Omar Mustafa is a 19 year old student of the Caribbean School of Architecture at the University of Technology, Jamaica. He is also a member of the Brown’s Town Baptist Church, in St. Ann, Jamaica.

I was born in a normal middle class Jamaican family who loved me and cared for me. It wasn’t a ‘fully’ Christian home, it was a family that knows ‘about’ God and Jesus but didn’t actually know Him.

My mother, who was a backslider, insisted that I went to church even though I hated the church and eventually wanted to ‘bun dung di church’. I never participated in church activities, I never liked a lot of people at church, and I just went to church because my mother sent me. As I grew older, my church attendance was alternating or I went, as we would say, “every now and then”.

The Church Girl

At age 9 I met a girl that I think the Lord used to catch my attention. I have to admit she was one of my main influences to becoming a Christian: I started to stay at church to see her and speak to her after church, after I sat at the very back at church and never heard a word that was preached because I was sleeping. As we grew older she would to tell me that I needed to get saved. Her mother was very displeased with our relationship being that I was not a Christian and I figure she must have thought bad things of me when she saw me sitting and idling every evening at my hang out spot ‘wid mi bredren dem’.

Growing Up Unfulfilled

Typically, as a teenager, I started to gravitate to the wrong influences. I had a hunger in my life that was seeking to be filled. Ignorantly, I wanted to fulfill a purpose, I wanted to be apart, to fit in and find my place in life; I wanted attention and acceptance from those around me. I never knew my place in God, I never knew Jesus, and I never knew how much He loved me, so I sought the love, acceptance and approval of people rather than God. I was just drifting not aware that I had to give an account to God on JUDGEMENT DAY for my behavior. The Bible tells us that as young people ‘we mus enjoy wi self’ BUT remember that all things have to come before God for us to give an account to Him on the JUDGEMENT DAY. I knew hell but had no deep conviction that made me fear it. All I wanted was MY WAY: listen my Souls Music, my Tupac, Biggie, Dr. Dre, Snoop and Ice Cube.

The Turning Point

Everybody can testify of reaching that point in life when you say to yourself, ‘What more is there to life than dis?’ In my 2nd Semester of 4^th form, in March, there was a general Crusade at my church in Brown’s , I was at Crusade at the back of the church and at altar call I was prompted but was just too proud to make that public step. Then ‘Bro. Desmond Smith,’ Dis man always a come ask people if ‘yuh save’, if not him a TELL you fi go the altar- no question. I really grew annoyed over the years. But this year I was kinda glad to see him to help me go to the altar. So, wen he asked, I hesitantly approached the altar step by step. I felt good. This was the start of a change. My Aunt started encouraging me to attend New Believers’ Class and Cell group meetings. I promised her I would soon get baptized, but I still wasn’t fully changed.

Death and Being Dumped

In 2003 after I graduated, one of friends died. I was really shocked when I saw someone my own age die knowing that it is highly possible for me to die soon. Nightmares anxiety and slight depression hit me and to close that year the person I loved the most, other than myself (because I was so selfish), DUMPED ME. I felt lonely, sad and feeling like what’s there to life- what’s next? What’s the sense of living? I had no purpose. That year I was totally convinced that I would die because I saw the body of a young man I knew being lowered into the ground, lifeless.

I thought, “One day that is going to be me”. The fear of death gripped me.

From Bad to Worst

Community College, parties, weed, idleness took over. I just didn’t care. I came in drunk every Friday nights and would have a hang over Saturday mornings and then I wondered, what was I doing to myself.

And then there was……..Jesus!

At this pivotal point of my life, I started to seek God truly, I wanted fulfillment; I want to fill this void in my life. I was in the Trey’s Night Club one Friday night with my friend and both of us just felt real ‘convicted.’ I wanted to change because the party life simply couldn’t fill the emptiness.

Jesus came and showed me a different way, Hallelujah! I started seeking God through His word and prayer and Bible classes and church activities. Radically and drastically the Lord started changing me.

Omar’s Word to YOU

People, Jesus is real! Jesus is real! Jesus is real - no Joke, no doubt. Look at the wind. Can you HOLD it? Can you SEE it? Then examine Jesus, can you HOLD Him? Can you SEE Him? Yet you CAN FEEL Him…only believe. Those who please God are those who live by FAITH and not simply by sight. Repent, of your sins. Trust Jesus. Pray to Him, show Him the interest and He will come to you and save you. The Lord LOVES you with a genuine love, all other loves are temporary and will not last.