Mike's Journey - where it all began...

I’m Mike Trainer, founder of TheseFactsChangeEverything.com, and this is the story of my journey in Christ and where it all began for me. If you have your own story you’d like to share, please contact me! I’d love to hear it. Anyway, here is my personal story:

I was born in Auckland, New Zealand, to kiwi parents, who I lived with until I was six years old, which was when my ‘parents’ became ‘parent,’ because my dad decided to leave home and not come back. So from then on I was raised by my mum.

As I recall, Mum was a bit of a party girl and enjoyed it, but she did stick with us and for that I am thankful. Mum was not in any way a person who talked about anything to do with God. I do not remember even one word about God or Jesus in the first 19 years of my life.Thus, I never thought about there being any alternative to following your dreams and having fun in life. As they say, the apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree.

By the time I was 19 years young, I had expanded my horizons somewhat, but not as wisely as I could—and most probably should— have. I left home at 16 and went on a surfing holiday, which I enjoyed so much that I never made it back home. I ended up staying at my favorite beach ever, beautiful Whangamata, which all these years later, I still love.

I make mention of this because it was during my days at Whangamata that the direction of my life changed substantially. I went there as a naive, excited to be able to surf, virtually everyday teenager, and left three years later as a with a conviction for growing marijuana (60 plants), a major liking for LSD and a ‘nothing beats a party’ mentality.

In my innocent quest for what I guess was contentment, I managed to get myself tangled up in things that I sort of enjoyed, but just knew were not helping me. But, like many people, I had my friends and I didn’t want them to think less of me, so I just kept doing what I was doing. Nobody, that I recall, ever mentioned anything (that registered) about God. As a result I tended to think ‘God people’ of all religions were weak, shallow people who needed a religion-crutch to lean on. Most seemed nerdy and the polar opposite to what I wanted for my life, whatever it was.

But, as I mentioned, I did want contentment. The drama for me was, the more I sought it with all the variables of everyday life, the more evasive it seemed to become, and although I never mentioned it to anyone (in case they thought I was a twerp), it did bother me. For all the things I pursued, it always seemed like I was the proverbial square peg in a round hole. By the time I was 19 and a half years old I had become much less social, was stoned virtually every day and was selling large quantities of drugs. I took LSD often and as a result found myself drifting away from my one true love, which was surfing. What I needed was somebody to come up to me and tell me to get real (which I thought I was) and tell me straight what the Bible says in Ecclessiastes 5:10: “He that loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loves abundance (of whatever you love) with increase.” But no-one did—not one person—so I assumed that’s what you do: sort out what tickles your fancy and then bleed it for all its worth, which I did.

That was until a good friend of mine (the NZ surfing champion at the time) contacted me while I was in Australia on a surfing, have as much fun as possible, holiday. I received a letter from him and he told me he had given up dope and now believed in God. My initial reaction was what you would expect of a person with my mindset, something like: ‘What is he thinking? To give up dope and all that goes with it is one thing, but to become a Bible-believer? You have got to be joking!’ I was 99% horrified and 1% intrigued, or bothered, or something like that. But I was bothered enough to leave Oz and head back to NZ, if for no other reason than to help my friend see how stupid he was being

And here’s the thing!! when I saw him he was normal, shock-horror, my initial fears that he had turned instant nerd were not realised and even more aggravating he actually made sense when explaining what he had done in regards to Bible standard., which I can honestly say, I knew absolutely zilch about.

That week I did some soul-searching and I did have to admit (only to myself mind you) that in my humble quest for utopia I was only getting closer to the dreaded aipotu (utopia spelt backwards for all you rocket scientists) and sort of concluded, that even though it irked me (most likely because I thought it manifest a type of character weakness) I should at least consider what my friend was speaking about. It was around this time, during a conversation with him that he showed me scriptures from the Bible that spoke of the SOON, second coming of Jesus Christ, which again I can say I knew absolutely nothing about, scriptures written over 1900yrs ago that described our World-Today with uncanny accuracy, and I was intrigued, and I mean seriously intrigued. How could this be and how-come so accurate, and more to the point, how come nobody ever mentioned these things to me in the years I thought mainly about myself?

