Testimony from Lisa
I grew up in church and attended with my family and much extended family. When I was about 8 or 9, we had an evangelist come and hold a revival. He was a fiery preacher and I just remember feeling an urgency through the service, like I needed to do something. When the preacher gave the altar call I went forward. All I can remember saying is, "I'm so sorry, please forgive me of my sin" over and over.
I continued in the church I attended throughout my teen years and early adulthood. I was active in Sunday School, youth groups and singing and leading in the choirs but I don't think I grew that much. My early adult years were a time of struggle for me and I think I wasn't as close to the Lord as I should have been, but the Holy Spirit was always there to convict my heart.
When I was about 22, I began dating James, my future husband, who had grown up in Baptist churches and was saved at a young age. I started attending church with him occasionally on Sunday mornings and nearly every Sunday night. I really felt like I was hearing some truths for the first time. The church where I had grown up emphasized a personal relationship with the Lord but did not at all emphasize salvation.
James and I prayed a lot about our relationship and realized we had both been praying that God would give us someone to love who loved us just as much. We also prayed about where we would attend church but we both knew God was leading us to attend his church. We married a year after we began dating.
Through our early marriage we were active in the church we attended. But as many churches do when they take their eyes off the Lord, our church started down a road we could not go along with. We left there and came to our current church, DeGraff Free Will Baptist Church, in 1996.
We now have two children and our prayer is that God will always be the center of our home and we might always please Him in everything we do. We praise Him and thank Him for salvation and the precious sacrifice of His Son and the Blood He shed to cleanse us and make us whole. And we look forward to that day when, as believers, we might all get to go to go home to Heaven together and have perfect fellowship with each other and the Lord forever.
Lisa
