Testimonies

PERSONAL TESTIMONIES

     My wife Ann and I were both raised in northeast Iowa about 6 miles apart and attended the same public school together.  I was raised in a Christian home and attended a General Baptist Conference church.  At the age of 12, attending church camp, I received the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior and was baptized shortly thereafter, honoring the Lord in believers baptism.

     After my conversion to Christ, I made infant steps toward serving my Lord and Master.  Trying to be a witness, the Lord allowed me to bear some fruit with the conversion of a few of my classmates.  One of those classmates turned out to be my wife just a few short years later.

     My wife was raised Missouri Synod Lutheran and was extremely active in church her whole childhood.  Once we started dating in high school, it quickly became very apparent that the Bible was going to be a make or break issue; I had my “religion” and she had hers.  The Lord used this situation to get me more interested in studying His words.  As we continued to look into the perfect Law of Liberty, the Holy Spirit made it very plain to Ann that she needed to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  Yes, she had been baptized and was very active in her church, but the free gift of salvation had not been received personally.  It wasn’t long after that she, a sinner  under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, received the Lord Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Savior.

     One of the joys of growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, is being able to look back and see the Lord’s guiding hand in how He leads us along and prepares us for further light.  When Ann and I first started trying to solve the “religion” issue we were confronted with an immediate and glaring problem; which Bible do we trust as our final authority.  I had my NIV Bible and she had her TEV Bible and we would go around in circles because her Bible would say one thing and mine would say something else.  As two teenage kids, trying to find the truth without any adult influence, we decided that we needed to have one Bible as our final authority; we chose the Authorized King James Bible despite the fact that neither one of us used it.  At the time it seemed so insignificant, but it proved to be the biggest decision of our lives outside of salvation.

     After attending a year and a half of secular college, the Lord led me to Pensacola Bible Institute.  In between my 1st and 2nd year Ann and I were married and by the time I graduated in 1995, we had the 1st of our four children.  The transition from student to full time “career” happened very quickly.  Within 2 weeks of graduation I was given an open door to enter the elevator trade, in which I continued to work for over the next twenty years.  The majority of my time in the trade was spent as a service technician; servicing, trouble shooting and repairing elevators and escalators.  The years spent in the trade have taught me a lot about working with people in trying situations, problem solving and being able to manage a territory separate from the main office.  Your own “mission field” you could say; given full responsibilities of managing, servicing, trouble shooting and growing an area with millions of dollars worth of equipment.  Not the least of which involved being on call 24/7, 365 days a year.

     This testimony wouldn’t be anywhere near complete without telling of the great “help” that I have been given in my wife, Ann.  Over all these years she has been faithfully serving her Lord and Savior and her family with a strong work ethic and tireless spirit.  Ann has been very faithful in whatever the Lord has put across our path, from raising our four children and homeschooling them all the way though school, to working along side of me with our many home “projects”.  In the ministry, along with the physical help, she has provided a tremendous amount of help and support through the musical abilities that the Lord has blessed her with.  Through these abilities the Lord has allowed us to minister and evangelize wherever the opportunity arises.  Whether it be playing the piano for church, organizing our family band or leading a group of homeschoolers for a weekly nursing home ministry, she has been extremely faithful over the years.