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I grew up in Český Těšín, which is a little

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town, like 25,000 people.

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I grew up in a family

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with a younger brother.

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He's one year younger than me.

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My mom works in car repair. She's selling

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parts and helping in administration.

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And my dad, he works in a coal mine

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as an electrician.

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I always wanted to be good in things.

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Whatever I did I tried to be the best.

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When I played the football, I tried to win

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every game. When I was at the bat on

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softball, I would always try to hit the ball very

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hard and was very upset when I got out or

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something like this. And it was the same in

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school and many other areas.

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And I would say that I was successful in

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sports and school, in learning, but

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even though I had some successes

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I was not feeling comfortable inside.

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I was not happy inside.

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Well, Jesus for me. I didn’t believe he was

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God at all. I thought he was normal person

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from history. A kind of revolutionary

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or nice man, lets say like Che Guevara

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or someone like him. But I didn’t believe at all

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that he was God. I didn’t believe that there is

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any God. I just believed that God is someone

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people made up to manipulate or control

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other people. And Christians for me,

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they were people who kind of over-slept

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evolution. Because they believe things that

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were far ago proven that they are not true

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so I thought that they were just ignoring

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the truth and hiding from it.

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I wanted to learn English, so I went to a

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summer English camp. And I met some

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Christians there, and we quarreled about

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Christianity, about a sense of being.

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And even though we quarreled,

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another day when I met someone from them,

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he was smiling at me and saying, "Hi Tomas",

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and it was something very unusual for me.

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And there was one guy who was saying how

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he became a Christian. And he said something

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very appealing to me. He said that God has

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given him love in his heart towards people

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that he wouldn't be able to love any other

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way. And for me it was very strong because

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I grew up in a way that you always try to

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do the best, and you never are there.

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You are never good enough. So that evening

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I decided, if its true I want to have it.

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If it's true I want to have the thing that

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he has in my heart.

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So I started to search in there.

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So, I started to ask many questions.

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I started to talk to those Christians

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that I met in the English camp.

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And I realized that I just need to make a step.

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God was asking me, "Do you want me

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or do you not want me?"

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And I wanted Him.

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And there came one moment where there was

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a strong presence of God. And I was feeling

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my sinfulness. I felt guilty for the sins

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what I was doing. I was very aware of the

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things that were not right what I was doing.

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And I was also feeling his love towards me.

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I felt that He died for me. He died for my sins.

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And he was raised from the dead.

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And it was very strong, very appealing to me.

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And I decided to give my life to him.

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All the things I was afraid of, for my future,

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for many different things that I was afraid of

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and all the doubts that I had

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fell away from me and I decided

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to give my life to Jesus.

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And since I gave my life to him,

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everything's changed.

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I have begun to feel his presence with me.

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He was with me everywhere. I was sitting in

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the kitchen with the radio turned off,

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and I was very happy with that.

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And people were seeing it. They were asking,

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"What's going on with you Tomas?

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Why are you so happy?"

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Because I was feeling like I am the

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happiest person in the world.

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Another thing that changed is my relationship

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with friends from class. Because I was always

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trying to kind of pretend to be someone different.

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And when Christ came into my life,

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I suddenly felt that I got something that I can

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give to them. I got something real

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that they need. And

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all my attitude towards them changed.

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And the last year of high school

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was great for us, for me!

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Living with God is very adventurous for me

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because there is always something new happening.

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He doesn’t want to leave me laying flat.

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He has always something prepared.

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Its always some challenge;

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its something that I don't know about,

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but its always very adventurous and very good.

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When I started to think about God,

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I was expecting some things, but I found

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much more than I was expecting from Him.