Team Rider Information’s

Name: Paul Hardy

Birth: Sherbroke, Quebec, Canada. June 21, 1974

Occupation: Minister of the Gospel Athlete sports

Background: snowboarding, surfing, and skimboarding.

Words of wisdom: " What makes me strong is to know what make me weak. How I am found, is to know who I seek."

Favorite Scripture: "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever." (1 Peter1: 24-25)

Saved: June 2000

Testimony: Dear brothers and sisters, I Paul, call God to be my witness, because the reason why that I am writing this story is not to tell you who I am, but to tell you what God did in my life. Clearly this is a letter from Christ my Lord, it is written not with a pen and ink, but with the spirit of the living God through Christ. Amen!

I am a Professional snowboarder in the winter at Whistler, BC, Canada, and surfing the big Hawaiian waves in the fall and surfing the west coast in the summer, consumes my time. Having grown up in Quebec, I speak French. When I was only two years old, my parents were divorced, and after a while it became too difficult for my mother to raise three children on her own, so I had to move in with my Dad. Unfortunately, he was an alcoholic and spent all his time drinking, snowmobiling, and I was home alone pretty much all the time, not having my dad home, to love me. Soon I had started drinking, smoking pot, and losing my faith for life. At the age of 16, I told myself that I was in control, but I was not!

When I was 16 years old, my life became even more complicated! One Friday I was expelled from school, my mom found out and called to say she was coming to bring me back to live with her. I asked her to wait till my dad got back from a snowmobiling trip. He was to return home the next day, but never arrived. He died that night in a drinking and driving accident. Deciding I didn't want to go back to my mom's house, I ran away, and for the next two years, slept outside on the streets, eating from garbage cans, drinking and taking drugs. I sold drugs, and broke into houses and stores to get money, Stealing and gang fight eventually landed me in jail a few times.

Then, at the age of 19, I decided to killed myself, I was living with friends at the time. One night I was alone in the apartment, I had just broken up with my girlfriend and was sick of everything. I was about to cut my wrists when a friend came by to see me. That visit saved my life, it was like a call from God telling me; "not right now son, I need you!" Seeing the desperate state I was in, my mother bought me a plane ticket to visit my brother, who at that time was living on the west coast of Canada in popular ski town called Whistler. From the first time I saw the mountains, I fell in love with them. This resulted in a radical change in my life. That was when I learned to snowboard and later to surf. My goal in life became to be the best at these sports, after three years I was good enough to get sponsors. This meant free products and money. It has now been six years since I came to Whistler. The strangest thing is that, though I had everything - freedom, sponsors, travel, money, all the gear that I wanted for free, glory and pride, as well as my picture in snowboarding magazines around the world, and I was living in one of the nicest place in the world, I still felt empty deep inside.

Last summer I visited my brother, who now lives in Oregon. While I was there he told me how Jesus had changed his life, and how alive he now felt. Driving home from Oregon to Whistler, I said, "Jesus, if you are real, helps me to forget my past. Change my heart and fill me with your love!" It didn't take long for something to happen; I started to cry, and found myself crying for almost the whole 8-hour trip home. The first thing I did when I got home was to buy a Bible. In my whole life I had never liked reading, I hated it so bad, but since Jesus changed my life, I can't seem to stop reading. I am so hungry for God's word, I can't seem to put it down. All these years I was looking for something to satisfy my own selfishness, never realizing that I was trying to get an identity in the eyes of man.

From the deep bottom of my heart, I challenge you to step into the presence of God, it's a narrow road and hard but worth it! God wants you the way you are, but he wants your heart so that he can change it. When I accepted Jesus I was in a relationship with a woman, a beautiful woman. I was now saved and living in adultery, faced with a choice, live right for God or just pretend that it is ok. I chose God, and the girl left me. It was a hard decision, but it was the right one.

That fall while in Hawaii I started to attend a church on Maui. For the first couple of weeks I was there, it was as if I had a fire ball inside of me; I found myself preaching on the streets to people. Someone prophesied over my life, that I would go and preach the word to the nations. So I got baptized right away to receive the promisse of the power of the Holy Spirit.

God has the ultimate plan for your life if you will obey him. I experienced the darkness of the street, and then went on to the glory of snowboarding, popularity and pride of life, but I was still empty. Everything has changed in my life. It is not that my snowboarding career has changed; it is my heart and my values that had changed, and I see things differently now. I used to be so proud of seeing my pictures everywhere. Now I don't even care to be noticed. I found my answer in Jesus; the truth set me free. I challenge you to get close to Jesus; to walk in his ways. Trust the Lord and you will be blessed! (These are only words; but the walk is real.)

Love is strong, love never fail. It takes a strong man to follow Jesus and to love. Are you strong enough to stand by him? Amen!

Thanks: To my Lord Christ Jesus, this is all for you and thank you for every big and little things that you accomplished in my life, and for saving me, glory to my king Jesus! To my mom for all her prayers, for my big brother for showing me the way back to Jesus, My sister, Ivon, Pastor Daniel for his fire and his inspiration, pastor Brent and his love, all the crew from CLA, Martin, Steve, Doctor Payne, lPhiliberts,Whistler church, to all my friends and people that I forget, thank you again.