Ryan is a thriving member of our community, a former DJ and a husband and father to two boys.

I’ll start my story from the day I walked into a hall to attend a course called “SEVEN”, which is organised by Youth Fellowship. I went there looking for a new way of life, to be healed from my feelings of insecurity and emptiness which had been gripping me. Let me explain.

Music and Lifestyle.

In general I cannot say that I was satisfied with my life and yet I was quite reluctant to make any changes to how I lived. This changed when I was admitted to hospital suffering from severe heart palpitations. The doctor asked me a series of questions to determine my lifestyle and I answered ‘yes’ to practically every harmful behaviour he mentioned mostly because of my career as a DJ. In no uncertain words the doctor told me that I either had to change my lifestyle or risk losing my life.

 

So reluctantly I stepped out of the music scene and then invested all my time and energy in my relationship with my girlfriend from whom I was expecting a child.

Searching for Meaning

However, the feelings of insecurity and emptiness persisted. I tried everything from meditation to medicine but I never seriously thought about faith in God. So I started searching for a good personal life coach, someone who would teach me how to live because my ways had failed me so far.

Despite my best efforts, things kept getting worse and I hit rock-bottom when my girlfriend and I started experiencing serious relational problems. I found myself asking questions like “what am I living for?”

Seven

Having come across the Seven Course online, I decided to give it a chance. After all I had tried to get better and nothing seemed to work, why not give faith a try? Looking back to how it felt and how I decided to go to the course, it was as if an invisible hand guided me and encouraged me to go.

Attending the course alone was a rollercoaster of thoughts and feelings. As I entered the hall for the first time, together with the sense of welcome, the good music played by the band gave me a sense of joy and excitement, like I was on the brink of a new journey. That evening I felt a bit like Christopher Columbus having discovered something amazing.

As the course sessions went by, my self-confidence started growing, I felt a sense of belonging, the big life questions started being answered. The climax was a deep and I experienced a personal encounter with Jesus in the weekend that forms part of the course. It felt like an explosion of happiness and peace which I had never experienced before.

A brand new normal

From then on, life took a different turn. I can’t really explain what happened but I had this thirst for Jesus, for prayer, and for truth. From serious matters like giving too much importance to money, to seemingly more trivial things like letting my moods be dominated by my favourite football team, my life began to change. Finally I had found what I was looking for! I could not believe that such a small decision could bring such a huge change in my life.

Through the grace and strength I found in prayer and with the support of the Community, God changed my life.

Two years on, I am now married to the mother of my son and we have welcomed our second child. I now pray daily, attend Mass regularly, and form part of the same Community which welcomed me and helped me start my journey with God. In fact, now I know that I am living to serve God and bring people to Him in the same way others have done with me.