My first week as a believer showed me how the Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Compassionate God intervenes in the lives of each of us! It was like being taken through a maze by a Holy Guide! God is so awesome!
For the next two years, I attended Hal Judd's church, West Pensacola Baptist Church. I sang in the choir, went on visitation, worked on an addition, and loved every minute of it! Then, I began to discover some strange things; something was not quite right. They had me "teach" a Sunday School class, and I knew very little about the Bible. They wanted me to be a deacon! And, as I discovered truths from the Word that were not practiced by our church, such as why we did not have elders, I went to the pastor's home and talk to him about them. His wife accused me of "trying to take over the church." All that was a lot for a new believer, but the "final straw" came the first day of our annual revival. The pastor had told all of us to invite our friends and neighbors to come. When I showed up with about fifteen guys and girls from an on-base Bible Study group call The Navigators, I was asked to stay behind after the service. The pastor told me that I had upset many of the members because about half of the group I brought was Black. My response: "Well I sure hope you straightened them out!" He told me that I had to understand that this was Florida, and "old ways are hard to break." I was devastated!
For the next couple of weeks, I prayed asking God to show me a sign that I was supposed to leave and serve Him somewhere else. Then it happened. I took our two oldest daughters to Sunday night service, leaving Judy home to take care of our youngest who was sick. I prayed that God would have the song leader open the service with a particular hymn, if I was to be freed from the place He had put me. Well, he did! I got up, took my two girls and quietly left. Had Judy been there, I would have had to explain it to her and that would have been disruptive. Had our youngest been there, I would have had to go take her out of the nursery, again, being disruptive. We got in the car and never set foot in that church again! If my brothers and sisters were not welcome, I could not fellowship there anymore. Apparently God agreed.
It was not long after that, that the Navy decided they needed me to work in the drafting shop at the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon. I served five and a half years there, attended a wonderful Bible Church, and retired at thirty-six years of age! We moved to Judy's hometown and I started working my way through college, and then graduated from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. It took four and a half years to complete a "three year program." I spent much of the time defending the Bible with teachers who I seriously doubted were saved! Thank God the school is now led by Albert Mohler, a conservative Bible believer, who changed much of the faculty and "righted the ship!" Upon graduation (not bad for a high school drop-out), I was called to pastor a little church that was about to split over doctrinal differences. I managed to last a little over two years, and succeeded in holding the church together by uniting them against me! God freed me (and them), and I spent the next fifteen years as an In-School Suspension Supervisor (I genuinely loved those "brats"), and a high school teacher, even serving eighteen months as the Principal of the 550 student Christian school.
Today, due to some rather irritating health issues, I am a quasi-shut-in, writing this blog! I have one more event to experience, should the Lord tarry, and I will be home at last! I cannot wait! Come Lord Jesus, for me, or better yet, for all of us! God bless you who are reading this. I have written my testimony over the last three posts, because someone wanted me to - I guess God did too!
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