Stories

My “Life Changing Story” began after many years of pretending to be a Christian. I asked Jesus Christ to come into my life at the age of 11, but I never actually let Him in. All the while, I was deceiving, hurting and using many people who were found to be wondering in my wake including those who truly loved me. Before I was a Christian, I even prevented many folks from truly knowing who God was and is. As a result of my destructive path and my actions, God was someone they did not want to know.  I was the definition of a hypocrite and nothing I had or did could satisfy my selfish desires.

But, by God’s grace and God’s mercy through His Son Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, God used Christian brothers and sisters who were obedient to God’s calling to work with and love me. They committed and invested time to my growth. They held me accountable as Christian brothers and sisters should and continually prayed for my deliverance and salvation; but more importantly, they loved me. Through their acts, I realized that I had to truly commit my life to Christ; completely and whole heartedly. I no longer was just “reading” the word; I was now seeing the Word. On my knees, I realized that I had to completely surrender to Christ and change and joyfully live a life serving Christ.  I finally completely surrendered to Christ to make me whole.

This is when I became a Christian and why I attend First Baptist Bloomfield; where people love me and want nothing more than for me to have a personal, fulfilling and committed relationship with Christ.

I asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior when I was about 10 years old in a revival in a small Baptist Church out in a farming community in south central Oklahoma.  When I was nineteen God brought Doris into my life and we were married. This started us on a four state journey and 57 years and counting together. As we moved from state to state and some cases town to town the first Sunday after arriving we were in a Baptist Church worshiping together and serving our Lord.

I was transferred to Farmington in July of 1979, and God lead us to make our home in Bloomfield. We joined FBC, and in the late 80’s I was ordained as a deacon. When I retired in 1991 for a while I co-taught and taught the senior men’s class. About 1998 I changed to the second grade and my first class is about out of college now.

The Bible says, “Let the little children come to me” (Mark 10:13-14)  This is a very profound verse to me; in fact I believe it is a must that we tell the children about Jesus.

Doris became a Christian at the age of 12 in a small Baptist Church in Temple, Oklahoma during vacation bible school. Consequently VBS has been near and dear to her heart.

God receives all the glory in her life!  She has taught Sunday school, worked in VBS, and WMU. In Bloomfield she taught two generations of fourth graders and has seen many come to Christ. Oh what a change has taken place in the thirty five years we have been in Bloomfield. We’ve seen God so at work, may He continue His blessing on this church.