Fellowship Hall

THREE PERSONAL ENCOUNTERS WITH

Amazing Grace

By Daina Doucet

Rosalie Schwarm - From Goth to God

Rosalie Schwarm – As if something evil lifted off me

Raised in a small Australian town, Roz had an unhappy childhood. A self-confessed kleptomaniac and “hell-raiser,” she was a misfit, in trouble with the police and her school. At 15 she stole money, escaped to Melbourne, connected with Goth acquaintances and immersed herself in their subculture for four years.

During those years she worked as a model and store manager, but she also stole. Her friends were burglars and many were prostitutes. Eventually wild drug parties got out of control; a boy killed a girl she knew; someone she had been dating hanged himself. Another friend who had been dating a leader in a witches’ coven acquired such an evil presence that it frightened her. What am I doing?  Who are these people? she asked herself. 

In the meantime, Roz had also connected with an aunt in Melbourne who was a Christian – someone who listened to her and answered her questions about God. It wasn’t until she was apprehended for robbery and faced jail that a real desire to change gripped her. God, she pleaded through tears, if you get me out of this I will serve you. She said to the judge, “I’ll turn my life around if you let me go back to Melbourne.” The judge eyeballed her for what seemed like an eternity. “I don’t know why I’m doing this,” he said, “but I’ll let you off on probation.”

Wanting a new life, Roz turned to her aunt for help. This time, when her aunt shared the message of salvation, Roz listened and prayed with her. An amazing thing happened. “It was as if something evil lifted off me,” she says. She suddenly wanted to leave Australia and go where she could start fresh.

Rosalie and Carsten Schwarm on the steps of Waterdown’s Lighthouse Church International, where they serve as pastors.

Roz, now known as Rosalie, relocated to Vancouver, and “went from zero to 100 just like that!”

Through Kenneth Copeland Ministries she was introduced to church and was invited to attend Bible college. There she “devoured” God’s Word and also met Carsten Schwarm. They were married in Germany, March 1991, but “For Immigration to validate our marriage, Carsten would have to sponsor me. You can’t sponsor a criminal.” 

She needed a miracle, and God arranged it. The Immigration officer read the pages of criminal charges against her. “Honey,” she said kindly, “you were supposed to have me today. My name is Rosalie, I’m German, and I’m a born-again Christian. I see you’re not the same person you wrote about here.”  She pounded her stamp on the papers – Approved!

But there was still the issue of fingerprints. Immigration sent them to Australia for clearance. According to Australian law, criminal records are never revoked. Incredibly a report arrived saying: This woman has no criminal record!

Today Rosalie and Carsten are pastors at Lighthouse Church International in Waterdown. A conference speaker, Rosalie ministers with humour and insight to youth and women’s groups from a broad knowledge of God’s Word. “It’s a real honour,” she says, “when people tell me, ‘You don’t look like you’ve been through anything.’” 

Kevin ‘Kip’ Philp - Appointment with Destiny

Kevin Philp – Guess what? You’re dead!

It was Halloween. He dressed for the party as a caveman complete with “this really neat pair of hairy underwear.” He planned to give away free drugs, but arrived late at the party and found his friends already high. “I decided to take them all myself,” he says. He is not sure how to explain what happened next.

Somebody sat down beside him and said, “Kevin, guess what?  You’re dead. You just died.” 

At that moment the room changed. Sounds and smells changed. “I heard flames and screams. I saw demons. It was very, very terrifying.”  He knew he must call out to God. He says he became a crazed madman. “I freaked out thinking I was in hell. I screamed and cried out to God, “Have mercy on me!  God, forgive me! Help me! Save me! God, I don’t want to be here.”

His friends dragged him outside, took his truck keys, pinned him down in the back, and tore off down the dirt road. Thrashing and kicking, he struggled free and jumped head-first over the side, bare skin skidding on gravel. They left him there to die.

“I can’t express how worthless I felt. How alone,” he says. “I knew I needed God…. I did the only thing I knew how. I sang Away in a Manger. It was the only song I knew with ‘God’ content.”

