THIS PAGE IS IN HONOR OF:
"OUR WONDERFUL LORD AND SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST"
IF YOU HAVE A TESTIMONY YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE ON THIS PAGE, PLEASE SEND IT TO ME VIA EMAIL AND I WILL GLADLY PUT IN ON THIS PAGE!
kacyanne@foothills.net
This first testimony is from a man that was very close to my family. Jamie and all of the kids loved him dearly. This testimony means so very much to me....Thank you, Doug, for your friendship.
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I consider myself fortunate that I came to know Jesus as my personal Lord and savior. I graduated high school as an atheist. I was interested in science and technology and thought that anything you couldn't see or wasn't taught in school didn't exist. I had gone to church several times as a child and was baptized but never knew anything about the gospel except what I heard at Christmas time. I guess that I knew right from wrong though I didn't show it very often. I thought that lying and stealing were ok as long as you didn't get caught. My heart was cold and hard. I didn't care about or trust in anybody or anything except myself. I was really confused about what life was all about.
About 10 years ago my life started changing. I started meeting people who acted differently than I did. People who acted like they cared more about others and their family than they did themselves. I decided I wanted to be more like these people. Little lessons and examples started coming into my life and showing me that there were more important things in life than me or my posessions. I started traveling around the country. The more I learned about nature and the world first hand, the more I came to know that God does exist. I started receiving answers to problems and concerns which were important to me. I accepted the fact that these insights were beyond abilities to come up with on my own, and came from God. My friends started having children and I loved them so much. Watching them grow on the outside helped me to grow on the inside. My job was going great and it seemed the more I appreciated and returned the blessings coming my way, the more I received. It finally reached a point, lying in bed at night, where I had to thank someone for these blessings that I knew I didn't create or deserve. I started praying and thanking God for the blessings he was giving to me and to the ones I cared for. I prayed like this for several years and the blessings just increased.
I have a friend, a little girl who I watched grow during her first six years of life. One of the first songs that I heard her sing was "Jesus Loves Me". I'm sure that he does. I could always see in her eyes and in her heart that she loved him too. Some months ago my little friend went to heaven to be with her Jesus. When I found out and could think at all, the same insight that I've had before told me that Jamie was being cared for; she was in heaven with Jesus. Though I'd never believed in heaven myself, I knew she was there. It was a hard time for everyone that her life had touched. I saw how her family was strengthened and comforted by their faith and it helped me keep going. Her funeral service was the second time in my adult life that I had been in church. Later riding in a car to the cemetary to lay her body to rest, my heart was as broken as it could be. I was looking out the window trying to keep back the tears. My thoughts turned to Jamie and how we had grown into each others lives. How at first she would run and hide, not knowing who I was. As she began to recognize me, she would accept my presence and later even my attention and help. She was a part of my life and I knew I'd always care for her. With patience and love, never expecting anything from her in return, she grew to where she had accepted me as part of her life, and loved me in return. Riding in the car, my thoughts also turned to my relationship with Jesus and how much he had given me in my life. At the saddest point in my life, something brought these two relationships together in my mind. That insight said; 'do you finally understand'; and I finally did. I understood how the Lord had been patient, caring, and attentive to me, just as I had been patient, caring, and attentive for Jamie. Both relationships had developed over time. In the beginning the Lord had been a stranger to me. He touched my life and I began to realize that he existed. With infinite patience, never asking for anything in return, the Lord continued to love me and bless me. And as with a child, when I finally understood and accepted that love I said: 'Lord, I love you too, with all my heart. I can never repay your love, but what I have is yours. My life, my heart, and my soul I give back to you. Wherever you lead me, I'll follow, forever'. The saddest day of my life became also the happiest day of my life. I was never so sure of anything and needed no reassurance, but I was given some anyhow. Carrying my friends casket to the graveside her little brother came up to me and took my hand at the gravestone. I looked into his eyes and saw the reassurance, "Yes, now you understand. And I am pleased".
A week later when I understood that besides giving me a new heart, the Lord wanted to save me from my sins, I walked down the aisle of Berean Baptist Temple in Fairborn, repented of my sins, and though I knew I didn't deserve it, I asked Jesus to please save me. That was five months ago. I'm still learning and I hope I'll always be learning more about my Lord. I've never regretted or doubted this change in my life for a minute. So many people search their whole lives for some meaning. To have found 'the' meaning of life, or at least the correct isle to search down, gives life a purpose and not just existance.
