Introducing Stefan (Tux) Piegsa

Stefan, or Tux, Grinning for the Camera

Tux Sharing His Testimony at U-NITE

Stefan, lovingly called Tux within our group, has got to be one of the most interesting people you will ever meet! To start off with, he's a genius. It's not every day that you come across a young man who has invented a device within his car that heats up the windschield fluid during the winter so it's more effective ... nor a guy who has created his own type of speedometer that clicks just so it sounds and looks like the NightRider's car . .. in fact, we are all certain that within only a few years he will be, at least, a millionaire.

And for being such a technical person, he is suprisingly, well, outgoing. If you ask him, he would say he isn't, but he doesn't see himself as he literally shines Jesus to others. He doesn't hear how his words to others--always encouraging and uplifting, drip like honey and reflect God's very nature . . . communicating the truth that He is for us and not against us.

This combination, plus his willingness to serve, in addition to an incredible testimony, thus made him the perfect prime candidate to be our speaker for our March U-NITE. He had people practically rolling on the floor laughing over the crazy things he did in High School, and he moved them deeply through sharing how he humbled himself and turned to God . . . .

But rather than writing all of this myself, I asked Tux to share a little bit . .. first about his testimony, and secondly, about how U-NITE has impacted his life . . .

So here is what he had to say . . .

Tux's Testimony . . .

My name is Stefan and I grew up in the former German Democratic Republic where religion was considered something bad and thus I was not raised in a christian household. When I was 10 years old, after the reunification, we moved to a town near Nuremberg. My dad told me that I have always been different and always did what I liked and so with the years passing by I became more and more rebellious, especially towards my dad, my teachers and everybody who was not for me. During the years, I got more negative remarks in my school file for all my evil deeds than anybody else but nothing happened to me and thus I started to feel more and more like a god. In the beginning of the 10th form, the class' Christian (Lenny), even though he was very popular among the others, did not find somebody to sit next to him and so went to sit next to me and a friend of mine. Of course I did not like that at first. During that year, my negative feelings for him started to decline when we found out by accident, that our grandparents lived very close together at the other end of Germany. It also turned out, that my long-term friend who also sat next to me was also a Christian. As they told me later, they started to fast and pray for me.

On the one hand Il iked their presence but on the other hand my pride and rebellion and the thinking that I was a god became worse. At one occasion I even proclaimed this in front of my class and my teacher - they all were shocked. In this moment I felt inwardly that I had gone too far.I also stole some chemicals from school and proudly told my two christian classmates about it but they rebuked me, telling me that Ihad done a bad thing in the eyes of God. Even though these were just human words, I felt so much authority in what they said and I just knew that they were right and started to fear for what I did, so I returned the things I stole. I even began to believe in their God, but I felt so guilty that I did not dare to pray. As so often, some pressure solved this problem: Once again I faced a situation near the end of the school term with two negative grades which would mean I could fail. The teacher did not want to give me a chance to improve my grade because I had bothered and disturbed her during the entire term. And so I knew that the only hope was the God of these two Christians and the pressure was so big that I overcame my feelings of guilt and prayed to him. When I asked the teacher again for a solution in my situation she suddenly gave me a second chance and I was able to get rid of the negative grade and passed the year. Some time later, when I was spending some time with these two christian friends, who in the meantime had become my closest friends, one of them asked me whether I had ever given my live to Jesus. I didn't know what this meant, "giving ones life to Jesus". So we prayed together and on this day the worst school rebel got saved! Praise the LORD. My behavior in school changed immediately and I started to love people that I had formerly cursed and slandered.

What Tux Had To Say About U-NITE . . .

I have been in the Every Nation Nuremberg church right from the beginning. Together with the pastor's children and one or two others, we were the only young adults at that time.When the first plans on a U-NITE came up, I didn't know how much that would change both the church and my own life. Before I became a Christian and also during the first years after, I had been a loner.I lived in my own little world, liked to do things alone, and to be independent of others. It was difficult for me to face the sufferings and problems of others or to just do something on a team. I liked things to be exactly my way with a maximum of control. When I was around people I surrounded myself with older persons most of the time because in my pride I didn't want to see me on the same level with people of my age. So I didn't like to be part of the U-NITE team at the beginning. I did actually think about withdrawing from everythingthat had to do with U-NITE and young adults.

But somehow I eventually remained there, praise God, and U-NITE has totally changed my life during a pretty short time: For the first time I really encountered people from absolutely different backgrounds, some with really tragic or hard pasts and for the first time I began to really love those people that were so different than me. I realized how much of God's grace had always been with me and that I could do my part to be a blessing in other peoples' lives. Moreover for the first time I began to be part of a team, the U-NITEteam, a group of very precious and unique people. I learned to do things jointly with others and esteem their work and to submit to others. And I more and more realize that it is God who has things under control and not me. I have seen Him work the most unbelievable things and change lives, including my own, and that during quite a short time. U-NITE has become a place where faith can become practical!