MARC I. LANGERMAN
This is my personal testimony on how I received Jesus Christ as my true Messiah when I was a 17-year-old Gallaudet University preparatory student.
When I was a kid, I attended Jewish Sunday school and learned about Judaism. I felt like an alien being a Jewish boy at a “secular” mainstreamed public school and later at Maryland School for the Deaf in Frederick.
During my teenage years at Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind (CSDB), I collected some Chick tracts. At that moment, I knew I was a lost sinner on my way to Hell. However, I was wrong not to ask Jesus Christ into my heart as my Savior immediately because I made myself a promise to wait until after I enrolled at Gallaudet University due to my misunderstanding of a commandment in the Ten Commandments that commands us to love and honor our parents. But God urges us to be saved right there, right now according to 2 Corinthians 6:2. Praise the Lord, for He was merciful in preserving my life as a lost sinner until I was ready to receive Christ into my heart.
To my much sorrow, at Gallaudet University, I failed to keep my promise to be saved. I fell right into college “party scene,” an all too common occurrence at colleges across America. After my first Homecoming weekend, I realized that my social life was in shambles even though I was doing well in school. I felt empty, lonely, and depressed. Meanwhile, Holy Spirit cornered me spiritually because I was having frequent nightmares in which as a lost sinner I missed Rapture. I knew I had to do something about it.
The Lord led me to encounter a Christian lady who was like the “light of the world” according to Matthew 5:14. She invited me to attend her Church. On Wednesday evening, November 3, 1982, she and I went to her Church. The hearing Pastor preached on Heaven, Hell, and Rapture, which was coincidentally the main theme of my recurring nightmares. During the invitation time, I went forward to the altar along with the Jewish Christian Deaf Ministry leader. He asked me if I wanted to accept Jesus Christ as my Personal Savior. I said, “YES!” He showed me the “Roman Road” to Salvation from the Bible. After that, I invited Jesus Christ into my heart by asking Him to forgive all of my SINS and to save me from HELL! I was relieved that night!
After my salvation, I was determined to tell everyone including my family about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My family became upset with me thus forcing me to withdraw from Gallaudet University before the second semester in 1983, since I was still underage.
For the next nine years, I was a backsliding Christian until the summer of 1992, when a friend encouraged me to go back to church. The Holy Spirit began to work slowly but mightily to change my heart and my life as well. I want to thank the Lord for my wife, Catherine whom I met in the autumn of 1992. We have been married for over 25 years.
I was one of the pioneering students who graduated from Capital Baptist Deaf College (CBDC) in May 2003 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Pastoral Studies.