My testimony is one that is only by the grace of God. It is a testimony that contains ups and downs, although it has consisted of more ups than downs. I got saved at around 5 or 6 years old. The way I heard about church was through some children that my mom used to watch. Their mom drove one of the buses and they invited us to a children’s church promotion. It was through this that my brother, sisters, and I started attending church. We soon found out that we could earn more points if our parents came to church. My parents thought it would be a good idea for them to come to church on the bus with us.
My parents fell in love with the church there (Calvary Baptist Temple in Fort Collins, Co). My parents got involved with the church, instantly going all day Sunday and Wednesday nights. After being there almost a year my dad started driving the bus route for Sunday morning as well as visiting the children on Saturday mornings. By constantly going to church I was able to develop a grasp of salvation, after making several false professions of faith. I was one of those kids that got saved every Sunday morning. There was finally a time in one of those professions that I finally grasped a fully knowledge of true salvation. That next Sunday night I was baptized. After being at Calvary Baptist Temple for several years, we moved back to my hometown of El Paso, Tx due to family issues (I was in 4th grade at this time) . Once we moved back, we attended a church for a few weeks until the secretary ran off with the Pastor. From there, my family stopped going to church. It was from this point that we started running from God. My brother and I eventually started turning to the streets for answers. I was involved in gang activity at a pretty young age, following my brothers footsteps. I started hanging out with the wrong people and doing the wrong things because I felt like I needed acceptance somewhere. Therefore, I did a lot of things to get accepted by the gang I was affiliated with. My parents eventually realized how deep we were in the gang when, as a family, we were at a football game and people tried to fight my brother and I. My dad did not want our family in danger due to what my brother and I were involved in. It was from this point that we ran to Alabama to run away from our issues. In the process of moving, we just about lost everything due to a wreck. The company that we hired to move our items got into a wreck and all of our possessions were not retrievable. All that we had was what we had in our car. We lived in Alabama for about 11 months. It was the worst 11 months of my life. It was one of the lowest in our lives as a family. It was here that my dad received a call in our hotel room where we were living in on the roughest side of Bermingham. It was a call from my Pastor (Park Sutton) in Fort Collins, Co. He told my dad that he felt lead by the Lord to give us a call. The Lord used that call to work in my father’s life. After a couple hours of talking to Pastor, my dad said that we were going to move back to Colorado. He said that we are not going to run from God anymore. At this point in my life, I still believed there was a God, but I thought I was okay where I was at in my life. We eventually moved back to Colorado during my sophomore year of high school. I was really rebellious at this point in my life. Even though, as a family we were back in church, it took awhile before I gave my heart back to the Lord. It was not until the summer going into my Junior year that I yielded my heart back to the Lord. I was at Silver State Baptist Youth camp when the Lord called me to preach. I eventually graduated high school and I attended Heartland Baptist Bible College in Oklahoma City, Ok. I graduated from there in May of 2018. Since I have graduated, I have been plugged into Rose Hill Baptist Church in De Queen, Ar. It has been a blessing to be able to teach the 5th-8th graders and run the van ministry. Although my life has had its forks in the road and many twists and turns, it is only by the grace of God that I am in the position that I am in. Looking back on all this, I can say that I have been blessed. I don't deserve to be where I am but I am glad that the Lord is willing to use a person like me. If you would have asked me 10 years ago where I would be in my life, I would of thought I would be in jail or dead. But because the grace of God in my life, I can say now I am happy and in the will of God. The Lord wants to work in your life as well, but you need to yield yourself to Him. Die to yourself so that you can live for the Lord.
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