Ok, we don't talk about it enough. Sure we know our immediate group are Christians and we all met at church. And we talk out loud here about prayer like when Jared is about to roll his Jeep, that when it pins him underneath that he'll go quickly or when Steve is looking up at us 30ft down in a cave laying in a pool of his own blood and God and the seat at Denny's only knows what else, mumbling about how all the rocks are pretty and how his daughter's techer Ursala is hot- over and over again... But all joking aside, (or maybe it's "yoking," it might be a "soft j" ), starting... now- I want you guys and gals to anti up and lay down your testimony for all to see.

I'm almost tempted to go first since I still remember when a long time ago, a friend of mine and I had to go around to the yourger guys' Bible studies and tell them our testimonies, he went first and actually stole my rehersed one because he didn't think his was as good enough. Yes I was without speech at that point but then afterwards gave an All Mighty Bible thumping beat down later, then asked him for forgiveness of course. BUT I came up with the topic so I will pass the torch now and then take it up later.

Testimony:
1. the statement or declaration of a witness under oath or affirmation
2. evidence in support of a fact or statement; proof.
3. open declaration or profession, as of faith.

Don't disapoint the tiny infant Jesus, or the teeneage bearded one either.

* Also, even if you're not a part of our immediate group but a member of our larger family, we'd be honored and would love to hear from you too.

I believe the reason, was that I was under the impression there was money involved in that flier job. Still haven't seen it though :)

Thanks J for sharing and not just giving the 5 second church answer but sharing a little more about yourself.

Next?

If there was money involed in the flyer job I decided not to pay it when you called and woke me up at 3am every morning.

Why did you do this Mike, oh I remember. It was to tell me ideas you had about decorations for the set up of the movie night.

You see, I took $1 away for every hour of sleep I lost by taking your call while you were on your paper rout. So the way I see it you owe me money.

That sure was an awesome set up and a good turn out.

*bump*

Times a wastin'

Born and raised in the Church. Saved at the age of 5 and truly knew what it was about. It was more than just “this is what I need to do because its what my parents did”… As much as I wanted to be a bad kid and as much as I tried to be bad the Lord never made it easy on me. I always got caught. Always…
When I was 15 I was walking down the street with some friends and they all knew I didn’t smoke or drink. They were cool with it for the most part. One of the girls pulled out $10 and said that it was all mine if I would take just one puff. I was thinking about it when out of the blue my dad pulls up to give me a ride home. He never just gave me a ride home. When I asked what was up he said he had a long lunch and just wanted to give me a ride. My life is filled with people just showing up…
I have been part of big and small churches. Some as small as 15 people… I have seen the power of God work in each setting. It always amazed me to see how God would provide and how He worked in ways that I would never have guessed.
After HS I went to Bob Jones University for a year. It was there that I dug deep and figured out more of what I believed and why.
I still question my faith and am still building on the foundations of what I know to be true. I’m sure this is something I will be doing till the day I die.

Thanks Bob for sharing that with us.

If we didn't continually question our faith, we would never learn anything new about ourselves, God, or his plan for us.

Wow Mike, way to open up. 8) Very touching words you got there. By the way, thanks for always being there for me, too...... you're the one that without any questions, gives me a huge hug anytime I need it :wink: Thanks for being my replacement twin!

And my 'test time' is soon to come! :lol:

Mike I have know you for how long and I just found out some things about you that I didnt know. Thanks for sharing.

I also wanted to thank Fatbob for telling us a little bit about himself.

Thank you both and God bless you.

Wow, thank you for not going back and proof reading it Bill. Usually I am a grammar person but I'll let it slide since I liked reading your testimony. It must have been hard to write the personal stuff to a bunch of strangers but I appreciate you doing it for the cause. You are braver than I as I have not posted mine yet but am getting closer to having to.
Thank you again,
JEN

Well, none of ya'll know me and it is really the first time I have ever really put it out there. I guess, for me, it was easier to people I didn't know.

Indeedily.

It makes you feel all naked and little when you put it all out there sometimes. I know I've felt that way when having to share.

But thanks for the flowing truth and it's always awesome to see the end result no matter how we got where we are with him and how cool it is that he does gives us so many chances and choices. Glad to know all of us and other followers of Him will be in his book no matter how our pages read.

Thanks Bill for your touching testimony. Glad to see that God has worked through you to touch people who have been, or are roughing it, as you did.

Bill,
Thank you very much for posting that, it is awesome to see how far some people have come in their walk with Christ. I dont know about the others but it kinda make me feel special that you have decided to open up to us.

