Hello! My name is Matthew Young, I am the assistant pastor here at Fountain of Life Bible Church in Johnson City Tenn. (www.flbconline.com). I have been married to my bride for 9 years and I have two wonderful children Skyler 9 and Mattisun 5.
Now I want to fill you in on my salvation experience and what lead me to the Lord. I came to know the Lord at an early age, my dad is a minister and he lead me to salvation in my bedroom when I was 7 years old. I think that I knew even then that I was supposed to be a minister, but I didn’t want to do it. I followed the Lord (half heartedly) all through my teenage years, but after my best friend died of cancer and when I started college I really got out into the world. I was a very selfish, self centered, womanizing, and as I put it, a low life. I have done things that I am embarrassed about and that I am ashamed of. All the while I was out in the world I knew better, but I refused to follow the Lord. I guess in a way I was like Jonah, I knew what I was supposed to do, but ran and refused to do it. I even joined the Air Force, but was sent home after a week of boot camp when I injured my back. Well fast forward to my late 20’s early 30’s, and the Lord tried really got my attention. At that time I had a couple of real dizzy spells, I didn’t think much about it, I just thought it was inner ear, but one day I was at work and my hands started to shake uncontrollably, I called my dad in a panic but he said maybe it was too much caffeine. I had been battling depression and was on several anti-depressants, so the doctor thought maybe it was my medication, so he told me to just quit cold turkey. When I quit, I started hallucinate and I tried to commit suicide. I was put in the pavilion for a few days and was sent home. Unfortunately, the shaking got extremely worse, my arms flailed uncontrollably, my head shook horribly, my wife had to cut my food and help feed me, it was without a doubt the most horrible thing you could imagine, it is a nightmare to be trapped in your own body. The doctors couldn’t explain it, I had Parkinson like symptoms, but it wasn’t Parkinson’s. They were getting ready to send me to Virginia to a specialty hospital to go into my brain and run some tests to stop the shaking. Well after a year of hell on earth, I got real dizzy again and within a few days my shaking started to slowly decrease and after a few weeks the shaking was completely gone! I know I had many, many people praying for me and I know that it was purely and totally a miracle that I was healed. I am no longer on any medication and I praise God that I was delivered from this nightmare. At that point Jesus clearly had my attention, I totally turned my life over to Jesus and I recently graduated from Luther Rice with my Bachelor of Arts in Religion and now looking to get my Masters in counseling. I truly love the Lord, I am so undeserving of His grace and love and I pray that I will always boldly preach the Word!