Following Jesus is an Adventure!

From a youth, I was taught to be faithful to my church in attendance and dedication.

I married, and we practiced faithfulness to our church and taught our children likewise.

Certain circumstances transpired and our church spiraled downward. The Pastor left without a word, causing much unrest. The board presented a solution, and the congregation rejected it.

The Lord spoke to my husband instructing him that we were to leave the church that had been my home from early childhood. We invited all our children to dinner and told them of our decision. We told them they were free to make their own decision, but we were going to start visiting other churches and find a new church home.

At first they were unhappy, but upon considering the facts they decided to go with us. What an education we received as we visited other congregations within our denomination! Each one was so very different. Finally, we made our choice and settled in with a stable Pastor and his flock.

We decided that if this was to be our church, then we would act like it was OUR church. We greeted people each Sunday, shook hands and contributed in the small study groups.

One Sunday I was asked to share a teaching on answered prayer. One of the ladies, said, this sounds so much like Kenneth Hagin.

After class I asked her, “Who is that man?”

A few days later I heard a Christian Broadcast on the radio as I drove my car. It was the Hagin ministry, offering a free book. I sent in an offering and requested the book. Naturally, I was put on their mailing list and began to receive a monthly magazine.

I shared with my husband that Rev. Hagin was coming to Inglewood, CA to hold a week long seminar and I would like to attend. He agreed that we both needed some time off from work and so we made plans to attend. We secured a hotel near the convention center.

Services were morning, afternoon and evening with different speakers during the day with Rev. Hagin in the evening. My husband confessed to me that he had never heard anything like this before in his life.

The entire seminar was life changing. On the fifth day, my husband said to me, my spiritual cup is so full I do not believe that I can contain anymore. He indicated that we would be leaving in the morning.

As we drove home, he spoke to me and asked me if I would be willing to attend their one year Bible Training Center located in Oklahoma. Without hesitation, I answered, yes.

He said that we would take a year to prepare and save up money. This meant that we would need to sell our house and store most of our furniture at our summer place.

Another meeting was scheduled with our children to tell them what we had decided and that again they were free to go with us, or stay in California. Our son and one of our daughters were married, so their decisions were to stay, but both of the other girls said they would go with us and it should be fun.

- - - And so it was, in the summer of 1976, we headed for Oklahoma and an adventure of a lifetime!