Renee's Testimony

This is the testimony of Renee Richmond

I went to a Baptist church from 4th grade until 10th grade with my Grandma. I knew the gospel and how to be saved, but somehow it never reached my heart. I did learn a lot of scripture there though. Well, when I was 14-18 years old (I am 48 now), I quit going to church and became a typical product of the 70’s. My mom loved me a lot I know, but my dad, who had a serious mental illness, distracted her. He tried to commit suicide at least 6 times. It took all her time and energy to keep up with him, so I was pretty much on my own. I had no brothers or sisters. I had no rules. Sometimes I was very happy and having a lot of fun, other times I was not so happy. I started standing at parties observing how dumb we all were, but I couldn’t break away yet as these were my friends and the only people I had in the world. I would think quite often, "There has to be a better way to live". I am grateful that the Lord protected me from a lot of harm that could have come my way during this time.

Then during my senior year of high school, there was a Christian girl named Grace in ALL my classes. She was nice and funny and we got to be friends. She invited me to church every week, but I always said no for one reason or another. She told me how I needed to be saved from my sin by Christ. I knew what she was saying was true, but I knew I’d have to give up all my friends. We graduated in June of 1976, and I still hadn’t gone to church with her after about 30 invitations.

I started classes at the University of Akron in the fall. On Halloween night of 1976, a friend and I went cruising, and we stopped on an impulse at the house of a guy I really liked. This guy had been my date for senior prom, but I hadn’t heard from him since then. Imagine my surprise to find a huge Halloween party going on with almost every friend I had in the world in attendance. I had not been invited! I walked right in and found Bill with my best friend Jan. (They were in costume as a witch and Count Dracula which seemed fitting.J) I found out they had been dating all summer - during which time I had asked Jan often if she knew what could have happened to Bill, and she had sympathized deeply with me that he was probably just busy. Well, she sure knew what happened to him! I felt so betrayed. All my other friends knew about it too, but didn’t want to tell me. At this point I felt totally alone in the world. No one cared about me. (This experience would later make the song, "No One Ever Cared for me Like Jesus" my favorite and one that I sang night and day for awhile.) I suddenly knew I wanted Christ as my best friend, and I wanted to turn from the life I was living no matter what the cost. I went home and called Grace and asked if I could come to church with her the next day. I went three weeks and the Lord Jesus Christ saved me on November 21, 1976. I was baptized on December 5th, 1976. My mom came to church to see my baptism, and in another year she also was gloriously saved.

As a brand new baby Christian, I found myself distressed and confused by my teachers at the University of Akron. One used bad language in the classroom, one was a Marxist communist. I myself had become a strong feminist in high school and subscribed to "Ms." magazine. When I asked a "preacher boy" (who was home on Christmas break from Bob Jones University) if it was okay to be a Baptist AND a Communist, he informed me I needed to go to a Christian college.J Just eight months later I found myself a student at Bob Jones University. A lot of students were whining about the rules there, but I LOVED the rules – I’d never had any before. They were comforting to me. I learned a lot about the Bible in my 3 years there, and by the time I graduated I thought marriage might not be degrading after all, but children were still out of the question. They would mess up my career in accounting.

To make a long story short, I married a great Christian man and have two wonderful daughters that I stayed home with and home schooled all the way through high school! Sometimes I look at my life now and have to laugh at the change in my thinking Christ has made. I am living what might be considered a boring life by some, but I am never bored. I have peace in my heart. This isn’t to say I never have problems (the death of both my parents), but I have a peace because it is Christ’s righteousness and not my works that has saved me, and I know He will never change or forsake me. What a relief!

This November 21st will mark 30 years I’ve been in the Lord, and He has kept me in the palm of his hand the whole time and not let me go. What a miracle that He should love a soul like mine!

