Omar P.
[1] Email this to a friend

Growing up I didn’t have a father figure in my life to guide me, to love me and to show me how to be a man. Even though my mother and I lived with one of my older brothers and his family, I didn’t have a close relationship with him. Maybe because he had his hands full raising two kids of his own. My mother was the love of my life growing up. She spoiled me rotten and gave me all that she could afford. She taught me to respect people and to be the best kid that I could. My mother also taught me about God according to what she knew and what she was taught. I can recall my mother reminding my siblings and I to pray at night before going to bed. Even though my mother didn’t know the whole truth she still made sure that we prayed.

I had many friends in the neighborhood where I lived, but one specifically that I would always go play with, who lived across the street from me. We would stay out late playing innocent games like “Tag” and “Hide and go seek” with other kids in the neighborhood. This friend of mine had an older brother and an older sister who were very influential in his upbringing. He looked up to his brother and sister who were already partying and drinking. My friend at a young age began to be interested in sex and in drinking also. I know he just wanted to feel like he was part of something and wanted to be considered “cool” or “hip.” Since I would always hang out with him, he began to slowly start influencing me and I began to be curious about the things that we would hear the older guys talking about. Most times if kids don’t have an adult that they feel comfortable talking to they will go to their friends with whatever questions they have and more than likely are going to learn everything about life the wrong way and that’s what happened to me.

I resisted peer pressure for a very long time but at the age of 15 I finally gave in to peer pressure and took my first drink of beer. I remember that night clearly because it was Thanksgiving night and we were hanging out with the older guys in their garage who were doing other drugs not just alcohol. I remember not liking the taste of alcohol but kept drinking that night because I wanted to feel grown up and accepted by the other guys. The truth of the matter is that no matter how strong willed you think you are, if you are hanging out with drug users, sooner or later you are going to fall victim to it and try the drug yourself. That Thanksgiving night was actually the beginning of many years of drug use and immorality. After that weekend my friend and I began to start wanting to go to parties with his older siblings.

My older brother was my guardian and was very strict with me. He would yell at me about staying out late and about the people that I was hanging out with. But I still managed to go out and be influenced by the environment and people that I was starting to be exposed to. I know my brother was just concerned for me but he didn’t do it the right way. His cursing and yelling just made me rebel more and made me hate him. My rebellious nature started showing in my hairstyle, my clothing and the way I would act and talk. My poor mother would always end up getting into verbal confrontations with my brother because she would try to defend me. She would say that I was just being a normal teenager. But she didn’t know of the rebellious things that I was doing when I would hang out.

I remember going out to house parties with my friends and getting drunk to supposedly have the courage to ask girls to dance. That is the excuse we began using at first but then it turned into “we have to drink to have fun.” Being out partying with friends without an authority figure made me feel grown up and made me feel like I was part of something unique. I remember that at every party there was always someone in a dark corner standing behind a DJ system surrounded by people who would look upon him as a superstar. It appeared as if he had the crowd hypnotized by the beats that he was playing. That totally blew my mind and sparked an interest in me to want to be that person whom everyone liked and almost worshipped.

I had another older brother whom I convinced to buy me a DJ system at the age of 16 years old. I would practice mixing my records on my DJ system for hours in my garage with the dream of someday being a famous DJ and at that point my music was my God. I began to buy records of a style of music called Techno, which was being played on the radio and at house parties at that time. After being involved in the house party scene for about three years as a DJ and party promoter, I was introduced to another type of music called “Hard-core Techno” which was faster, darker and more wicked. The big popular DJ’s were playing this Hard-core style of music at the Underground Rave parties and that is where I wanted to be.

I was introduced to the Rave scene at the age of 19 under the nickname of DJ Menphisto playing the Hard-core style of music. I began getting heavily involved in a lifestyle that consisted of all night drug parties where young kids were abusing LSD, Ecstasy, Alcohol, Nitrous Oxide and many other drugs. These parties would take place in the desert, abandoned warehouses and even at legal locations. I remember at almost every party seeing the ambulance come and pick up kids that had overdosed on drugs. I also remember the sexual perversions that would take place in the dark corners of these locations.

After being a DJ for a while in the Rave scene and playing bigger and bigger parties, people began to recognize my nickname on flyers. I began to have a following of people that would pay to see me play at these events. They would surround the DJ system and follow my every move. I began to feel like a superstar and I enjoyed the attention that I was getting. My dream was coming true I thought.

Omar as "DJ Menphisto" before coming to God
[1] Email this to a friend

Since I was in such bondage, I didn’t realize what was really taking place in my heart. My mind was becoming so polluted with pornography, hate inspired music and drugs that I started becoming anti-social and only caring about the dark lifestyle I was living on the weekends. It was as if I was living two lives. One, the person that my family and co-workers would see, and the other was who I became once the weekend came around and I would go out into the night. Thinking about that time makes me realize the true reason why I was looking for happiness in drugs and sex. Inside of my heart I had become the most unhappy person in the world. And every time I would get high with my so-called friends to feel joy and love, I would fall deeper and deeper into depression.

I remember sometimes after abusing LSD or Ecstasy I would feel so filthy and so unhappy that I would cry in my room and try to talk to who I knew as God. I even got to the point where I was thinking about suicide just to get me out of the misery that I felt in my heart. Thank God that even while I was in this mess Jesus extended his hand of mercy upon me and slowly began to pull me out. The Lord Jesus started putting people in my life that began to influence me into caring for my life and caring for my future. Jesus gave me the strength to leave the lifestyle that I was in and started guiding me until the point where I found out about the LA Pentecostal Church. I found out about it because one of my party and drug partners was saved from the world and was won over to the Lord. That brother offered Deborah and I (who was not my wife at the time) a Bible study and with hesitation, we finally agreed to it. After the Bible study he invited us to visit his church, and we went. I have to say that on our first visit to the house of God I was healed of the need for pornography and have been there for about two years now.

[3] Omar G. and Omar P.
before Jesus Christ

Jesus used my buddy Omar G. to bring us close to him and to a Church where the truth is preached. After a few months of working out personal matters Deborah and I were married and baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and we received the gift of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. Upon baptism my wife was healed of head, neck and spinal injuries, which she had for about three years. I was healed of many things and I can now say that I am truly happy. I thank Jesus for his grace and mercy upon my life. He also spared me of the consequences of my past life style. Glory to Jesus for loving me even when I was out there sinning against him.

Bro. Omar and his wife Sis. Deborah

Thank you Jesus for the joy and happiness that you have given me and for bringing me out of darkness into your marvelous light. I also thank Jesus for my new life, my wife, my church family and my Pastor. I now have an intense love for my family and I pray for their salvation. This life, which I now have, I would never trade for anything in the world. There is nothing better than living for God and letting the Holy Spirit guide you and help you with the daily challenges and struggles. I am not perfect and make mistakes but Jesus is perfect and he is my guide and my salvation.

Note: This is an invitation to anyone who is tired of living the life that you now live. There is something better, something that is going to fill the void that is in your heart. Sex, drugs and partying are just going to bring you problems and can even bring you death. Jesus is the answer and he will make you a new person. It doesn’t matter who you were in the past but who you will become in the future. Come visit us at the LA Pentecostals and experience what I am talking about.