When I was 15 years old, I left my home, the Ionian Island of Kefalonia on the western side of Greece, where I was born, and went to live with an uncle in Rhodesia, Africa. (The country is now called Zimbabwe.) I went there for a better future, since there were hardly any jobs on the Greek island where my family lived. A few years later, in Rhodesia, I came to realize that God had better plans and a better future for me than I had ever dreamed of.

During the first years of my life, I, like 98% of the people in Greece, was brought up under the dominant religion of the Greek Orthodox Church. I was baptized as an infant and followed the precepts of my church, believing all the time that I was a Christian. But in Rhodesia in 1964, two Christian friends read scriptures and explained to me God’s wonderful plan of salvation. That day, God opened my eyes, and I realized that instead of being a Christian, I was a lost sinner who needed Christ to save me.

One of the scriptures my friends read to me was from Paul’s letter, Romans 10:13, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. This verse really stuck with me, and God used it. I thought about the word “whosoever,” which told me that it included me! Leaving my friends—God having spoken to my heart—I knew what I needed to do, and that was to go to the Lord in prayer, acknowledge my sin, repent to God of my sins, and receive Christ as my Savior. And that is exactly what I did! The result of my calling upon the name of the Lord was that He saved me! It was because of Christ, who sacrificed Himself on the cross, paid the penalty for my sin, and freely gave me His free gift of salvation and eternal life.

One of the great things, for which I am thankful to God, is that while I was growing up as a young man in Greece, I never doubted that the Bible was the Word of God! True faith in God and in Christ begins when a person believes, or puts his/her trust, in God through His Word. That is why in Hebrews 11:6 it says, But without faith [not abstract faith, but faith in what God says is true] it is impossible to please Him [God].

My homeland of Greece produced great philosophers, gave civilization to the world, and the New Testament was written in its language. Greece was also the place where the apostle Paul preached the gospel. Yet many Greeks do not know God’s simple plan of salvation. They are left in ignorance, spiritual darkness, and sin, without hope, without Christ, and without His great salvation. Like the apostle Paul’s prayer for his fellow Jewish people, my prayer and heart’s desire for my fellow Greeks is that they might be saved. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24).

In 1966, two years after I became a Christian, the Lord made it possible for me to come to the States to study the Word of God. I attended Holmes Theological Seminary, Bob Jones University, and Foundations Bible College. Since then, I have done evangelistic work and pastored churches in the U.S. My wife and I, and our children, have also spent some years in Greece as missionaries. My heart yearns for all people, especially for my fellow Greeks, to believe God’s wonderful promise that God might save them! For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10:13).

Now, in my later years, through the open door of Facebook, I am teaching and preaching God's Word and Christ's glorious gospel to the world for the salvation of souls and the biblical edification of believers in Christ.

Savvas Constantatos is a retired pastor. He and his wife, Linda, have four children and nine grandchildren.