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When I was 12 years old, my mother had gotten a job working. She's. She was a neonatal intensive care nurse and she had gotten a job in Virginia and we'd moved there. We were living out in the, in the country and for the, for the time being, when we first moved there, we had moved in with my aunt and her husband who were renting this place out in the, out in the boonies. And so me and my cousins, my sisters, my cousins, we're outplaying in this field. And if you know anything about the, like the landscape of Virginia, it's very, it's a very wooded state, you know, and in the place where we were living, there was this gigantic field and that was connected to the house that my, that my aunt was renting. And there was a tree line at one end of the field, which was really far off. And then there was a tree line that was a lot closer, like towards the back of the property. And as we're playing out there, it was around, I don't know, you know, what, what photographers would call magic hour. So it's probably like six, six in the evening or so. The sun was starting to go down and we're all playing out there. And off across the tree line, all of a sudden there were these three lights. And at first I was like, oh, it's just a, you know, like a jet and it's the jets running lights or whatever. But these lights were up probably. They weren't like right over the tree line. They were pretty high up in the sky, like around cumulus cloud level, right? And they started moving towards us. And I didn't think anything of it. As they started moving toward us, I, I just kind. I glanced up, I saw it and I went back to playing. But a few, you know, just like less than a few minutes later, they were coming a lot closer. They were a lot bigger. And there was three of them and they were in a triangle shape and there was no noise whatsoever. And it, as it goes over, it's a black triangle with these crimson lights at each corner of the, of the, this triangle shaped ship, right, or craft or whatever, and it's just gliding over. And I was like, it's a ufo. It's so awesome. You know, it just like I was, I was like, I was right, there really are aliens. This kind of thing, you know, and because I think I was like 11 or 12 at the time and it just, I had seen ET Close Encounters of the Third Kind. You know, all these things were like Empire Strikes Back was My favorite film at the time. And it just, you know, blew my mind. Here's this thing going over and I, it was proof that we are not the only, in my mind, right, that we are not the only intelligent species in the universe. And so it goes over, it reaches the other tree line which is a little ways off in the distance. And it just paused. Like it stopped. And it just hovered there for just a couple seconds and then all of a sudden it just goes, it went so, and it was so fast, like it was there and then it just shot up and it was totally gone. And I, me, I wasn't the only one who saw it. My, my cousin saw it as well. And we all went running inside to tell the adults, to tell the grownups and nobody believed us. Like, and the whole thing was like, yeah, you've been watching too much Star Trek. And it just, yeah, it really ticked me off at the time. I believe that. I actually think like my mom and my, my aunt have, have actually kind of come around since then and you know, I think they actually do believe that I did actually really see something and my cousins also saw it. But anyway, this, this was like proof to me that there was something that we can't, you know, totally explain. Excuse me. And it set me off on a kind of like a journey. It wasn't like all at once, it wasn't like something that I, you know, just dove straight into all the UFO literature that I could find or something. But as I became a teenager, I started having a lot of, of questions and you know, I, I'd heard from, from my mom and from, you know, the, the rabbi from the conservative congregation that we attended lots of different things about God and angels and this sort of thing. And he answered my qu. The, the questions that I had, but they were really unsatisfactory answers and they were very surface level, right? And they, it seemed like they were designed for, you know, something that you would tell a seven year old, basically. And it wasn't just his answers. I had lots of Christian friends and they basically had the same kind of answers that, you know, this rabbi was giving. And they were getting their answers from their youth pastors, the local Baptist church and this kind of thing, right? And so I was super, like, not uninterested in biblical things, but I was like, once I had these answers which were really unsatisfying, I was like, well, that's baloney macaroni. I'm, I'm gonna look elsewhere, right? And so I got really heavily into UFO literature, but Also really heavily into New Age stuff and into Wicca, into a lot of alternative spirituality sources. Right. And I read all kinds of stuff about, and Hinduism and Buddhism and I just read voraciously and I didn't, I didn't like decide to follow any one of these particular paths, but I was busy absorbing their philosophy and their theology and I thought that there was some truth in all of them, but none of them were very satisfying either. At the end of the day, if you followed the rabbit trails that he, you know, to, towards their logical conclusions. For a lot of them I was like, that's not so great either. And so I kind of like, by the time I was in my 20s, I was like focusing on career stuff, on family things, and I was