T.H.
Personal
Testimony of Faith
My first memories of being in a church and exposed to the Christian faith was
when I visited my grandparents in the summers growing up. When I was very
small, my grandparents would take me to a small country church near their farm
every Sunday morning and for one week during the summer I got to go to a “camp
meeting” in an outdoor setting where there were hours of singing and preaching.
They were Methodists and my mother took me to a Methodist church in the city
where I grew up. I loved to watch a television show in the early 1960s
called “Aunt Beka’s Bible Stories” starring Beka Horton (who later founded
aBeka Christian curriculum for schools and Pensacola Christian College).
She founded a camp in Cantonment, Florida (just miles from Pensacola)
called Camp O’ the Pines and when I was in the first grade, my mother sent me
there. It was at that camp that the message of salvation was first shared
with me through a book called the “Wordless Book” full of pages of color.
This book fascinated me because of the lesson behind the beautiful colors: the
black page was for sin in our lives, red for Jesus’ blood shed for us, white
for being washed white as snow, green for growing in Christ, and my personal
favorite, sparkling gold for heaven. I remember going forward during the
invitation and asking Jesus to come into my heart and forgive me. He has
been with me ever since. When I was thirteen, I went forward at an
invitation at my Christian school and at that time prayed and asked Jesus to be
the Lord of my life forever.
When I was eight years old, my mother purchased a used spinet piano for me and
I began to learn to play. At thirteen, I played the organ for my first
wedding at my home church and was asked to play for Sunday services. I
have been playing in churches ever since. My choir director also found
that I had a singing voice and I began singing in youth choir, then in college,
then on television and radio, and most recently in the choir in the Mobile
Passion Play at my church.
I have always wanted to further the Gospel of Jesus in my life and in the lives
of others. I enjoy the outreach ministries that I have been a part of in
the Christian college that I attended for a while and in the churches that I
have been associated with and a member of over the years. If asked what
my beliefs are, I would have to say that I believe that the Bible is without
error and is given to man by inspiration of God; that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God the Father; and that the Holy Spirit is sent to convict non-believers
and to dwell in the hearts of believers to minister to them. The purpose
of the Christian is to glorify God in their lives and to be the voice and feet
of God to others.
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