To cut a long-story shorter, I did go to a Church meeting and what impressed me more than anything was that the people seemed (and were) quite normal, at that meeting I saw 2 girls get baptised (by full immersion) and for reasons I know not why, I thought I should do that, or more to the point, I had nothing to lose if I did that, so I did, that very day, and as stupid as it sounds, it was the best thing I have ever done. Three days later, while at home by myself I prayed to God and asked something along the lines of, “if you are there, could you please give me the Holy Spirit” (which my friend told me he had received) and virtually instantly I had the same tangible experience as recorded in the Bible, specifically the Book of Acts, in chapters 2, 10 and 19, and as cliché and corny as it sounds, it literally has changed my life.

From that day, without even consciously trying to do so, I gave up several things that had become quite dominating parts of my being, for example I gave up smoking cigarettes instantly, 30 a day to none, I gave up dope and by that I mean I have never got stoned again (over 35yrs on) I gave up alcohol which even at my young age was becoming an increasing habit, I gave up swearing, and I had it bad, like not many sentences were f-word free and I eased off on being self-centred, which for me at least , was a good thing. But for me the greatest change was (and still is) what happened in my mind, I went from never thinking about God to being quite mesmerised by the fact that there is a God, and not only that there is but that there is a God who cares for us, who wants to, and does bless the lives of those who allow him, and who is coming back to our beautiful planet that we (mankind) seems to be bent on ruining, enough said. 

Over the years that had gone by, a massive 20 of them, many things of our world had made some sort of impression on me. My early (teenage) days I was a bit of a music lover, Joe Cocker singing, a little help from my friends, at Woodstock I fully rated, Hendrix singing Hey Joe, I thought was pretty special as I did Leonard Skynard, singing freebird etc etc. I saw Led Zep and the Rolling Stones live and listened to a lot more, such was life for me. As I’ve got older I have come to appreciate things that I unwittingly used to ignore, things like the marvels of nature, that I was virtually oblivious to, but now am in awe of, and although a touch embarrassed to say so I marvel at what Shakespeare achieved and Churchill and many others, I marvel at how such an insignificant number of people from the insignificant British Isles, could spread throughout the earth and go on to achieve as much as they have in today’s world, and the list goes on. Life goes on and the world is what it is, I still love surfing, still enjoy my version of good music, still appreciate the feats of people that are exceptional and still smell the roses, all good for sure, but there is more to our three score and ten, than most people realise and hence this website.

After all the experiences I’ve had and after all the knowledge I have accumulated, there is one realm I have come to find that is far superior to anything of our world, and that is the miracle of Bible Prophecy, the absolute proof that there is God, the creator of all things, from the microscopic to the immense, the Great God of the Bible, who is True and Real whether we like it or whether we don’t.  Isaiah wrote (Is 46:10) under the influence of God, 2500 years ago, saying, “Remember the former things of old: for I am God and there is none else; I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are NOT YET done, saying, my (God’s) counsel shall stand and I (he) will do all my (his) pleasure.  And that is what this little book is about, God speaking through a person or persons about an event that is to yet to come to pass, not vague double meaning like a so-called fortune teller, but with specific, exact, frighteningly accurate detail that only a Eternal God could know.  If you are a skeptic that is ok, in a sense you would be a mug not to be in the light of the strange goings-on that happen behind Church doors, be skeptical if needs be but don’t be stupid and throw the baby out with the bath-water so to speak. If your observations have bought you to a place where Churchianity, (not Christianity) has eroded your confidence in there being an Eternal Creator, you are not the first and I’m sure you won’t be the last, but don’t let that prevent you in checking whether Bible prophecy is fact or fiction.  Because, if per chance Bible prophesy be able to be proven true, it means there is God, it means the Bible is much more than just an old fashion book and it means there is a truth in life we should not hide ourselves from, and just to throw a cat among the pigeons, it means we didn’t evolve from a tadpole and that there is no real purpose to life, and the list goes on.  The God of the Bible knows the resolve necessary for an individual to sincerely check whether he exists, and promises to reward such tenacity with treasures that far exceed the fleeting pleasures of life.  This is a everything to gain, nothing to lose scenario, your past is irrelevant and your potential future is literally beyond description, don’t be buffeted by pre-judgement and ignorance, but be strong and check for yourself with common-sense and a honest heart and you will attract the attention of Almighty God, seriously!!