“Here I am, Lord.”   Isaiah 6:8 By Nate Zimmerman I am a product of the 1930s Great Depression. I was born and raised in a religious Jewish family. My parents kept a Kosher house and we observed the Sabbath every Friday night. I went to Hebrew school for four years to prepare for my Bar Mitzvah at age 13 and, at the direction of my parents, continued my religious lifestyle, getting married in the same synagogue. When I finished my first tour of duty with the Army in the 1950s, I went to work for the Hilton Hotel chain, and since I was required to taste all the food I prepared, it wasn’t long before I no longer kept a kosher house. When the Vietnam War started, I went back in the Army, entered drill sergeant school, and trained drill sergeants for the rest of my military career. After my military duty, I went into the real estate business and met my second wife in this field. We became business partners and were married in the mid-1980s. We were doing very well until the economic downturn in the early ’90s brought us close to bankruptcy. It was then that my wife went to work in the finance business. She was raised in the Catholic faith, but because of an early divorce, she was not accepted in the Catholic Church, so she went to the synagogue with me for many years. God certainly has His way. My wife’s company suggested that she would be more productive if she was a churchgoer in the Lutheran church. One day she came to me and said that since she went all those years with me to the synagogue, I should go with her to meet a very nice pastor. When I first walked into the church and saw a 35-foot cross on the altar, I nearly went into a state of shock. However, the pastor invited me to attend an ongoing Bible study on Tuesday nights. I decided to go, and that is where I met an older gentleman who soon became a very good friend. After about a year, Henry asked if I might like to go on a spiritual weekend. I refused, saying that I could not take the time to do that. He was very patient and six months later he came to me again. By this time Henry and I were good friends and I didn’t think he would lead me astray, so I accepted his invitation. Now here is where God got my attention. When we arrived at the location, there was a large sign over the door that read, “Welcome to Men’s Tres Dias Weekend # 36.” No one else that saw God’s message, but I knew that the number 36 was a Jewish symbol that represented two lives. When the weekend was over, I realized that the two lives represented the Jewish life I walked in with and the Christian life I walked out with. I began taking communion on Sunday mornings, but I had not given up my Jewish traditions and continued to attend Saturday morning Sabbath services at the synagogue. About three months later, I had a visit from the Holy Spirit and was told that since I started something, I needed to complete it by being baptized. So, the next morning I went to see the pastor. He was excited and suggested that we perform the baptism on Easter Sunday morning. Since the Church had an average Sunday attendance of about 400, I asked the Pastor just how many witnesses I needed. Since I was attending Bible study on Tuesday nights, would the 12 to 15 classmates be enough? The pastor agreed and we set the baptism for the following Tuesday at 8:00 PM. Without telling me, he called my wife, who in turn called the entire Tres Dias community. When I walked into the sanctuary Tuesday night for the baptism ceremony, I was shocked to see more than 150 people–all in support of the baptism I was about to receive. What I had not realized until the next morning was that the baptism was performed on the 18th day of April (18 means life) and represented a confirmation of my new birth in the Christian faith. In June of that same year my wife and I went on a Christian tour of the Holy Land and for ten days I had several confirmations that my decision was the right one. Several years later, I was blessed to be part of a Tres Dias team that went to Ukraine to bring the word of the Lord to about 55 men and on the Kiev # 2 weekend. During the forgiveness service on Saturday night, I had another confirmation by the Holy Spirit. A few years later I was asked to go on a Jewish tour of the Holy Land and there received yet another confirmation as I walked the Via Dolorosa. The reality of my decision came to me more recently when I realized that God had called me before I was born. You see, I was born in a Catholic hospital with the cross of Jesus over my head. It took me 60 years to realize that He had been calling me all the time. My response was “Here I am, Lord, send me.”   Nate Zimmerman is a member of the Central Connecticut Tres Dias community and is also active in the Connecticut Kairos prison ministry.