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MY TESTIMONY
My testimony begins with my grandmother. She had a goal to raise
all three of her boys to be bartenders. Her plans were to open a night club in
Chicago, but she failed miserably in her plans. All three of her boys became
preachers.
My dad grew up in a broken home. His dad divorced my grandma
when he was four and his dad was later murdered in a bar fight and found 2 weeks
later in a river. His mom remarried and the relationship with his step father
was rough causing the two older boys to leave home as soon as they could. They
both joined the Navy.
It was a Baptist preacher in Indianapolis who came and knocked on
my grandma’s door and led her to Christ. She began writing letters and stuffed
the envelope with tracts to her two sailor sons, urging them to get saved. When
my dad went home on leave he attended church with her and was saved that
morning. Shortly thereafter, he felt God’s to the gospel ministry and six
months later he was attending Baptist
Bible
College.
As I was born on a Sunday my dad missed my birth because he was
preaching. I am glad though that my mother took some time out for me. It was
important to my parents that I understood the gospel and my need to be saved.
Being in church always from an early age afforded me the opportunity to accept
the gospel at the early age of five.
It was my Sunday School teacher that God used to provoke fear in
my heart about Hell. Even a five year old knows it is wrong to lie, cheat and
steal. I was guilty of those deeds and I understood God’s punishment for sin.
When I got home that Sunday afternoon, I asked my father some questions about
the Devil and he knew there was a need in my heart to be saved. He took me into
his bedroom and by the bedside I asked Jesus to forgive my sins and to be
merciful to me. I understood then that Jesus took my spanking for me so I would
not have to be spanked for my sins. I knew that spanking meant Hell. Dad was
not present at my first birth, but he was there for my second birth.
I was so excited about getting saved that I ran out side and
found one of my friends to tell him that I just got saved. He didn’t understand
and I couldn’t explain it well so I ran inside, grabbed my Bible and went back
out and handed it to him. I told him, “Here, read it, then you will know.”
When I was fourteen, I surrendered to whatever God wanted for me
to do. I did not know I was going to be a missionary at that time, but I gave
God notice that if He called me to missions the answer would be ‘Yes.’
It was not until my freshman year at Bible
College that God showed me what he wanted me to do. God used a jealousy in my
heart to reveal His will for me. Growing up in the
U.K. as a missionary kid I was aware of the
needs of that country. When I returned to the States for Bible
College, I became jealous of the fine churches and Bible Colleges that
America had. I began to
wish that we had churches and colleges like that in England. It was then that
God put that desire and confirmation in my heart to go to England to work to
that end.
I have no regrets of getting saved and serving God as a
missionary. I think that the words of Jim Elliot are a great inspiration to me.
“No man is a fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he’ll never loose.”
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Tom's Testimony
