Testimony

1957-1980

I was born in a little town in southern Missouri called Fredericktown. Though we moved 45 minutes from there to Potosi when I was three, we continued to drive each week to Fredericktown to church and to visit with family until I graduated from high school and left for college in 1976. My upbringing was very centered around the church, which was called "The Church of God of the Faith of Abraham". It was similar in many ways to the Armstrong Worldwide Church of God and we actually received much literature from that organization and held beliefs similar to that of Jehovah's Witnesses.

From as young as I can remember, I wanted to serve the Lord - especially after I began to sing and write songs while still in elementary school. It seemed poetry and melody came easy for me at a very early age. I began playing the piano by ear at age 10, and took a few lessons for a year or so. Still, hearing and reproducing songs and making up my own was what I enjoyed doing most. My dad often invited several musician friends over for fun nights of gospel and country music where I began to try and play along with the musicians on the piano.

By the time I was a young teen I had written several songs and began to sing them at church and at church-related events. My favorite thing to do was to go to summer camp which is where I ended up making a public confession of my faith and came to know Jesus as Savior and Lord of my life. At age eleven I had decided to be baptized and from that point became only more and more passionate to learn about God and search out His truths contained in the Bible. I had many influences along the way....one being my uncle Lindell who was and continues to be a Baptist minister. I remember many Sunday afternoons after family lunch gatherings: I would "corner' him with lists of Bible questions and conversations topics. He was always attentive to my wonderings and with much patience and love taught me more about the Lord. I am so grateful for his listening ear and interest in my Christian walk. One dear camp friend, who to this day I would love to see once again, carted a huge "Jerusalem Bible" with at least four different translations and loved to discuss the things of God with me. He pointed me to Jesus in such a gentle and loving way and is one I will honor always for his kindnes and influence on my life. I had a dear friend named Kris who though was a bit older than I, used to sit and talk to me about her experiences with God and tell me about being a missionary. She simply loved me called me her friend - and that was more life-directing than either of us realized at the time. It was Kris who "introduced" me (through her stories and books) to an author and missionary who I came to admire and wanted to be like - Brother Andrew. He smuggled Bibles into China and made it his purpose to spread the gospel in communist countries. It was fascinating to me and I decided that I would make that one of many goals of my own.

During those days as I was entering teen-age years, it seemed that God was doing something especially powerful among the youth as well as among anyone who was interested in Him. There was a move of the Spirit going on in churches, youth groups, schools, and among many other groups and gatherings. New songs were blooming, as was the birth of the "charismatic" era - and an excitement for Christ. Our church camps seemed to be infiltrated with older teens from everywhere who were bringing in new (yet old) ideas about the gifts of the spirit and singing chorus-type songs while going here and there barefoot signaling greetings of "peace" to one another. Some understood the gospel message, others were jumping on the "Jesus" ship straight from drug addictions and rebellious backgrounds, which made for a mix of confusion and "charasmania" that was both criticized and embraced depending on the generation you happened to be from at the time. There were so many good things going on and yet many young people weren't versed in the Word of God and tried to combine worldly ideas with Christian ones, which for some ended in a back-slidden state of life. Fortunately for me, having had the amazing grace of the Lord directing me and a background of Bible study and moral teachings, I was able to find light and life through it all, which sent me forward on my journey of faith.

I was not a compromising person, and in school seemed to be liked, but often felt very much alone in my stance on Christian standards and issues. I held fast to what I began to learn about this wonderful Jesus I had come to meet. Even through college years when the largest percentage of my peers were experimenting with everything but Christianity, I stood firm in my desires to belong to Christ. I fought hard for Christian and moral values on a campus that more or less closed their eyes to the spiritual lack among it's students. It was a difficult few years and I felt as if I was one of a forgotten minority on a campus that called itself "Christian".

In 1980 I married Scott, who I met during a Christmas break in St. Louis. When we met in 1978 he had been newly born-again and was very excited about his new-found "love" Jesus Christ. We settled our first year in St. Louis and began attending a church called "New Covenant Fellowship", which was in those days a place where a large number of so-called charismatic Christians either attended or had been a part of at one time or the other. It was known as the "Sheep Shed" around the city and truly many have been fed and sent out from that central place over the years. It was there that my husband experienced yet another baptism; the baptism of the Holy Spirit, where he received the gift of speaking in tongues. It was a real experience for me to suddenly hear him from across the room speaking in a language I knew he could not have learned from anyone but the Lord! As a result I began searching deeper for that baptism, although I had been studying and praying about it for several years.

