christ is the only Saviour there is.

If Jesus is right (and He most certainly is), then all other ways are wrong! Religions are a waste of time; they cannot save you, only Jesus can. God did not create the religions of the world; man did, to satisfy his conscience! Man is "forever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth". (2 Timothy ch.3 v.7). This is not Religion, it is Life!

Do you know the one who died on the cross for you?

When Jesus came He told us something that no religion has ever thought of, and which contradicts the baasic principle of all religions. He said to Nicodemus (a sincere but religious man), "Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God". (John ch.3 v.3) Jesus said that He is the only way to God the Father, and the new birth is the only way to heaven. What did He mean? He meant a spiritual birth whereby a person is able to confess his sins to Jesus Christ, accept Him as Saviour, and receive a new life. This is the Gospel.

Look and Live. Out of Religion, and into Christ!  

The Bible references (in brackets) show the name of the book in the Bible followed by the ch. for chapter and v. for Verse.

For further information contact: 
Andy & Janet Acamon (01502) 732 727

If you live in or near Lowestoft, you will find a warm welcome at Tonning Street Hall. Meetings every Sunday at 6.30 p.m. (01502 511 273)