Thank you for sharing

God bless

In him always

Spshl J

ya ever do something that you would normally never do but for some reason it just seems right that time, like He is telling you, Go on son, this is right...........

I think of my childhood as fairly normal. I guess the only part that is obviously not normal is the fact I cannot remember a time that my parents were in the same room together, and they divorced when I was about 11 or so (my brothers don’t have memories of that either.) Don’t get me wrong, my life was not perfect by any means; a lot was kept hidden from me and my brothers (rightfully so).

To begin, I grew up in a “Christian” home and we went to church most every Sunday. I remember sitting up in the balcony like normal and just having this strong urge to go down in front of the church to “proclaim my faith” in front of the church. That day, my family and I walked down to the front of the church. We were introduced and then at the end of the service everyone came by to shake my hand. From there, I was baptized a couple of weeks later. It’s not an intense story by any means but I will extend it by telling the story of how/why we moved to Phoenix and what it’s meant to me.

So how did I get to Phoenix? Well, I’ll tell you. =) I’m just gonna jump right in. It was the summer of ’96 and my mom told me and my brothers to start packing because we would be moving. I assumed that after living in the country for 3 years, we would be moving into the city, a ten-minute drive away. When it came to three days before we were to move, my mom told us she got a job in Phoenix, AZ. We then started saying our goodbyes within that short time. As she had planned we moved to Phoenix. We had no place to live yet; therefore, we stayed at her new boss’s house for about a month until we found our own place.

The three of us were completely miserable and angry with my mom. Not to mention, we weren’t even about to give Phoenix a chance. Life had to resume though, so shortly after our move Andrew and I began our freshman year in high school. My mom had registered us for all of the same classes so we would actually know someone. About one month into our “new life,” Michael, 18 at the time, decided to move back to live with my dad. My dad flew to Phoenix, helped Michael pack his stuff and drove back to Alexandria. He thought that living with my dad would be better than life in Phoenix, but before long he would realize that there was more to being happy.

Andrew soon followed. He started writing my dad several letters telling him about how miserable his life was and expressed his desire to move back. Andrew would ask my dad, “If Michael did it, why can’t I?” and he would tell him that he was working on it, which meant he was setting up a custody battle. Sure enough my mom was subpoenaed to court in Louisiana for November 24th 1996, so we all three flew back. After a couple of hours of sitting and listening to my mom and my dad battle it out, and having the judge read Andrew’s letters out loud, the custody was determined. You’d think that no one in their right mind would think that it would be ok to separate fourteen year old best friends and twins, but that day we were proven wrong. My dad won custody of my brother and he was scheduled to move back in the middle of January. We were very upset with Andrew for having us go through all of this. For the longest time I was mad at him. I used to think, “How could you break away from your other half just to be back in your comfort zone?” and “Why would you do this to me?”

When January came around Andrew left and I was left with only my mom. I was truly by myself now considering I had never been without siblings, especially Andrew. He had been my absolute best friend up until this moment. I was all alone and depressed. After repelling people at school for many months now, it was clear to me that it was time to break out of my shell. I slowly started meeting a few friends at school.

Michael had lived with my dad for a while now and he realized that wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted to have a close relationship with his family, one that my dad had not provided. The last part of June, I flew back to Alexandria to visit. I was very excited, not just to see my friends and family, but also because I would be driving back with Michael. Now it would not be quite as lonely at home.

To sum my shortened story up, I was especially mad at my mom for moving us out here in general, but with such short notice, too. I also was angry with God and at the time I didn’t understand why. We found North Phoenix Baptist Church shortly after moving here but I wanted nothing to do with it. In the beginning, Andrew and I would just ditch Bible study and mess around the campus. Then once he left, I would just have a friend or two from school go to church with me. When Michael moved back we got involved with the college group and finally felt accepted. We also ended up meeting Jared & Jen, not to mention we had a fun couple for our Bible study leaders. Who would’ve known we would still be in contact with these guys. I mean you could practically call them our best friends/Christian example. I am one that believes that everything happens for a reason and I would ask God all the time why Andrew left, but now I just accept the fact that there was a good reason; it brought Michael, my mom and I closer and Michael and I now share the bond that Andrew and I shared long ago. Yeah, I lost my real twin brother, yet it has brought me and Michael so much closer than I could’ve imagined. Not to mention we got some great friends out of the whole deal. =)

Hey ,thanks for the compliment. And thank you sharing your story with us. I loved hearing it. I guess now that you have the heat is going to go up for me by J to post mine. But if you can break out to write something like that than I guess I can figure a way to.
Thank again and love ya.

Awesome