like, you know what? I'm not going to worry so much about the spiritual side of things. And you know, maybe they're the stuff that I saw when I was a kid. I do think it was real. Maybe it was from some intergalactic, you know, civilization, maybe there really are aliens from other planets, etc. Etc. But I'm not going to worry about it because they don't really impact my life that much. And I just kind of went, went on until I moved to Israel after which actually was after one of the worst relationship breakups that I'd ever had, ever. And it was, that was actually my very bad reason for, for moving to Israel was that I wanted the biggest, you know, change that I could think of. And at the time that was, well, changed my whole circumstances, my whole environment. I'm going to go all the way overseas. So I, I did that and you know, I, I had Orthodox Jewish friends, I had friends that were completely secular and I had lots of conversations with them. Then my mom had actually become a believer way before I, way before me. And you know, like a real believer, a real follower of Yeshua, of Jesus Christ. And she had, every time that I talked to her, she would always bring stuff back to the Bible. And, and I was, I found that incredibly annoying. And, and she was like, well, you, you really should read this and read this, you know, and not just the Hebrew scriptures, but, you know, also read the, the New Testament and like, there's nothing, you know, you don't, like, there's no harm in actually reading it and finding out what it has to say for yourself, you know. And I'd been like, I, I was like, well, I've already read part, you know, I've read this and I've read this and why, why should I. She's like, no, go and just read it from beginning to end. Do it. And so eventually, because she nagged me and, you know, I'm busy, like, trying to tell her about yoga and all this stuff that I'm doing, and she's all like, why don't you just go read it? I'm f Fine. You know, you read everything else. Why not this? Yes, that basically was, was the gist of it. And so I did. And I, I can't say that I had like this epiphany. Like, I'm, I'm sure there are people who have had, you know, some testimonies of Jewish believers are like, Jesus totally showed himself to me and I, you know, now I'm a believer. That didn't happen for me. My, my journey to becoming a, a follower of Jesus Christ was much more intellectual and it was much more of a. I need proof, I need some kind of evidence. I need something logical, right? And the progression of the Hebrew scriptures and its fulfillment in the New Testament, that was something that really con. Began to convince me. I can't say that it totally convinced me at the beginning, but it began to convince me. And eventually I got to the point where I did, you know, where I was like, you know what? If he is the way, the truth and the life, and he's telling the truth, then he's the one we've all been waiting for, and maybe he's the one that I've been waiting for and I'm just going to take the plunge. And so I, I, I actually did this stereotypical kind of prayer and I was like, if, if you really are who you say you are, you know, make your basically make yourself real to me and I will follow you forever. And he did. I said, well, I did, and I'm still doing it, right?
Host(s): Gary Stearman & Mondo Gonzales
Guest: Will Blesch
Date: May 7, 2026
In this episode, Gary Stearman and Mondo Gonzales sit down with Will Blesch to explore the intersection of personal encounters with the unexplained and the journey to faith. Will recounts a formative UFO sighting from his childhood and traces how it set him on a quest through various spiritual and philosophical paths, ultimately leading him to become a follower of Jesus. The conversation weaves together themes of personal experience, skepticism, searching for truth, and wrestling with the claims of the Bible.
Will Blesch on the UFO sighting:
"Here’s this thing going over and I... it was proof that we are not the only, in my mind, right, that we are not the only intelligent species in the universe." (01:55)
On unanswered spiritual questions:
"The answers that I had... were really unsatisfactory answers and they were very surface level, right? And it seemed like they were designed for, you know, something that you would tell a seven year old, basically." (06:45)
On exploring spiritual paths:
"I read voraciously and I didn't like decide to follow any one of these particular paths, but I was busy absorbing their philosophy and their theology and I thought that there was some truth in all of them, but none of them were very satisfying either." (08:00)
On taking a leap of faith:
"'If he is the way, the truth and the life, and he's telling the truth, then he's the one we've all been waiting for, and maybe he's the one that I've been waiting for and I’m just going to take the plunge.'" (15:40)
On praying for evidence:
"If you really are who you say you are... make yourself real to me and I will follow you forever." (15:55)
Will Blesch’s story is a candid and thoughtful account of how an encounter with the unexplained can spark a lifelong search for meaning. Rather than a dramatic conversion, his journey from UFO sighting to Christian faith is marked by honest questioning, dissatisfaction with superficial answers, a wide-ranging exploration of philosophies and religions, and ultimately a reasoned, deliberate commitment to follow Jesus. For listeners intrigued by the overlap between the paranormal and personal faith, this episode offers both compelling narrative and intellectual challenge.