My Story/Testimony (Page 2)

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I spent the next three months pondering things and started doing research about this Jesus.  Though I couldn't find anything scientific to confirm what the Bible said about Jesus and the things he did, I also couldn't find anything that could disprove what it said either.  It all came to a conclusion (or new beginning) on Easter Sunday 1996.

I spent most of the day watching a documentary on TV about the life of Jesus.  I don't know if the documentary was trying to disproved what the Bible says Jesus did, or if it was just trying to take a neutral scientific look at his life, but the conclusion I came to after it was over was that they could not disprove any of it.  It was at this point I felt God say to me, "Here I am" and I just knew right then that my life had changed though I didn't know how.

That night I picked up the Bible turned to the first page of the New Testament and started reading.  Over the next three months I spent between 4-6 hours everyday reading the Bible.  And it wasn't a casual reading, it was an in depth study of It.  My wife who wasn't having the same feelings I was thought I was crazy and didn't understand my new infatuation with the Bible.  I was also reading Christian books at the same time and it was about two months after Easter that I was reading a book that discussed the sinners prayer.  Although I believe God changed my heart on that Easter Sunday I went ahead and prayed that sinners Prayer then just to be sure.

About the first part of June I was starting to feel the urge to be around other Christians and knew I needed a Church Family.  My wife (whom I later found out was about to leave me because she wasn't liking the new me) was reluctantly attending a marriage class with one of her friends at the Assembly of God Church.  Apparently she shared her feelings with her friend and her friend convinced her that leaving was not the best choice and this marriage class would help.  Since she had built relationships with people at that Church already I decided we would give it a try.

I instantly knew that our first choice was the last choice and we had found a family.  We started  attending most every time the doors were open.  I continued studying, praying and growing in my faith.  My wife continued to work as a bartender, however in August her life changed also.  She said she had felt God telling her she needed to get her life in order and find a new job but she was resistant.   One night at work, she was coming up from the cellar with more beer to restock the coolers, the door fell down, hit her in the head and shoulders and knocked her down into the cellar.  She was unable to work for almost a week and during that time decided it was time to do something else.  She says that was God knocking the sense back in her.  Through our connections at the Church she was able to find a part time position cooking at the local school making about the same that she made at the tavern.  It was also during that time she decided to join me by submitting her life to Jesus and His Lordship.

September brought our semiannual revival meetings which is a fancy word for going to Church all week.  Though I am not sure how much revival happened that week, I do know in all the time I spent in Church that week that God was calling me to occupational ministry.  I say occupational ministry because I believe all Christians are called to some form of ministry however some are called to do it full time and receive a salary for it.  I met with my pastor and explained my situation.  We talked for several hours and he explained to me that when he was called to ministry about the only thing there was to do was to become a pastor or evangelist.  He continued, that today there are many forms of ministry and many organizations in which to do ministry and that it could be a while until I knew exactly what ministry I was called to.  But, in the mean time since we lived in a very small town we would do things the old way.  He told be to start studying, praying and preparing a message to be delivered in a Sunday night service.

I did what I was told, however I was not ready for what happened next when the pastor called me about a month later on Thursday to tell me he had scheduled me to preach Sunday evening.   I had come up with a topic and a point or two, but was nowhere close to being ready to present it to the congregation.  I tried to explain that to him, but he was sure I would be ready by Sunday and thanks to God's leading, I was.  It was then that I also started taking correspondence courses toward my official credentials as a pastor. 

I preached again the next month, and the next, and the next.  In February 1997, our pastor announced that he was leaving, which left me as the next most experience preacher.  The deacons in the church were wonderful men of God and were great leaders of the congregation but they all hated preaching so they asked me if I would do it.  Beginning the first Sunday in March I became responsible for every Sunday morning Sermon as well as the Wednesday evening Bible study.  The deacons agreed to divide the Sunday evening services among the three of them and me so I still had my one Sunday evening a month.

As part of my studies I was studying the denominational by-laws and found a clause where a congregation could have a pastor that had not yet finished their credentialing as long as they finished their studies within a certain amount of time.  I discussed this with one of the deacons and he politely explained to me that he was sure God had wonderful things planned for me, but this was not it.  He continued that although I was pretty good at preaching I wasn't ready to deal with all things I would have to deal with as the spiritual leader of a congregation even the small one we had.  I trusted his decision and continued studying and preaching.

I was also searching.  Since I knew my calling was not in Scobey Montana and we wanted to move to a community that had higher wages and hopefully an improvement to our lifestyle, I started getting serious about moving.  The last Sunday in March, almost exactly a year after I became saved I was reading the classifieds in the Sunday edition of the Billings Montana newspaper after church looking for a job.  For the first time in the almost two years that I had been pondering moving out of Scobey there was not one single ad for a mechanic in the paper.  Since I worked security in the Air Force I decided to look in the professional section for a security job, because I had seen them there in the past.

I didn't find much in the way of security positions, but about halfway down the column I found this:

"Wanted ministry minded Christian couple to work in a youth group home in Cody, Wyoming.  Food and housing provided.  50 miles east of Yellowstone National Park."

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