Here are a couple of my favorite verses from the Bible – I write these on just about every graduation or wedding card I ever send out as this prayer includes just about everything – God is our peace by reconciling us, Christ’s resurrection, Christ as my shepherd, Christ’s blood, and Christ doing the work of sanctifying me not just saving me. What a blessing the gospel is every day of my life!

"Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." Hebrews 13:20-21

Diane's Testimony

This is the testimony of Diane Borunda Arellano

I was twenty-six years old when I trusted Jesus Christ to be my Lord and Savior. Before I was saved my life never seem to be fulfilled, it seemed like I was always searching for something and could never be satisfied. I had my first son at a very young age. The reason why I had my son was because I wanted someone to love me and someone I could love unconditionally and no one could take away from me. Even after I had my son, it was the most wonderful gift from God but still I wasn't quite fulfilled. The Lord showed me it was hard having a child at a very young age and being a single parent. I didn't finish high school , I lived with my parents and worked two jobs.

One nigh while I was out with my friends at the Hilton, I notice this guy and I asked him to come over to where I was standing and asked him his name, he said Ben . I never had done that before but for some reason I did that night and we came to be very close. We became pregnant and had a son. He was born with a cleft palate which was very hard for us to handle. I started feeling my life was getting worse with my son's sickness and my relationship with Ben was getting pretty bad. My parents and Ben had some issues which didn't make things any easier. Our whole situation was not good. We decided to move to Ben's home town Silver City NM because my parents were not making things easy for us, they were getting between Ben and I. Ben got a job with a mining company in Silver City, New Mexico. We lived there for about a year then his job moved us to Arizona, we found our home in Peoria Arizona.

It was nice being far from my home town and thinking, now we can start a fresh new life not knowing anyone and get somewhat lost in the big city. That wasn't true at all, Ben lost his job. That was very hard for us but Ben was finally blessed with a new job. In the mean time I wasn't happy like I should have been. I found this wonderful man to take care of me and love me and gave me everything I needed, provided a home, he cared for my first son which wasn't his bio son and our son plus I didn't have to work as I was able to stay home with our boys. I just didn't understand at the time what else I needed in my life, I had everything a young woman could dream of, but still was not fulfilled.

One day Ben came home from work and told me about this gentleman he met at work, his name was Michael. He invited us to his church, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to go because they were “Baptist” and I was brought up Catholic. I didn't really go to my own Catholic church, and I didn't have a strong belief in God. I knew there was a God and knew I was suppose to go to church. It was more like a tradition like going on Christmas week and Palm Sunday and when we baptized our boys because thats what we knew we had to do. Ben was meeting with Michael on his lunch break, Michael talked to Ben about his church and what they believed. They spent a lot of time meeting together, and reading the bible.

One day Michael asked Ben if he was sure he was on his way to Heaven if he were to die today, and Ben's reply was no. So Michael told him how he could be sure he was saved. Ben then trusted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. From then on Ben was a changed man forever, when Ben came home that day I could see something different about him. It was like he was at peace with himself, it was amazing the difference I saw in him. He told me that he was saved and shared with me how I would get saved if I wanted to. I thought about it for some time, then we started going to Michael's church. It was a blessing, everyone was very nice, however it was a little overwhelming, but in a good way. It was not what I was used to but as we kept on going, we knew in our hearts that it was right.

Our faith got stronger and stronger by the day. We knew we were living in disobedience with the Lord so we had a meeting with our Pastor in his office to see what we needed to do to get married. One of the criteria was you had to be saved. It was there that I trusted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I was saved on June 21 2006 and Ben and I got married June 23 2006 . We now live a Christian Life with a desire to serve and be obedient to our Lord. Now I can say without a doubt in my heart that I found what I was missing all along was Jesus. My life is now fulfilled and I am no longer searching. I am as happy and loved as I can be with the Lord in my life and the gifts he has given me, my salvation and my wonderful husband and my precious boys. I want to thank the Lord for putting Michael in my husbands life and how he brought us to the Lord.