Name: Simon Peter Maghanoy Wilson
Age: 22

I was born in Naga City on the Philippine Islands. I’m the 3rd of 5 kids, 4 boys & 1 girl. (We were all born in the Philippines.) My mom is from the Manila area while my dad is from Texas. I have good memories of growing up as a kid, we were always traveling, in fact all us kids were born in a different city in the Philippines. My only regret as a young child is not speaking Tagalog, but in the near future I plan to fix that. At the age of 5 we moved to Japan due to persecution where we lived in Hiroshima mostly.

I have some fond memories of Japan, I saw my first snow there, I remember playing in the big castles & parks all over Japan & visiting some of the beautiful temples & gardens kept by the Shinto priests. Japan was where I first really learned to witness I learned a little Japanese & was on the streets with my dad & brothers passing out posters & winning souls. When I was 6 we moved back to the Philippines for several months before moving to the states. We spent the first few years in Texas where we lived in McKinney, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, & El Paso.

As a young kid I learned early on how to “abound & be abased,” as we lived on some gorgeous ranches & beautiful homes to simple apartments or traveling around in a trailer. After Texas we moved up to Denver where we spent a few years & than at the age of 13 we moved back to Texas, to El Paso where we spent around a year.

In El Paso I started to think I was a pimped out gangster for some reason & got into all the usual trouble a kid gets into. My parents didn’t like the person I was turning into so they made plans to move us out of the States & back to the Philippines. By this time my other brothers had already moved on from my parents—the eldest was in Russia & the other was still in Denver in another home. So after my 15th birthday we finally left the States & headed for the Philippines where I spent a little over a year.

The Philippines opened my eyes to life out of the States & what the rest of the world is like. I guess I sort of forgot, being in the States for almost 10 years. A few days after arriving I was doing the market pickup at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, wading through thigh deep water in boots & baggy pants carrying boxes of food to the car. One of the things about the Philippines that stood out to me was the young people there, not all but some, actually were there because they loved the Lord & wanted to help others which was something I couldn’t remember seeing in the States amongst my peers & it sort of made me want to serve Jesus too. But my own desire to be cool & do my own thing won out in the end & when our Family headed back to the States when I was 16 I decided to stay in the States & live with my brother who had recently come back from Russia.

So I left my parents & moved into my brother’s “Home.” We were technically part of the Family for the year I was there but I hardly ever read any Word, we all worked jobs & rarely witnessed to anyone much less went out of our way to make a whole day of it. Yes, technically we were in the Family, but for all practical reasons I was anything but a Family member. In our time in Flagstaff me & my brother were going to save up & go overseas again to do missionary work. But the time just seemed to drag on & on. My stupid dead end job started to wear on me as I was a bag-boy/cart-boy at Safeway. Than Thanksgiving came & I just took off to visit the relatives for a week, needless to say when I got back I didn’t have a job.

My second oldest brother had also left the Family around the time I returned to the States so I got to see him again during Thanksgiving. I realized that if I didn’t actually commit & go to the field I might as well leave & go to college. I studied for a month & took my GED test & passed with good marks. Looking through a want ad bulletin me & my brother found a home in Hungary looking for personnel. I decided to give the Family one last try & told myself if something didn’t happen by the year 2000 than I was out & off to college.

I had just turned 17 & here I was living in Europe for the first time. The home I joined was barely hanging on as a home & so it was quite a test for me as it certainly wasn’t the ideal situation to be in. I hung on in Budapest for a few months, I went to a camp & realized that all the young people were still trying to be cool & failing ever so terribly. I caught a break when I went down to Croatia for the summer where I was able to do some witnessing & help out with the home down there as well as have some fun. So when my time there was up & I had to return to Hungary, I wrote the guys to ask if I could move in with them. Through some twisting of their arms they finally agreed to let me join their team.

I than spent the next 2 ½ years or so in the former Yugoslavia. During that time I was able to make a trip to another mission field to visit my parents who had moved there after the Philippines. I made trips back to the States every year or so, staying for a couple months to one time staying for 6.

Through all this time I was still going through the motions of life, being not that old yet feeling I didn’t have to commit to anything to strongly yet. I was in downtown Lisbon, Portugal on September 11th. That event sort of shook me up & got me thinking a bit. I went to the States again on a trip shortly after that & that’s when the “Conviction versus Compromise” series came out. I realized I was getting older & I couldn’t run around doing whatever I wanted as a teen any more. I needed to make some definite commitments in my life.

I can’t say that these changes were immediate but after moving back to Hungary again where I’ve been now for the last couple years I’ve definitely changed a lot. I guess I’ve just realized that nothing comes for free in this world. If I truly believe in Jesus & what the Family stands for than I have to give it my all. I realized I couldn’t keep straddling the fence between my own desires & what the Lord wants from me. So I guess in short I sacrificed my will on the proverbial altar of sacrifice. With the new gift of prophecy I was able to hear from the Lord & strive with the best of my ability to do what he told me to do. It wasn’t always easy but with time I’m getting more used to it.

In the past couple years I went on road trips that blew my mind as to how real & amazing God’s supply can be, how if you just follow Him step by step He can lead you through things that man would consider impossible. The stuff that’s happened to me in the past couple years has truly opened my eyes to a world of the spirit I had never thought truly possible. Though the time I spent in the former Yugoslavia was great, bringing food in & doing clown programs— helping out in more of a humanitarian capacity & it certainly made me look like a good guy in the eyes of the world— I’ve realized now that the only thing that will change this world is the love of Jesus.

I for one am sick & tired of all the propaganda & lies of this world, I’m sick of living comatose, sucking all that the world says I need to make me happy. I believe that the truth will truly set you free & when you find that truth & experience that freedom it’s the most amazing thing in the world.

Why do I know this? Cause I’ve found it!!!

There’s one story that has always hit me when I heard it. It happened in the early days of the Russian revolution, (I know you all have heard this before, but for the sake of those who haven’t I will retell it) when they were persecuting the Christians so badly. A group of about 20 Christians was rounded up & told to strip off all their clothes & then were marched out into the middle of a frozen lake to die. The soldiers mocked them telling them they could have their clothes back if they would just deny their faith. Slowly one by one they began to succumb to the cold. Till there was only one man left on the ice. Feeling he was alone he ran back to the soldiers screaming I’LL DENY MY FAITH, I’LL DENY MY FAITH!!!!! Just as he came back a soldier quickly took off his uniform & handed it to the freezing Christian. “Here,” he said, “take my clothes, take my gun, I’m going out there to die in your place. As each one of you fell to the ice I saw two hands come down from Heaven with a crown to be placed on each of your heads. As the hands came down for you … you suddenly ran. Here!! You take my uniform & gun, I’m going out there to die in your place…. I want that crown!!!”

I also want that crown. I’ve experienced enough in life (I’ve done nothing but talk to people for almost my whole life in some 25 to 30 countries all over the globe. I’ve spent time on my own out of the Family) to know that I’d rather die for something than live for nothing. I no longer want to please the supporters by just doing humanitarian-related stuff teaching English, bringing food & clothes to those who need them. My ultimate goal is to tell as many people about the love of Jesus as is possible & to recruit as many people who are willing to give their lives in loving service to God & others.

I realize that to be so zealous in my beliefs is politically incorrect & might go against some peoples’ do-nothing religion. But the reason the world is such a mess is not because there are so many evil men, it is simply because good men do nothing.

So get off your lethargic do-nothing butts & do something with your lives. You don’t like what I’m saying… tough…that’s my story & I’m sticking to it………….

Simon Wilson is a second-generation member of the Family International.