In March of 1981, our first baby Sarah Elizabeth was born. We moved that same year to the south part of St. Louis where we became a part of South County Christian Fellowship led by Mike Bickel who also came out of New Covenant to begin a work in the area. It was there where I also received the baptism of the Holy Spirit after a wonderful woman of God, Arlene Fridley, who to this day I highly respect, lovingly prayed for me. Suddenly, by the grace of God, I opened my mouth to utter streams of words that had been waiting for years to flow out. What a release it was! And what a joy it is to continue to carry!

South County Christian Fellowship eventually became known as Victory Fellowship. Our family, which by then included my husband, myself, and our three daughters, (Sarah Elizabeth, Bethany Hope, and Abigail Joy) walked through the next 13 years with this church learning much and growing in the Lord as well as in relationships there. I became a worship leader and was involved with the music of the church in one way or the other most of those years, even while the girls were very young.

In those years the Lord gave me many songs while in the place of prayer and worship, some of which later became published with Integrity Music as well as other organizations. A very talented and anointed worship leader, Kent Henry is one to whom I will always be indebted for listening to and using some of the songs I had written over the years. It was his influence that carried two of those songs to a wonderful night of worship where Integrity Music did a live recording, and thus was born "The Secret Place" in which Kent led worship and I was priviledged to sing in the choir. That was a night I'll not forget - for the first time hearing the melodies the Lord had given me being sung and offered to the Lord by Kent and a host of incredibly gifted musicians. That event opened many doors of opportunity for me in the days to come. I began leading many prayer meetings, women's retreats, worship seminars, conferences and evenings of worship. Between 1990 and 1993 I went to the studio and produced two tapes of songs I'd written. More doors opened for me to visit other places around the world and take the songs He had given me to the ends of the earth. I was invited to Singapore, Indonesia, Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia, Australia and many other places on various trips. Those were years of adventure and exposure that I'm sure were yet another part of the workings of God in my life through the gifs He had put within me. I am thankful for them as I have been able to meet so many wonderful people and share the love and salvation message of our Lord with so many!

In 1995 a new call came along…….a mission field so to speak. I was invited to be the music director of a renewal church that desired to have a more contemporary service added to their already established traditional service. It took some time and prayer, however, long story short, I accepted after it was very clear that it was what the Lord was drawing me to do. With my husband's encouragings and blessings, I took the job, which is where I have remained for 13 years as of this writing. My girls opted to stay at Victory as by that time had become very involved in the youth there as well as the worship team. So Scott became the designated "hop back and forth" dad/husband depending on who needed him the most at the time! Miraculously it worked out well for us under the circumstances.

The years at Bethesda are a story in and of themselves. I won't get into the details, but will say it has been both difficult and extremely rewarding! New beginnings are never easy, and the church I moved to was a very traditional one in which some were open to change and many others were very uncomfortable by the very idea! After thirteen full years have gone by and I look back, my heart is full to behold the fruit of the labor of that mission field. I have seen many come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior over those years and have had the pleasure of watching lives change and hearts come to life through the hearing, preaching, and singing of the gospel message of His love. I have both seen change and have been changed by the process of it all! I give much glory to our Lord for sustaining me and giving me grace and strength to come through the fires of change into a new place with Him both as an individual and as a body.

Today I write once again as my last day at Bethesda will be Sunday April 27, 2008. I was blessed to be offered a full salary for one year beginning on May 1st to stop laboring at Bethesda and simply seek the Lord, write songs, and pursue new ministry opportunities. Though Bethesda was part of my journey, I have always sensed that it was a "temporary" stopping off place for me. Temporary ended up being over a decade, but I feel the Lord is taking me into some greater challenges in the seasons ahead. First a time of rest.....seeking, praying, walking beside still waters and lying down in green pastures. On May 9 I will leave with my friends the Soerries to go to Jerusalem for about two weeks. A wonderful "diving board" for a year of walking with Jesus - a year of Jubilee. First in the natural and then I pray in a deeper, more supernatural way. A blessing - a gift - a challenge! I will miss many things about Bethesda - most of all the people who have sewn so much into my life there. O how I have learned great lessons that will follow me forever. Oh how I have gained family and friends and come to understand much more about relationship and church life. Oh how the Lord has added to the richness of my life through the experiences at Bethesda. I now look ahead with expectation and joy, thanking Him for the mercies He has begun to show me and for the lessons I will walk into.