The Path of Shalom
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Nov. 18, 2005
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My Testimony - Redemption (Part 2)
I graduated in the spring of 1973. I was a strong-willed, rebellious
young woman. I know now my parents were so tired of dealing with me,
and as the parent of more than one strong-willed child, I can
understand that. In the summer after I graduated, my dad hauled his
travel trailer out to our favorite nearby camping place and parked it
for 2 weeks for my friend, Carrie, and I to camp out. Looking back at
it, he probably knew he wasn't going to change my behavior and it, at
least, gave them a break from me.
Well, leaving two 18 year old
girls in a State Park, unsupervised, is not a good thing. At that time,
the legal drinking age was 18 and we took advantage of it. That
encourages immorality and that went on, too. G-d used that time,
though, to start something in my life. I met a young man who was
camping there. He was home on leave from the Navy. I was very attracted
to him and amazingly, he was to me. After he left to go back to his
base and I went home, we continued to keep in contact. He came home for
Labor Day weekend and he invited me to his grandparent's place on a
lake not too far from where I lived for a cookout. He mentioned going
to church and I invited myself along because I wanted to spend more
time with him. It was an independent Baptist church about 3 miles from
where I lived. I started going with him whenever he came home on leave.
Then I started going even when he wasn't home. I did not know that his
godly grandmother and mother were praying for me. I just knew that I
felt loved and accepted there.
I learned that I was a sinner.
I knew it in my heart because I was starting to feel guilt and shame
for my behavior. This was a church that had a salvation message every
Sunday. They sang "Just As I Am" most weeks, too, for the invitational.
That song really worked on me. The messages really worked on me. Now I
know that the Holy(Set-apart) Spirit was working in me, convicting me
and drawing me to my Savior Jesus(Yeshua). This went on all fall.
I
was also attending the local community college that fall, taking the
Electronics Technology course. I was one of 2 females in a class of
about 33. I know we were a distraction to the other students,
especially since mini-skirts were in at that time. One guy, a little
older student than the others, kept wanting me to go out with him. Even
though I was very interested in the guy in the Navy, I finally agreed
to go see a movie with him. He took me to a drive-in and it was horror
films. I have never liked horror films and still don't. He also wanted
more than to see the movie. It was not a very good date, I can tell
you, and he did not get what he wanted since I felt revolted by him and
the date.
In December, I remember taking a tract on "God's
Simple Plan of Salvation" home with me. I read it and was strongly
convicted. I fell to my knees and told G-d that I wanted His salvation,
that I believed in Jesus. After that, I started noticing a change.
Things that I was doing made me feel very uncomfortable and I didn't
want to do them anymore. I started wanting to read the Bible and pray.
It was the Christmas season and I realized that I knew the One who came
as that little baby. It was a very precious time for me that year. All
the christmas hymns took on a real significance to me. It felt like a
little secret down deep in me. By the end of December, my boyfriend
from the Navy rejected me. I no longer wanted to do the things with him
that we had been doing and was no fun any longer. Even though, G-d had
used him to get me to where I would learn of Him, he did not know Him
or was not walking with Him, and he dropped me. I heard many years
later that he had married a Catholic girl and had converted to Roman
Catholicism.
The first of the new year, I decided I wanted to be
baptized. The pastor had been speaking on it and I felt a tug to do it.
I approached him and he questioned me about why and I told the first
person of my decision I had made a few weeks previously. He arranged to
have a baptism the next week on a Sunday night. I told my family that I
was being baptized and asked them to come. When I was baptized, I gave
my first testimony publicly. I found out after the baptism that Jim's
grandmother and mother had been praying for me all fall. They were so
excited! Those things had a profound effect on me and my life changed
even more.
Right after I was baptized, a girl that was going
to that church offered to disciple me. She was a student at New Tribes
Bible Institute. What is really interesting is that I had worked for a
while at a restaurant near my home as a busgirl. My best friend, Pat,
took over the job when I got on the work-study program the second
semester of my Senior year at highschool. She told me they had hired
some girls from a Bible school and we would make fun and laugh together
about them as she told me how they were memorizing bible verses while
working. Now a young woman from that school was wanting to be my friend
and teach me the scriptures. I was hungry to learn so agreed to get
together to study the Bible. I met with Ellen every week.
I
also had found the "My Daily Bread" devotional at church and started
reading it. I would spend time every day reading the scripture and
praying. No one told me to do this. I just wanted to do it. I also
started learning the hymns that we were singing at church and singing
them. My family started giving me some trouble over the changes in my
life. I was quite outspoken about what I was learning and my newfound
faith. This was during the time that "The Chariots of the Gods" was
popular and there were several books out on it and shows on television.
We got in quite a few arguments over it. My mother told me it was just
another "kick" I was on and that I would get over it.
I was
really enjoying visiting New Tribes Bible Institute when I met with
Ellen for Bible study. They had some reading materials about missions
and their mission to the tribal peoples. I took them and started
reading them. As I did, I was drawn to doing that. I had lost my
interest in the classes at the community college and decided to drop
out mid-semester with the intention of going to New Tribes in the fall.
I wanted to get a job and save money to go. When I told my parents what
I wanted to do, they were upset. My father asked, "Why don't you go to
a good four-year school and be a minister?" They did not like the idea
of my being a missionary to a remote place in the world. It was also
during this time that my best friend was getting married and I was very
busy sewing her wedding dress and the bridesmaids' dresses , so I quit
the college.
Right after the wedding, I applied for jobs and
got one at a factory not too far from home. It was the midnight shift.
I worked there for about 3 nights. The women I worked with were rough
and course in their speech and I felt like I ought not to be there. I
got a call from a nursing home that I had also applied to and they
hired me. I found I was working with several people who believed in
Jesus and it was a good nursing home compared to the one I had worked
at on the work-study program in high school. It was actually owned by
christians. I was encouraged as I got to know some of my fellow-workers
and would look forward to work. The son of one of the nurses even went
to New Tribes.
When I told my friend, Ellen, about my decision
to go to bible school, she told me how she had shared about me in the
chapel time at school and had the whole school praying for me. No
wonder G-d worked in my heart to go that direction! He had over 200
people praying for me. I started saving my money and preparing to go to
New Tribes in the fall on 1974.
To be continued...
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• Nov. 23, 2005 - What a blessing!