Joel Parlour (center) with Anthony Fellis (left) and Anthony Franklin (right)

“I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”
Psalm 16:7-11

Growing up as a “Kingdom Kid” I had no fear of God whatsoever. My life was full of sin, some that I didn’t even know existed. I was being instructed by the world, not by God. I did not put the Lord first in any area of my life. I lived the way I wanted to and had the friends I chose. And it was obvious. My life was void of any true joy. I lived a double life. I was one person when I was with anybody from the church or my family, and I was another person when I was with friends or at school. When I was at church I would say and do all the right things just to keep the disciples off my back. I was a well behaved child in the children’s ministry and learned how to get out of any predicament I found myself in. I knew who to blame, how to complain and when to argue. I learned, almost to perfection, how to get myself out of any situation by insincerely apologizing or blame shifting the problem onto another child - even when I was at school. My heart grew hard and my conscience grew cold.

I grew up with the best mentors I could have asked for: Kirk Richter, Andrew Smellie, Ronneil Herron, and my dad. These men couldn’t have done a better job showing me the truth, “the path of life.” However, in the world there was a deceitful “truth” that was constantly preaching in my ear.

I had one foot in the church and one foot in the world. On the one hand I was being fed the Word and being challenged; on the other hand I sought popularity, worldly pleasures and in God’s eyes, “pig food.” I was the lost son from Luke 15. By the time I realized where my life was going I had already gotten myself into a handful of sin. Being full of deceit and arrogance, I thought I was righteous in the way I was living. Yet I was diving into impurity on many levels. In elementary school I was first exposed to pornography by one of my closest friends and before I knew it, I was hooked. I would download it and share it with friends and my mind was getting filthier and filthier. I was burning with lust and would try to sweet talk girls into “hanging out.” In middle school I began lusting after girls during school hours and ended up being impure with several of them after school. By the 9th grade I had lost my virginity to a girl I didn’t even care about. I became extremely deceitful towards my parents and blatantly lied, making any excuse to go hang out with my friends at another girl’s house.

My lying got worse as I continued through high school. I frequently plagiarized and made false excuses to my teachers about my work getting done. I continued to make new friends and would often brag about my sin. Yet I knew my sin was wrong and that it hurt God.

Growing up going to church twice a week had helped my appearance as a “good kid” and I would use this nice kid personality to make friends. I would hang out with the most popular kids, while neglecting others. I was trying to fill up my life. But no matter what I did I always felt a void in my heart. Sometimes I turned to basketball. If there was a problem I didn’t want to deal with, I would find a basketball court and play for hours at a time. I would bury my problems instead of dealing with them. This caused walls of bitterness to grow around my heart - bitterness towards my worldly friends and people in God’s church. I became very critical towards the sin in other people’s lives and hypocritical in comparing their sin to my own. I was very quick to speak up about the “speck” in someone else’s eye before ever clearing out my own “plank.”

In tenth grade I sat down and studied the Bible with several guys including Andrew Smellie. Andrew showed me what my life was meant to be like, why there was a void in my heart, and what I could do to change it. After humbling out and allowing God to work in my life and in my heart, I decided to become a disciple and follow God wholeheartedly. On January 1, 2003 I made the decision to live with the purpose of serving God with all my heart, mind, soul and strength!

“My heart is glad and my tongue rejoices!” I am honored to be part of this mission team, especially the campus ministry. Now I have goals in my life that aren’t about me, but are about God and his vision for evangelizing the world. We are going to preach the Word in Chicago and not hold back! I dream of the day this campus ministry explodes! I am also very aware that I may not even be in Chicago forever. I may be on another mission team in another part of this country or somewhere else in the world. Only God knows. All I know is that since I have received God’s grace to walk “the path of life,” I am filled “with joy in [God's] presence,” and for that “I will praise the LORD!”

Categories: Testimonials