The world was not enough

Natasha Percy | 27 August 2007

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My name is Greg Voukoufian, I’m 33 years of age, born in Sydney with an Armenian background and I am much honoured to share with you my testimony on how I became a follower of Jesus Christ.

My family arrived in Sydney in the mid 1960s from very different countries. Both my parents are of Armenian descent. My father was born in Egypt and my mother was born in Greece. My parents met here in Australia and were married a few years after. I also have one older brother.
I was brought up in the Armenian Orthodox Church – where church is cultural in tradition and very Levitical in style. I was taught to believe in God and to follow the traditions of the Armenian Church as it was a custom in our culture. We were never regular church attendees, for we only went during Christmas, Easter, memorials – even for weddings and christenings.

At the age of 12, my brother and I briefly attended a local Anglican church in Cabramatta for Sunday school and youth group activities. Back in those days I never really got to understand the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. My brother is intellectually handicapped, and I blamed God for his condition. Therefore, I decided not to have Jesus in my life at the time.

Eventually I grew up and established a career as an insurance administrator with a leading Australian bank. The only things in life that mattered to me were self-seeking pleasures such as money, gambling, lust and alcohol.

Despite, all this I had always felt very depressed, lonely and empty.

In September 1995, my father suffered a severe heart attack and was near death. It was a very unpleasant time with my family and we didn’t know what was going to happen from one minute to the next. I feared the worst about my dad. In God’s grace, he eventually had a heart transplant that saved his life. After that, my family commenced attending an Evangelical Church learning the word of God. I, on the other hand, still remained an unbeliever, and I didn’t know why.

It was in February 2004, that I went with a few of my friends to a cinema to watch The Passion of The Christ. With the hype of media controversy around the film at the time, we were most curious to see what it was all about.

After watching the film, I was not only impacted by the graphic scenes portrayed, but at the fact that Jesus paid the ultimate price for our sins – this was quite different to what I was taught in my Orthodox upbringing.
That night I went home and had many questions about Jesus Christ. Why did the Son of God suffer such a painful death? What was it all about?

From there I started reading the Bible and attending church on a regular basis – learning and studying intensely about the person and work of the Lord Jesus and the Bible. It was time for me to find out who Jesus is. After six months, during a Christian weekend camp, I made the most important decision in my life. I asked Jesus to come into my heart to be my Saviour and Lord. On that day, I surrendered my life to God and decided in my heart that I would follow him rather than myself.

To this day, my family and I are attending St John’s Park Anglican Church where I have been since January 2005. I am actively involved, supporting ministry in many areas such as parish council and have also been recently appointed as missions moordinator – assisting our link missionaries. As I am currently employed in the the city, I also support Ecom’s City Bible Forum, a ministry that proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ to workers in the CBD area.

I am also studying the part-time evening course with Moore Theological College (I am now in my third year). This course is helping me to develop my character as a Christian, as well as grow in deep conviction of the word of God so that I am equipped to serve and reach out to those who have not learned the good news in the same way I have come to know the Lord in his grace.

I am so happy that Jesus is in my life. There’s no turning back and no moment of regret at all. As the Apostle Paul illustrates, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17)....Amen.

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