‘Kip’ at 24/7, a former nightclub in Burlington, where youth now gather to worship.

Today Kip marvels how God used that song to bring him peace. He knew he’d live.

The police found him and took him home. The next day, to escape his anger, he drove to New Liskeard to visit friends. In their company he quickly slipped back into familiar patterns of partying and using drugs, but this time he was caught short. The feelings of the previous night returned, and he says, “something like scales fell off my eyes."

Overwhelmed he ran into a convenience store intending to “get right with God” then and there. The shopkeeper, seeing a raving lunatic, called the police. He spent the night in a holding cell pacing and crying, “God, I want to change!  Please help me!“

In the morning relatives picked him up and brought him to a church in Huntsville. There he met with the pastor and prayed to invite Jesus into his life. According to Kip, his urge to do drugs disappeared instantly. Soon after, he began visiting schools and talking to kids about the dangers of drugs. By age 19 he was a youth pastor.

Now, through 24/7 Kip brings true “Kingdom NRG” to youth who might never have come to a conventional church.

Damini Sandhu - I Don’t Want Your God

Damini Sandhu – I was running from God, but ran right into Him

Damini Sandhu, a business woman in Hamilton, was born in Nairobi, Kenya, but she emigrated to Canada in 1974 to study pharmacy at the University of Saskatchewan.

Her family was staunchly Hindu. Her oldest sister had almost attained Hindu priesthood, but after the tragic death of her husband, came to know Christ. Damini wanted nothing to do with Christ. As a Hindu, she knew there was a God and she lived a good life. Good works were foundational to her faith and had ensured her a loving childhood home with good moral standards.

Damini graduated and took a job in New Brunswick. Another pharmacist there was a strong Christian. “Here I was running from God,” she laughs, “but I ran right into Him!”  Her colleague “adopted” her into his family and their love touched her.

That year she also met Raj, a young man with whom she had many discussions about Christianity. On one occasion Raj invited her on an outreach to a maximum security prison. She didn’t expect what she encountered: “A hundred and sixty hard core prisoners – rapists and murderers – were praising God and testifying that God had forgiven them and that they had eternal life.” It was her defining moment.

Damini had never heard of a God who forgives. Hindu “salvation” based on works didn’t accommodate forgiveness. The revelation “was the key to my salvation,” she recalls.

She bought a Bible and read it voraciously. “One night I read about God’s judgment and I had a ‘road to Damascus’ experience. I heard Jesus speak to me audibly, ‘Come! Come to me!’”

From that moment, even through family persecution, she retained her faith. Her faith was rewarded when her dad, before passing away, had a vision of Christ. “My journey with the Lord has been very close because I was alone,” says Damini.

Damini, with her husband Raj Sandhu, pastor of Hamilton’s Meadow Creek Church.

Damini and Raj married in 1981. Raj now ministers at Meadow Creek Church in Hamilton. When they moved to Hamilton, she bought a small pharmacy, but not long after, the economy faltered and Damini became bankrupt. “Everyone told me to claim bankruptcy,” she says, but one morning as she listened to Charles Stanley, he seemed to challenge her directly. “Do you make decisions based on God’s Word or on the word of people?” he asked.

“I repented. I asked God to wake me up at 3 a.m. until I heard from Him about the pharmacy.” He did – every night for six months! During that time she learned to hear from God before making decisions.  “Then He gave me Scripture telling me not to give up.”

Damini persisted in faith, but it was five years before her circumstances turned. Since then, “God has blessed me immensely,” she says. “I have two pharmacies just one block apart.”

Damini shares what she has learned. She ministers to women’s groups and holds Bible studies among business women. She encourages Christians to share the Gospel with people of other faiths. “God gives us wisdom what to say and we should always take an opportunity to share and live by faith. God delights in these things.”

Daina Doucet is a writer and editor based in Hamilton, and a regular contributor to Beacon Magazine. She edits The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada’s website, www.Christianity.ca.  E-mail:  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  

Tel: 905-528-5375.

Photos of Kevin Philp and Damini Sandhu  courtesy of Mitchell Brown.