I had sat in church for several years with my family. In
January 2006 we had been attending the Free Will Baptist Church in Wellington
for only two months. On a Sunday morning, I felt the strangest feeling during
an altar call at the end of my Pastor’s message.
I felt something drawing me close.
I felt something tugging so hard on my heart. All I could do
was fight back tears.
I felt something almost come inside my bones and speak to me,
“I am your answer, Hannah. Stop searching.”
My dad leaned over and
asked if I wanted to go to the altar to pray. Prior to that Sunday morning, I
don’t remember ever going to an altar. Especially for myself.
I nodded. I was unsure, though.
Pastor Zane, my dad
and Joplin Emberson knelt down beside me. I just looked down and cried.
I didn’t know what to
say. I didn’t know how to pray.
I didn’t know how to say sorry to somebody I couldn’t even
see.
In that moment I felt very alone. I felt very confused.
My pastor looked at me with tears streaming down his face
and said, “Hannah, you don’t have to say anything. God understands your tears.”
For some reason, that was just what I needed to hear.
I cried as they all prayed.
Two months later.
March 15th,
2006. It was a Wednesday.
I can’t tell you about anything that happened that day.
Not until about 8pm that is.
A man came into our youth to give his testimony for the
first time that night. He talked about how sin destroyed his life. Alcohol
controlled him. He was uncaring and not a good person. Every word he said
related to my life. You see, my dad was an alcoholic until I was twelve years
old. Life could have been worse, yes, but it could have been better too. The
man speaking told of the day he gave his life to Jesus Christ. He told about
how God has made his desires different and how he is now caring and kind. I
thought of how my dad had that same change in his life about five years ago.
At the end of his testimony he asked if anyone would come
down and give their life to God. I don’t remember if anyone went down or not.
I’m pretty sure nobody did.
After the singers sang a song or two, he asked them to play
one more. He said he felt somebody was in that room who needed to accept
Christ.
You know how in theatres when all the lights go out and the
spotlight shines on one person on center stage? I felt like that person when he
said that.
I didn’t know what on earth I was going to do. I didn’t let
a single second pass because I knew I had to get down to that altar and finally
accept the friendship and relationship Jason Bruns had just testified to us about.
I was sitting on the right, two rows back. Two seats in, I’m
pretty sure. I worked my way to the little isle in the youth room we were all
in and I just fell at the altar. Anna, Jason’s finance at the time, led me in
the sinner’s prayer. When I looked up from praying she told me how all these
people love me. I looked around. There was about fifty youth surrounded around
me laying hands on me, praying. I felt true love that moment. Love from God.
And love from others who really did want the best for me.
After the service was dismissed, Anna told me some things I
will never forget all the days I live. She told me to go home and ask God to
show me what He wants me to read in the Bible that night. She told me to tell
all my friends at school the next day what had happened tonight. She told me to
separate myself from the people who I spent all my time with who weren’t
Christians, (which was all of them.) I was pretty scared about telling them to
be perfectly honest. I knew they would not understand and they would maybe even
make fun of me. But, it was something I knew I was going to have to do.
That night when I got home, I found a bible and sat on my
bed.
I prayed, “God, show me what you want me to read tonight.”
I opened it up and I read these words found in John, chapter
15.
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and
ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your
fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he
may give it you.
These things I command you, that ye love one another.
If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me
before it
hated you.
If ye were of the world, the world would love his
own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hateth you.
I felt peace for the first time. I had God speak to me
through His Word.
The next day I told five of my friends, three girls and two
boys, sitting at my table in class what had happened the night before. They all
looked a bit confused, shocked and a little bit worried.
I did two of the things Anna told me to do. I just had to do
one more. Separate myself.
At lunch that same day I got to do that very thing. After
eating several of us would always go out to one of the boys’ trucks and
everyone would stand around it and listen to music until the bell rang, telling
us to go to class.
I sat on the tail gate with a few other people who were
talking and singing along to the song.
I started feeling something in my stomach. Something I had
never felt before. A second later I felt it in my heart. Then, in my head I
heard something tell me to get up and leave. I didn’t argue with myself. I just
looked around at everyone, and life seemed to be in slow motion. The music
seemed so far away. I told myself right then that I would never be in this
situation again.
I separated myself that day. Yes, I got saved March 15th,
2006. But, March 16th, 2006, I passed a test that helped pave the
way for my future. I got a back bone that day. And it has only gotten stronger
since.
I can’t write all that God has done for me in the past seven
years. That is for another time and day. But I am not the person I was prior to
March 15th, 2006. I am very, very different. I am the total opposite
actually.
God is number one in my life and always will be.
I am so appreciative to what He did on the cross for me. The
least I can do is live for Him and tell everyone I know about Him.
Thank you, Jason Bruns, for following God’s lead and
speaking for the first time ever on March 15th, 2006. You are an
awesome assistant Pastor and leader for that church now.
Thank you, Anna. The most important prayer I will have ever
prayed was led by you.
Thank you, Pastor (now my Uncle!) Zane, for loving me and
teaching me so much through your messages after I got saved. I still apply
things you preached on years ago to circumstances today. Your little family is
so important to me.
Thank you, Dad, for accepting God all those years ago. You
have set the example for me.
Thank you, Mom, for sticking in there when the going was
tough. You are my inspiration.
Thank you, Danny, for being the best father in law and
buddy. I’m happy you aren’t tired of me yet. Thanks for preaching the Truth.
Rhonda, thanks for being my Naomi.
Thank you, Nadine, for being my role model. You are in Heaven
now, but the three years I got to spend with you helped mold me into the woman
I am today. I think you deserve one of the biggest mansions in Heaven.
Thank you, Grant, for being the world’s best husband and
dad. You are my best friend. I would fight a lion, or a tiger or a wild pig, (or
something crazy like that) for you. I would lose, but I would do it for you. You
make me want to be the best wife and mom. Most of all, you make me want to be
the best servant of God. Next to Jesus, you are the best thing that has ever
happened to me.
And thank you, Raylea. For making me kind of understand
God’s love for His children. I would do anything for you. I will always be your
mommy and I will always love Jesus and your Daddy. You can count on that.
Thank you, to my friends, of all ages. You know who you are.
You’re my prayer partners.
Thank You, Lord for saving my soul seven years ago, today.
That is what I am mostly thankful for.
