As already mentioned, I'm Phil Smith and I was born in Brownsville, Tennessee in the States. I actually call Nashville my home. This is just some personal stuff about me. Well, I grew up on a cotton farm in West Tennessee. I was very much a Tennessee hick or hillbilly as you might say. But, I now live in New Zealand with my wife, Janice. We have a son and a daughter both working in New Zealand. This blog is about sharing the things I've done in my life; especially, the way God has blessed and the reason I encourage people to study the Bible. I want to talk about some important things that have happened to me over the years. First of all, the most important thing that has ever happened to me was coming to know Jesus Christ as my Savior. By Savior, I mean an experience which I felt, knowing that my sins were forgiven. The Bible stated that this was true and I believe it. This was after reading the first four books of the New Testament. I became a Christian when I was 21 years old. 

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This all happened when I was in the U.S. Navy many, many years ago. The Navy was good for me but I really didn't like it. It taught me discipline and time management. My experience with God happened during the fourth year of my Naval service. I said to God at the time that my relationship with him had to be real, for I had seen too much false religion. There could be no question in who he was and what he represented and what was said about him in the Bible. Now, there are many thing I can talk about in reference to this, but I only have so much space in this blog. Well, since that moment, my life changed dramatically and I do mean from the time I accepted Jesus as my Savior. I could go on to explain about the Christian Naval Chaplain who simply told be to read the Bible; for it would answer any question that I could ask about God. I was looking for the truth in life which led me to ask for a Bible in the first place. I must move on. Of course my Navy experience is another story by itself. To the left was the ship that I served on. The picture below was when I was in boot-camp in San Diego, California.

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Now I have no doubt that God is real. This is a matter of belief and experience.  I hope that I can convince anyone reading this blog of this fact. Know that God has never failed me in this. Oh, but I have failed God during momentary lapses in my trust in him. To continue, a year or so later, I attended a Baptist Bible College in Nashville, Tennessee for two years. The next most important thing that happened in my life was in a missionary conference in Macon, Georgia. This is where God talked to me about serving him full time. Of course, I learned later that all Christians were missionaries. We are called from the moment that we are saved.

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Through an amazing sequence of happenings, obvious to me, being of God, it came about a year or so later that I was accepted by OM, best described as missionary training organization. Well, I learned more in OM than I did in Bible College. But it was different; it was truly a training organization in itself; not so much academic but lot's of experience. The preaching times that I experienced along with talking to people around the world about Jesus and the tracts that was given out was great. I loved it! I also learned about unceasing prayer and how prayer really matters. I stayed with OM for two years and left while I was in Afghanistan. If you are considering training with OM, I highly recommend it. Now, Afghanistan is where I met my future wife.

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