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I've got a confession. Well, a few confessions, actually. I've done drugs. I've done witchcraft. And I've done time … behind bars.

But somewhere along the line, somewhere between the highs and the lows, between the agony and the Ecstasy, God really got my attention. And you wouldn't believe where.

At a rave.

Yes, at one of those all-night dance parties where you'd expect to find drugs and sex and all kinds of things you don't wanna mess with.

Except this wasn't just any rave. This was a Christian rave.

So how did a guy like me end up in a place like that, anyway?

I'll start from the beginning …

I was adopted as a baby, and I grew up going to church. As a kid, I wanted to be a preacher when I grew up. But in my teens, I started rebelling against my adoptive family.

I didn't want to do anything they wanted me to, and I wanted to do everything they didn't want me to do. I started drinking and smoking pot. I wasn't just hanging with the wrong crowd. I was the wrong crowd.

When I was 16, my mom contacted a leader at Young Life, a Christian youth ministry, and asked for help. A few days later, Mom said, "I've signed you up for Young Life camp next week."

I said, "Excuse me? You're sending me to church camp?"

I tried to get out of it because I thought it would be really boring. But at the camp, everyone was so kind to me. I felt like I really met God while I was there.

At the end of the week, I sat on a lakeside dock and looked at the sky. The night was totally clear, the stars were out, and I was thinking, God, if you're really out there, I need you in my life.s All of a sudden, it seemed like the moon got brighter and I just had a big sensation of peace. I think I cried for almost 45 minutes.

When I got back home, I told my parents I wanted to join a different church. They said, "As long as you're going to church, that's fine with us."

It was fine with me too. I kept growing in my faith, and I thought everything was going well. But that didn't last long.

A couple of years later, I met some Mormon missionaries. I thought I was Mr. Super Christian, and I tried to convert them. But they converted me.

But it wasn't long before I discovered some bad theology in Mormonism—especially their belief that people can become gods in the afterlife.

So I left the Mormon church and came back to Christianity … for a while. I was working with the youth group at my home church when some bad stuff started happening, and it rocked my world. I can't really get into everything here, but let me put it this way: I pretty much turned my back on God and the church.

I started going to dance clubs and raves. And I got into doing—and dealing—drugs.

The whole time, my old friends at church prayed that I would come back. One of them made me promise to come to church one Sunday. But he didn't tell me that Teen Challenge was going to be there.

Teen Challenge is a Christian ministry to troubled students. They made a presentation during the worship service, and I was convinced I needed help. That night, I was on a bus to spend a year at a Teen Challenge facility, where they would help me get off drugs and back onto God. I kicked the drugs, but remained angry at God.

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