Guest testimony: subway encounter and conversion

• What led to John Paul Birch's conversion to Christianity?

John Paul Birch tells his conversion story: after a train-wreck of romantic relationships and returning from Turkey, he saw a woman on a New York subway, turned away to avoid temptation and thought it was time to focus on his spiritual life; at that moment he overheard the word Iowa, met her, and she shared the gospel with him — notably the claim that Jesus is God and that faith itself is a gift — prompting his first prayers. Apologetics sermons from a California pastor with a doctorate in the field then gave him intellectual confidence, and after identifying as Christian he moved back to Iowa and learned the faith was a developing relationship with God, not mere belief.