My Testimony

Proverbs 22

⁶ Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.

In the summer of 1976, I was a 10 years old.  I was involved in Royal Ambassadors (RA), a type of Christian Cub Scout group at the church I attended with my family.  I went to RA Camp for a week at Camp Hudgens, which is near McAlester, Oklahoma.  I remember driving by the Oklahoma State Prison or “Big Mac” as it is known around here, on the way to camp.  The church sponsors told the group of young boys to be on the lookout for any convicts who might have just escaped from the prison, as that was known to happen quite frequently around here.  That put the group of boys totally at ease, and ensured many sleepless nights in the cabins, the first time away from home for many of us boys.  

  

I spent the week canoeing, hiking, and learning crafts.  We also went to outdoor Bible classes in small clearings in the trees with worn, wooden benches as seats.  I was at one of these classes on Friday, the last day of camp, when my whole life changed.  I do not remember the teacher’s name, or anything he said or did.  I was day-dreaming and looking at everything around me.  The benches were on the side of hill, overlooking McAlester Lake.  I remember thinking about how beautiful it all was: the lake, the trees, the sky, all of nature.  I have always loved being outside and enjoying God’s creation hiking, gardening, watching stars, observing nature.  My wife often says I am not happy on a Saturday unless I can get outside and get my hands dirty “playing in the dirt.” 

Psalms 19

 ¹ The heavens declare the glory of God;  the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 

 

As I looked around, I thought to myself, “This is beautiful.  The trees, rocks, lake, animals, birds…it is all so good.”  The next thing I knew, I was carrying on a conversation with myself.  I can still remember to this day the way the conversation went.  At the time, I did not fully understand.  In my adult years, I would look back and understand that the conversation was not truly with myself, but rather with the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit said to me in a voice that seemed to be as a clear as if He were sitting beside me “Well, you know who created all this don’t you?”  I replied that God had.

John 6

⁴⁴ “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them,

John 16

¹³ But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth;

I had grown up in the church, and was one of those kids that knows all about God.  I knew all the right answers; I just had never experienced God or internalized that knowledge.  The Spirit replied “Yes, He did, and don’t you think that a God who could do something as great as to create all of this is a good God?”  I replied “yes.”  The Spirit then said “God also sent His Son Jesus to save you from your sins.  Don’t you think you should accept Jesus as your Lord?”  “Yes” I said, because it made perfect sense to me.

At that very moment, I became a Christian and was “saved” as we call it.  I believed in God, I believed in His Son Jesus, I knew that Jesus had died on the cross for my sins, and I accepted His death in my place, because I was a sinner.  But, the Bible also says that you have to profess Jesus before men, and I had not yet done that. 

John 16

⁷ But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. ⁸ And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; ⁹ concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;

At that point I became aware of what the teacher was saying.  He was talking about heaven, and the need for everyone to accept Jesus and be saved if they wanted to see heaven.  The teacher told us “If you want to be saved, raise your hand.”  I had an overwhelming urge to raise my hand.  But, I was very reserved and did not like bringing attention to myself, and I thought to myself “No, not now.” 

That night was the final worship service in the main meeting hall, which also served as the mess hall.  I remember sitting through the entire service, right up to the time they began to give the invitation.  This is a time when they invite anyone who wants to give their life to God to come forward and pray with a counselor in order to invite Jesus into their heart and accept Him as their Lord.  Again I strongly felt the desire to go forward and publicly pray to receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior.  In my mind however, I started to think of reasons not to.  I decided that I would go forward, but not tonight at that camp.  I would wait and tell my parents first, and then go forward at church.  I was the type of kid who did not blaze trails, I usually checked with mom or dad before doing anything so I would not get into trouble.  I sat there and fought the desire to go forward.

Suddenly, I felt sick at my stomach and hot!  The longer I sat there, the sicker I felt.  I jumped up and ran… not forward to the front, but right out the back door.  I ran straight outside, stopped, and then threw up right in the middle of the main entrance to the mess hall.  I looked up and saw a man who had been walking towards the mess hall.  He had stopped and watched as I ran out of the doors and up-chucked right in front of him.  He happened to be the camp doctor, and took me over to the camp’s first-aid station.  I lied and told him that dinner had made me sick, a story I am quite sure he had heard more than once that week already.  The Doctor gave me some medicine and took me back to my cabin to join the rest of my RA group. 

Romans 6

³ Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? ⁴ Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 

The next morning, camp was over and my mom came to pick me up.  I remember riding back home in the car with her and telling her that I had been saved.  I also told her about wanting to go forward but running out and throwing up instead.  We agreed that at church the next day I would go down to the front of the church during the Invitation and tell the Pastor I had been saved at camp.  I was baptized soon after that as a visual testament to my church that I had accepted Jesus as my Lord, and was buried with Him in His death, and raised with Him as a new creation.   

2 Timothy 3

¹⁴ But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, ¹⁵ and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.