Why This 23-Year-Old Air Force Man Chose Orthodoxy”

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]Hello everyone. This is America Go Orthodox. We are here with Saraphim from Texas. Hi Saraphim. Good morning.

[00:00:06]>> Good morning.

[00:00:06]>> How are you brother?

[00:00:07]>> I'm fantastic.

[00:00:08]>> Awesome. Awesome. And he's going to share with us a little bit how God show him the the true church, how he's found the Orthodoxy, why he's decided to follow the Orthodox church. Please s tell us what church of Christianity tradition did you belong before discover orthodoxy? I was non-denominational Protestant for the most of my life and then um I went Catholic for six months and then eventually to Orthodox.

[00:00:32]>> Awesome. So what happened? You was almost 23 years Protestant. What was the reason to seeking something out of the Protestant church?

[00:00:41]>> Um living in Witchaw, Kansas. Uh it's huge Catholic community. They kept uh my a bunch of my bunch of my friends kept uh asking me about the sacraments and why I believed opposite to what the apostles believed and what the early church fathers believed and you know coming from that standpoint I said well the Bible doesn't say all that and they eventually showed me the historical factor of Christianity and that everyone for the first 1500 years believed against what I believed and that made me question everything. Why am I believing something that came only 500 years ago?

[00:01:15]So that's whenever I dove deep.

[00:01:17]>> Very nice. And uh when you left the Protestant church, you became Orthodox or you >> I went to Cathol Roman Catholicism. Um I had already gone like I loved uh debating. I was very arrogant at that time. And so I went to the catechism for Cathol Roman Catholicism.

[00:01:36]And so because I had already gone through all of it and I I you know professed the Eucharist, I said, "Hey, make me Catholic. I'll I'll take the I mean I want the Eucharist to make me Catholic. So they made me Catholic in August of 24 and then a couple months after that I you know went and inquired Orthodoxy.

[00:01:55]>> How you found the Orthodox Church and why you decide to follow the Orthodoxy?

[00:01:59]>> The YouTube channel Harmony there's a video called Death to the World and uh it it was the first ever drop of water from Orthodoxy that I had ever got and it was it was not a drop of water. It was like a bucket of water being splashed in my face and I said, "What is this? This is completely different." And um it like one day I'm flying back into Witchaw from my visit at home and I looked at one of my friends who was Catholic. I said, "Let's go look at that church. Let's go to the cathedral in in Witchaw." And sure enough, I walked in and I met the the priest's assistant, the pastoral assistant who was soon to be a deacon and then became a priest and is now my godfather from whenever I converted.

[00:02:42]>> Wow, that's awesome. Do you remember how you felt the first time you stepped into the Orthodox church?

[00:02:47]>> Uh, I felt uncomfortable. You know, it was it was very different. And now I'd been, you know, kind of used to walking in churches. because I lived in Italy and so I'd been in tons of Catholic and you know before even the schism they were you know orth it was just the Catholic church and so I'd experienced like non-protestant churches but still at the same time there was something different it felt like something was crawling under my skin like I was I was somewhere else and but at the same time the warmth like I I was comfortable at the same time it was weird.

[00:03:21]uh saraphim what was the biggest difference between Catholic church and Orthodox and you say okay I need to be orthodox I live >> you don't want to ask me this question [laughter] it's a deep question now um I would say the papal infallibility um the universal jurisdiction of the papacy and their view of original sin compared to us believing in the fallen nature compared to their inheritance of the guilt and then also the filioquay Um, all of that I thought I could just accept whenever I became Catholic. And after I became Catholic, those kept eating at me. And I kept reading into history and what the early church fathers wrote. And I found out that orthodoxy holds to the original beliefs and the original theology and has continued that faith to this day. So that was the the biggest thing. And and also the they'll tell you, "Oh, well, we we're not against icons. We're not against this or that." But they don't hold it in their their lurggical practice.

[00:04:22]>> You mean the Catholics?

[00:04:23]>> Yeah. That the Catholics don't don't hold to the liturggical essence with iconography and other aspects like we do.

[00:04:32]>> I see. I see. How your family see the change? They still have Protestant.

[00:04:36]>> They're very Protestant. So Protestant they'll say, um, I'm not a Protestant.

[00:04:40]I'm just a Christian. I'm just a believer in Christ. Yada yada. Um, when I became Catholic, they thought I was worshiping the devil. They thought I was going into a cult. Um, but I I tell people God let me beame become Catholic in order for me to become Orthodox because if it weren't for Catholicism, my parents wouldn't be as open to talking about Orthodoxy as they are now.

[00:05:05]Because I think that going so far away from what they are, they it was drastic and it broke some walls down. And then now that I'm Orthodox where we don't have, you know, an all infallible pope and all these different things, you know, it's very similar, but it they they're more comfortable. They're more conditioned to hear me.

[00:05:26]>> Very nice. How did Orthodoxy help you in your daily life with your job, with your family, with your friends?

[00:05:32]>> Um, I mean, it gave me friends. No. Um, I had a a good bit of friends, but you know, at some point you as you come closer to God, you look at what your friends are doing. You might have buddies that are always drinking or chasing women or going out to clubs. And I moved away from that. And so as I became more Orthodox, I gained more Orthodox friends who would want to go, you know, to museums and and like actually talk about God and and go like just do general things, but not, you know, I would say uh what's the word I'm looking for? Uh >> worldly.

[00:06:10]>> No. No. Well, world worthy. Worldly. Um deg degenerate. Degenerate. That's what I'm looking for. Degenerate things. Um, but everyday life like um I'm very into theology and I'm very into the faith and um so any chance I get I'll talk about it and my my coworker he asks me a lot of questions and so daily life I get to work and talk about it and it's beautiful and I pray that one day he you know gives ear to it and eventually inquires into the faith.

[00:06:40]>> Amen. Amen. Right now many young people they seeking for truth like your age.

[00:06:45]What would you like to say to them?

[00:06:47]>> There's only one truth. That's Christ.

[00:06:50]But a part of Christ is his body and he founded that on this earth. And that is the Orthodox Church. There is one faith, one baptism, one belief. That's it. That that the Orthodox church is all there is. Um as the early church fathers said, there's no salvation outside of it. But we have to believe in God's grace and that it can reach out to others and pull them into it.

[00:07:11]>> Very, very beautiful. Do you have any favorite saints, any book to recommend to people?

[00:07:17]>> Anything by by Father Sarapim Rose. He's he's he's my guy, but my patron saint is Saraphim Sarapim of Sarav. Um but both are, you know, beautiful saints. Um anything by the both of them.

[00:07:32]>> That's very nice. One last question for you. If you have the Jesus Christ front of you right now, what would you like to say to them to him?

[00:07:40]>> I'm sorry. you know just you know we sin against him every time we sin we crucify him again so >> thank you very much may God bless you brother keep going >> you have the the god spirit with you this is gotos from Stand Monastery