(soft music)

- I was the first one toget it from the mailman.

I ran up our entireapartment building screaming

and hollering, and everybody knew.

- [Narrator] 12-year-oldFady Ghobrial's dreams

were about to come true.

His dad, a chef in Cairo,Egypt, got a job in Boston.

The family was moving to America.

- We idolized almost, ordaydreamed about this idea

of coming to America, the land of freedom,

of opportunity, bettereducation, better future.

- [Narrator] However, thosehopes and dreams didn't come

out the way Fady pictured.

He and his family arriveda year after 9/11.

- Kids would say stuff like hey, are you

Osama bin Laden's cousin,or Saddam Hussein's cousin.

So I was buried under allof the verbal harassment

as well as the physical bullying, as well.

Their rejection, feeling like an outsider.

- [Narrator] Fady says thelegalistic Christian faith

he grew up in often madehim feel the same way.

- There was the shamepiece that was reinforced

at home and at church.

I need to be good enoughfor God to love me

and accept me, and that depended purely

on my works and my good performance,

which I could never do enough of.

The part of it thatwore me out the most was

feeling powerless against my own sin.

I sinned Monday throughSaturday, I go to the priest.

On Sunday, I confess my sin

and rinse, wash, repeat this same cycle.

So I'm in a permanent stateof inability to please God.

Why am I even here?

- [Narrator] By his teen years, Fady had

drawn one conclusion.

- God is ticked at me.

God is angry at me, God doesn't like me.

I'm not enjoying anything.

Everything is difficult,everything is challenging.

I want to escape that and go to a place

where I'm not being bullied,where I am having fun,

where I am enjoying myself.

- [Narrator] In high school,Fady found friendship

in a group of classmates.

While it marked the end ofthe bullying it also led him

to smoking pot, drinking, sleeping around.

He also started buyinginto the beliefs of some

of the group who wereatheists and telling himself

he could live a lifefree of guilt and shame.

- I would have said like Idon't believe that God exists.

And maybe underneath thatin a more honest moment

I would have said I don't wantto believe that God exists.

I like what I'm doing and I don't want God

to tell me to do otherwise.

- [Narrator] Instead offinding freedom and happiness,

- It was just this downward spiral.

I'm awake, I'm aware, I feelfutility and purposelessness.

Let me go back to the drugsin order to numb that feeling,

this underlying restlessnesswhere I just don't have peace.

- [Narrator] The teenagerfought with his parents often.

To keep the peace, Fady wouldgo to church on occasion.

He was still living at homehis freshman year of college

when a family they knew invitedthem to visit their church.

Fady says it was much differentfrom what he was used to.

- People there were genuine, sincere.

They were loving, really free,

full of joy, full ofpeace, who loved Jesus.

- [Narrator] Alsodifferent was the teaching

about a loving God ready to forgive

all sins through JesusChrist, a message that

would lead Fady's parents and brother

to fully commit their lives to Jesus.

- The fights and thetone and anger at home

was completely changed.

My mom had a lot more peace.

- [Narrator] As for Fady,he continued drinking,

smoking pot, and partying,unable to accept God's message

of redemption that hadchanged those around him.

- The resistance was I can't believe that

God would ever forgive mefor all of the terrible,

wicked, horrible things that I've done.

I'm not a peace anywhere, athome, at church, with God.

I'm not at peace with myself.

- [Narrator] The summerafter Fady's freshman year

his dad insisted he go with the family

to a church conference onthe 4th of July weekend.

Reluctantly, Fady went.

But as he listened to thespeakers, God's message of love

and forgiveness finally broke through.

- I'm hearing about thecross and the fact that

Jesus died for my sinin order to forgive me

and to cleanse me, andto give me a new life,

and to reconcile me with God.

And I felt like God justcornered me with His love

and just embrace me in His arms and said,

"Hey son, I love you.

"I've forgiven you of all your sin

"and I've giving you My Spirit."

And that was, that was my moment.

That was my moment ofsurrendering my life to Christ.

- [Narrator] Fady made a cleanbreak from his lifestyle,

losing all desire for drugs and alcohol

as he discovered hisnew identity in Christ.

- The way that I thinkabout myself anymore is

not this horrible, terrible,wicked, no-good sinner that

God hates and despises.

That was me but because of the gospel

and because of my positionnow being in Christ,

God looks at me andHe's very well-pleased.

God looks at me and He sees Jesus.

And that conception of who I am

before the sight ofGod changes everything.

- [Narrator] Aftercollege, Fady married Renee

and became a pastor at theArabic Baptist Church in Boston.

Every 4th of July, he celebrates

his own personal independence day.

- Independence from sin anddeath, and hell, and the grave

because we've been united to Christ.

So the symbolism there is not lost on me.

God met me and completely transformed me

and renewed me by Hisgrace which, you know,

I wasn't there looking for God.

But hey, God was there looking for me.