his name is tony nolan.
Tony’s life story fuels his passion for Christ and lies at the heart of his powerful gift for speaking God’s truth to today’s youth. Adopted at 3, he endured abuse as a child and struggled with addictions as a teen. On the verge of taking his own life, Tony learned of God’s unconditional love for him and committed his life to Christ. For Tony, everyday is a celebration of how God’s life-changing love can redeem every aspect of a person’s life.
Tony was born to a homeless, mentally ill prostitute who was placed in a mental institution. After his birth, Tony was immediately put into foster care where he suffered unspeakable abuse at the hands of his own foster parents. For the first three years of his life, he was brutally beaten and thrown down flights of stairs for sport, and burned with cigarettes when he refused to perform perverted sexual acts.
Just before his fourth birthday, Tony was adopted for only $200. His adopted father beat and verbally abused Tony regularly. In drunken rages, he would often look at Tony in disgust and demand, “Is this all my $200 got me? I wish I’d never bought you.” To soothe his bloodied and battered soul, Tony turned to drugs. Growing up in Sin City, the seediest part of Jacksonville, Florida, provided easy access to illegal drugs. By age 13, he was addicted to marijuana, acid, and alcohol. His drug habits regularly landed him in trouble with the law, and he became a social outcast. But, God had plans for Tony and kept His hand of protection and blessing on him, even as he continued to slide farther down a dark path.
The next step along Tony’s road toward salvation was a high-paying, luxurious job as a yacht captain for a major business mogul. He was convinced this job would be his deliverance from the pain of life, and would bring him the happiness he longed for. It didn’t. This lead Tony to conclude that there is no reason to live. Hopeless, Tony wrestled with a deep desire to die. He quit his job on the yacht and spent his days drinking, and intensely wrestling with suicide.
February 24, 1989, could have been Tony’s last day on earth. Crushed by the rejection of his father’s words, telling him that he wished he had never bought him, suicide haunted his mind and heart. However, in the midnight of his storm, a ray of light from the Son of God broke through. Someone came and shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with Tony. Hearing that Jesus came to give hurting people life to the fullest, Tony prayed and received Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord. Learning that God the Father, in contrast to his adopted father, had never regretted purchasing him with the priceless blood of his Son, Jesus, Tony was transformed by the Love of God.
His life changed completely that night. Radically born again, Jesus delivered him from all his drug addictions and began to mold and reshape his character, freeing him from his old self-sabotaging habits. Soon, God called Tony into full-time ministry and he went on to become an ordained and licensed Preacher of the Gospel.
Tony’s spiritual gift is Harvest Evangelism, or drawing the net, which he simply defines as “helping people get it about God’s great love and salvation.” God’s saving power is distinctly manifested wherever Tony preaches. In a single speaking event, about 3,000 people responded at the invitation and made public professions of faith in Christ.
Today, Tony can be found enthusiastically sharing the Gospel at major events across America. Tony also leads LifeL.I.F.T., a “Salvation Awakening” movement. Its core mission is to facilitate corporate encounters with God through prayer, worship, biblical teaching, drama, and media that supernaturally transform hearts, resulting in resurgence of First Century outreach for the glory of God. Tony is a graduate of The Criswell College for Biblical Studies in Dallas, Texas. He now lives in Woodstock, Georgia with his wife Tammy and their three children, Christy, Will and Bradly.
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SORRY IT IS SO LONG
? what are the closest, top places? thankyou!
