Andy Collins was raised in a rough area of Sydney, and he was the classical naughty kid on the block. By his teenage years was into full-blown rebellion, taking drugs and alcohol and into theft.
"My mum died when I was 16 years old and I asked what sort of God takes away a lad's mother." Andy Collins explained. "From there, I fell further into these self-destructive behaviours."
Yet in spite of this, Andy was no dunce, and he scored a job with a record company when he was eighteen. In his own words, this was the coolest job in town in the mid-eighties, working with famous people who had a great lifestyle centred around sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. Then one of his mates was found dead
Andy Collins was one of the Australian delegates at the recent Baptist World Alliance Living Water Australasian-South Pacific conference held in Cairns where he gave a video testimony for Australian Missionary News IPTV.
It all changed for Andy when he was working for a video company that took on the 'Jesus' video which, to his astonishment, sold like hot cakes. His step-mother, a beautiful Christian woman, asked him for two copies, one of which she handed back to him, saying this one was for him.
"I threw it in the box with a bit of laugh and yet that was the first step in the Lord bringing me back to Himself," Andy Collins explained. "The second step was when my boss went away for drug rehab and when he returned he called me in and told me I was an alcoholic and I'd die that way."
God can help you, Andy was told, and that night, almost in defiance, he went into a drug and alcoholic stupor, and it was in that situation, contemplating suicide, that he felt the hand of God upon his life.
"I recalled being told to ring a number which I did, and it was 'Dial a Prayer' and I woke up the next day knowing a change had taken place. I turned away the drugs and drink and started attending a 12 Step Church as I didn't consider I was good enough to attend a Baptist church," Andy Collins told Mark Tronson of the Australian Missionary News IPTV.
Andy, like many others, had not quite grasped that God's grace has nothing to do with one being good enough, for all have sinned and have fallen short of the Glory of God. It took Andy a little while to realise that churches are where sinners worship the Lord for the Salvation He offers sinners.
"Then I focused on Jeremiah 29 verse 13, 'Search me with all your heart' and this is what I concentrated on. I looked at the Jesus video and saw his compassion for the marginalised of his own society and his anger at the religious leaders," Andy Collins remembered.
"Shortly afterwards I attended an AA meeting and heard worship music from an upstairs room and it drew me and I entered a church service where I offered my full heart to the Lord Jesus Christ," he said enthusiastically.
Andy Collins eventually ended up at Morling College (NSW Baptist Seminary) and stood in the car park and looked across to the flats where he once contemplated suicide. He had come the full circle. Later he was ordained in that very church that had told his parents their son was too uncontrollable to return to Sunday School.
"Today I'm working in the inner city of Sydney with the homeless, with those just out of jail and with the mentally ill," Andy Collins mused. "I am illustrating that God loves them and this knowledge comes from out of my relationship with Jesus Christ."
Isaiah 65 verse 1 speaks of how 'God reveals Himself to those who are not looking for Him' and this, Andy Collins says, is his favourite verse as it is what actually happened in his own life.