 with
guest:
Daren George
I was raised by my grandparents but I was still quite young when my
grandfather died. My grandmother did her best, even though it was like a
big piece of her life was gone. Then she passed away when I was in my
teen years. And that is when my struggles really started. Actually it
had something to do with what happened just before she died.
We used to go to a small church in Telkwa, BC. Everybody knew
everybody -- it was kind of a close-knit family. It was nice. But then
the church was closed down and we all moved to the next town, and I saw
a big difference there. We worshipped with a lot of people there, but
what happened there resulted in me turning away from God and from the
church.
There were some people there that kind of looked down on us and one
day, when we were leaving the service, some people said something out
loud -- loud enough so that my grandmother heard it. It really broke
her heart. I saw her cry and she wasn't just crying for herself, but
for me.
I said, "I'm never going to come back here again." And
that's when my roller-coaster life started. After my grandmother died
it was like anything connected to God disappeared.
I had an emptiness inside me, and I tried to fill it with one
relationship after another. I was seen as a leader, and when I was
partying I always had a lot of people around me. I thought it was great
but I noticed after a while that my friends were looking more at what I
had under my arm, and how much money I had in my wallet. So I kept
trying to find something to fill the empty spot in my life.
Through my travels I met a beautiful woman in Fraser Lake. We started
seeing each other and fell in love. We had a baby boy -- a beautiful
son and that kind of changed my life at the time. I remember holding my
son in my arms for the first time -- it was just awesome.
A couple of years later we had another child -- this time a
beautiful daughter. And I thought to myself, "Wow, this is it!
I've got a million dollar family now. I've got a beautiful son and a
beautiful daughter and a beautiful wife." But there was still that
emptiness in my life.
With my leadership skills I soon found myself in native politics. I
really wanted to help my people -- I saw all the pain on the reserves,
and among those off the reserve, as well. I thought that native politics
would be the answer. I started locally, joining the United Native
Nations, and later became vice president. Pretty soon I was on the board
of directors for BC and started traveling quite a bit. Slowly I started
getting separated from my family.
Then I got involved on a national level, traveling right across the
country. But there was still that emptiness that was in my life. I tried
to fill it, but I started losing my family. Booze and drugs again
started making things complicated. My spouse and I began heading in
different directions. Pretty soon, through drugs and alcohol, I found
myself in a place that I should never have been.
Very often it is a crisis that causes people to re-evaluate their
lives. For Daren, it was at a Christmas party where he realized that his
marriage had come to an end. This was his reaction to the break-up:
I jumped in my truck and I was going to drive myself into the river.
I was heading right for it and I was just going to step on the gas when
I heard this voice -- just like it was saying to me, "What about
your kids?"
I shook it off and I was just about at the river when I heard the
same voice, "What about your kids?" I slammed on the brakes
and stopped right before the river -- I clearly remember the sound of
the rocks from the road hitting the water.
I just screamed out, "God, help me! I don't know what I'm
going to do!" I sat there and cried for what seemed like an hour.
After that I just collected myself together and went up to get my kids --
they were sleeping that night at their grandparents' place. As I
took them home I said to myself, "Some things have got to change
here."
So I quit drinking and I quit drugs. I devoted my whole life to my
kids. That went on for about six months, but loneliness crept in. It
started off with a couple of drinks on Friday after work. Pretty soon it
was Friday and Saturday ... then all weekend ... and then another
relationship. My life was just a roller-coaster again. I would see the
look in my children's faces, but I would end up thinking, "It's
no use."
My aunt and my sister had been inviting me to a "family
camp." I felt like they were nagging me a lot about it so finally
in my mind I said, "Alright, I'll go just to shut you up."
So I went and the SonRise Band was there. They were sharing God's
truth through their songs and through words from the Bible. And then at
the end of their concert it was just as if my heart was breaking.
They asked all those who wanted to get right with God to come to the
front. It was like a magnet -- I had to get up. I went forward and I
gave my life to the Lord.
That night I found out the reason for the emptiness in my life. The
hollow space in my life was really the shape of Christ. So it was only
Christ Jesus who could fill that spot. When I gave my life to the Lord,
I started finding freedom. I was able to kick the booze and the drugs.
And I saw that my relationships were not honoring God. Little by little
God started to take these things out of my life. Through reading His
Word, the Bible, I found strength to give my whole life to God -- my
body, my mind and my soul. I even began serving the Lord in youth
ministry.
I hadn't realized it, but my sister and my aunt, along with
pastor/missionaries, Doug and Sherry Anderson, and others, had all been
praying for me. It was that prayer that brought me to Christ. And
Christ's love had shone through each one of them.
The more I got into God's Word, the more I started to see that
there were other things that needing changing in my life. It is
humbling, but I've found that the more God humbles me, the more He can
use me.
One day the Andersons were literally plucked out of our community.
Their son was diagnosed with cancer and almost overnight they moved to
Vancouver. Our fellowship was left asking, "Now what are we going
to do?" All of a sudden everyone's eyes were off of the Andersons
for leadership and shifted over to me.
Suddenly I was the one to bring the Word in our fellowship. But
that's when I grew leaps and bounds spiritually, because to prepare a
message I really had to know who the Lord is. I had to get on my knees
to see what God wanted me to speak. I didn't want it to be my word, but
I wanted it to be His. And as I sought after Him, He has shown Himself
to me.
What you have just read was adapted from a television
broadcast of Tribal Trails. We would be happy to hear your response.
Please contact us.
To meet more people like Daren George -- Native North Americans
whose lives have been changed by Jesus Christ -- be sure to tune in to
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