Who is Mat Miller? I will answer this question by giving my life story and testimony. I will also give my likes and dislikes.
I grew up in a disfunctional family. I lived with my mother, sister, and brother. My dad was out of the picture since day one. This happened because my mother and him were fighting and she decided that on my birth certificate I would have both parents last names. Once my dad saw that he was furious and he packed up and left. It kinda makes me wish that my mom would have just put Miller instead of Dougherty. Anyway, thats how it started for me. I was born in the month of June. I cannot recall how much I weighed or how tall I was. I have hazel eyes, which are the coolest by the way. Back to the story, life was good in my younger years. I had a mom who loved me and an older sister who did just as much for me. My mom had 3 husbands total. My sister dad who is Ronald McDonald, my dad who is Brian Dougherty and a guy named Ed Sessamen. Now my mom is with a guy named Mike Murphy, they have been together over 15 years. I can say I am pleased with this guy as he has acted more like a father then my dad and Ed put together. My mom made me go to church when I was younger. I was the kid who sat in the back pew and fell asleep on my mom's lap. I enjoyed the youth group as I was a rebellious kid who loved mocking the teacher. I often would get smacked with a fly swatter by my Sunday school teacher Mrs. Teeters. After awhile I started gather a group of friends, a group of followers was more like it. I noticed this and took advantage of it. When we went to church we sat together and made fun of the preacher and music, everything in general. Sometimes the preacher would call us on it, but as the leader I didn't mind saying something to him about whatever the topic was. After a couple years I could see the church starting to dislike me, but the youth group loved me. If I wasn't at church attendance dropped and that was all there was to it. BUT something changed in me. I slowly started getting angry with the preacher, because he claimed to love God so much yet he was always talking about himself. This anger grew inside of me and I would often repeat to myself, "if I was the preacher at least I could talk about God and do a better Job than this joke." After awhile of that my friends started to hear of my thoughts. Sounds confusion but my friends knew me best I guess. When I was 11 yrs old my cousin Jason invited me and my bestfriend Josh Peters to a camp called Mahaffy Camp. We went there as workers in the kitchen. I went because it was a camp with sport tournamnents. At that camp Josh and I walked down to the altar and accepted Christ as our personal Saviour. I left that camp and went home alive. But after a few weeks, I slowly slipped back into my old ways. I didn't understand this, I didn't understand why God wasn't keeping the bad away. It wasn't until age 16 that I became more aware of who God was and what it meant to be a Christian. I attended another camp called, "Camp Impact". Impact was the greatest decision of my life. I went there with a whole crew of my friends and that is where I became committed to Christ and asked him what he wanted me to do. I went to my bed area and opened the Bible I had just got a year or two before that camp. (this was my first time reading it). I opened to the book of dueteronomy and it was chapter 30 where I read about life and death. I chose life and had a conversation with God about what he wanted for me. Youth Ministry was the answer. I talked to the youth pastor who went to the camp and I made an oath with him. I told John Poe that I would do what it takes, that I wouldn't lie to him, I told him I wanted to be pushed because I didn't know what to do in order to attain God's goal. He helped me out so much I will always be indebted to him. It has been five years since I made that oath with him and I am now in Bible College reaching for my Degree in Youth Ministry. This is the basic life story of me. It is pretty long. I did leave out some vital information on how I got to the IMPACT camp. That was for a reason. I also skipped a 5 year between camps, that also was for a reason. Below I will explain my testimony that most of my friends know already based off my artwork.
You might ask, what is your artwork? Well, my artwork is a tattoo on my back. I have always wanted a tattoo, but I never knew what to get. I went to a place called, BLACK DRAGON in Altoona, Pa. The guy who did my tattoo was amazing, he is very good at detail, his first name is Joe. Now I will describe the individual items I have. the First thing on my back from left to right in acension is Praying Hands. The praying hands represent me looking for an answer to life. The next item you see is the initials JD in old english writing. The JD symbolizes my friend Joey Delmastro who got me to go to a place called, The Door. Next to JD is a picture of a open door. Right above that on my lower neck are the words The Door in old English. These two items represent a youth center in Bellwood and the door way to heaven. Next thing you see are the intitials DT in old english, which represent Dave Taylor. Right beside that you see another set of intitials JP, those stand for John Poe. There is also a date right in that area, it stand for the day I was baptized by both Dave and John. Then on my shoulder is the cross which represents being saved.
That is my artwork, which is on my back starting from left to right going in acension. So when I tell people in person about it, it flows very easily. I say, the hands represent me looking for the answer in life. While the JD represents a friend who got me to atted a youth center where I met the guy Dave Taylor who led me to small groups in tipton, pa. Then he also got me to go to Shout with John Poe where I then heard of Camp IMPACT which is were I became serious about God. Then Dave and John baptized me on 2-24-08 which then leads to the cross ultimatley, hence I am a Christian now.
