I grew up in church and at 12 years old went to the altar and made a profession of salvation. The problem was that God was not convicting me at the time and I simply went through the motions of going to the altar like I had saw others do because I knew I needed to be saved. I pretended to be something I was not for 12 long years. I sang in the choir, helped teach VBS, played instruments in church, and even prayed with other people. I knew that I was lost, but kept trying to think my way into salvation. When God would convict me I would not give in because everyone thought I was saved and I thought they would think less of me if they found out. Finally at the age of 24, the Holy Spirit came by my way again. I went to the altar and again tried to bargain with God like I had many times, but as I knelt there talking to the Lord I realized I was headed for Hell. That morning I called out on Jesus. I fully put my trust in what He had done for me and accepted Him as my Savior. Shortly after I was saved, my wife realized she too had deceived herself and a month later she accepted Christ. I thank God for what He did for us.
After sometime as I grew in the Lord, He began to deal with me about preaching. For around 4 years I prayed about it, thought about it, and tried to understand why. I guess part of me was running and the other part was trying to make sure. On October 18, 2009 I announced that God had called me to preach.
Over the years I look back and see how God was preparing me for the mission field. I have been a Sunday School teacher to kids as well as adults, served as a deacon, church clerk, assistant treasurer, taught VBS to various ages, youth director, singer, instrument player, choir and youth choir leader, been involved in visitation, and pastored a church. I fell in love with the church where God allowed us to pastor and did not want to leave. We had a great time, we saw people saved, the church grew, we started a missions program, and we were seeing people get closer to the Lord. But God said it was time to go. I didn’t want to leave and prayed for two months about God’s will. He helped me to realize that despite what I wanted, it was His will for me to go and I stood before the church in tears and had to resign. They understood and continued to support our radio ministry. – God used all these things over the years to teach me all about how a church works and how to help the people of the church so that I could be used in His future plans for me.
On August 10th of 2014, my daughter Riley fell under conviction at 10 years old and cried out for Christ to save her. On May 3rd of 2015, my son Cole looked up at me with tears in his eyes and said, “I want to get saved.” He said the Lord was dealing with him and we made our way to the altar where he was gloriously born again. I prayed God save my children at an early age and He saw fit to answer that prayer.
I am thankful that my family is saved and all have the burden to go and win the lost, help see churches revitalized, and see God move in the United Kingdom.
Bro. Preston Cronan
restoringhopeintheuk.com 