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.

Ben's Testimony

This is the testimony of Benjamin J. Arellano

After enduring 26 years of this worldly life, I was never fulfilled spiritually. I always felt that there was something more to life, but no matter how much money, what kind of car I drove, friends I had, or even jobs I had were never able to fulfill me. I guess I have always been searching as most people are for that one thing that will continually fulfill me. I searched high and low, and everywhere which was really all in the wrong place.

In high school, I was always the “odd ball”. I had friends, but they weren’t true friends. The funny part is I always felt that they looked at me as if I was weird. I always could see that people were different from me. How you ask? Well I noticed that I would take more respect and courtesy more seriously than most. I always wondered why people would always care more about themselves than others. The good part was that I noticed this, the bad part is that I conformed to the “World’s Way” of being impolite, not courteous, and became somewhat bitter. I developed a chip on my shoulder.

The chip on my shoulder and bitterness caused me to behave differently. Because of this I quite the basketball team as a sophomore in high school. I developed a bad relationship with my parents and family. The funny part is as a boy, my parents were guiding me in the right direction, however the “World of sin” is very powerful. I remember an incident that occurred several times with a brand new shiny red car that my parents had bought me. The car kept getting keyed, and many things happened to it. My dad used to tell me that it wasn’t right “to love things”. In a sense my car was my god. The world of sin, lust, and temptation is very powerful.

While in college, things got better between my parents and me, still struggled at times but better for the most part. In college I realized that I was alone. I was different than most and for some reason always found myself alone. I didn’t have many friends. I looked for a way to quench my loneliness, but did it wrongfully with relationships.

I met a girl in 2002 and for some reason was drawn to her. I am convinced that she was brought into my life for many reasons. We got along great, and she seemed to really care for me, more than any other relationship I ever had. Before long we were pregnant and living together (Yes we did everything backwards). We were engaged, but didn’t have a wedding date yet. Her name is Diane.

We had some problems with Diane’s parents not being accepting of me because Diane already had a child, but the child was not mine. I believe her parents wanted Diane to be with her son’s dad. This cause many conflicts between us and made things very difficult for Diane and I. I believe that these conflicts were necessary and were teaching Diane and me a lesson.

In 2002 my son was born with a birth defect that hindered him from eating correct and breathing normal. I needed someone to blame, and the only one I could think of to blame was God. I was so angry with God, asking things like “Why would a God that loves us, do something like this to a child?” I felt that God had wronged me and stripped my son of a normal life. I wanted God to do his harm to me and not to my son. However, at this point I was walking in the dark and couldn’t see.

In 2004 I lost my job a little over 1 year after I moved to Phoenix. I was again upset with the whole world including God. I thought to myself, “I live a pretty decent life, I don’t kill, and I don’t cheat so why am I getting the short end of the stick.” I had a lot of bitterness in my heart, wondering why people who had lots of money were successful and yet were the meanest, most inconsiderate people on this planet. Why would God bless them and allow bad to happen to me. I was still walking in the dark, and didn’t realize that to be rich you don’t need money.

During the summer of 2004, I found myself wondering in my back yard and one day I was thinking out loud. I looked up to the Heavens and said “Okay God, I know you are there, and you have my attention, what do you want me to do?” This was a turning point for me. I acknowledged that God was present and asked Him for guidance. This was my first step towards finding my fulfillment.

After I looked to God for guidance, I was directed to a company called UTI. I found much more joy and happiness at this job. I started out the job doing really well and found myself much happier. I then told my fiancée Diane that I wanted to go to church. We began going to our local Catholic Church, but I found myself asking Diane the question, “Why do we go to church, I don’t ever recall learning anything.” We then decided not to attend, but that I would begin to read the Bible. I started to read the Bible, but being new to the Bible, I was discouraged because I didn’t understand it.

At the point of discouragement, I found myself at co-workers cubicle and found a church flyer. I then asked this individual, whose name is Michael, if he believed in all that “church stuff” and with the most sincere and serious look he said “yes I do.” We got to talking and Michael made an offer to have lunch sometime and talk about it. I agreed thinking it wouldn’t happen and went on my way. One week later Michael emailed me and he invited me to lunch. We went to lunch, and agreed to meet on Wednesday’s to read the Bible. I was jaded with my previous Catholic Church experience that I didn’t want to go to church. So we met every Wednesday for a few weeks. Michael had brought the topic of “Salvation” to my attention. We spoke about this topic several times. One Wednesday on April 26th 2006 Michael challenged me to accept Jesus Christ as my personal savior to forgive my past, present, and future sins and to acknowledge that I can’t save myself, and that through the shed blood of Jesus is the only way to heaven.

On that day April 26th 2006, I did accept Jesus into my life. That is the greatest moment in my life. Since then I have been able to see God. I see Him everyday, in my life and in others lives. It is the greatest joy to have the Holy Spirit dwell with in you and talk to you. I recognize my sin more than ever before, of course I will continue to sin due to the nature of mankind, but I can see when I do sin, and can repent. God will forgive me, even though I don’t deserve it.

Michael then invited me to church. I was skeptical, but decided to give it a try. At first I was overwhelmed, because I have never been to a church where you read the Bible, and the people were like a community and were very friendly and helpful. All this joyous singing, praise and worship were just overwhelming. But Diane and I continued to go.

We came to the point where we were thinking about becoming members. We needed to both be saved and more over we needed to be married so that we wouldn’t be living in disobedience. Diane accepted Jesus into her life on June 21st 2006. We didn’t know what to do because we knew that a wedding would take a couple months, but the Holy Spirit convicted us to get married earlier. Our pastor agreed to marry us at a discipleship group at my friend from work Michael’s house on June 23rd 2006 just 2 days after Diane was saved. We then had a big church wedding and invited all the family in hopes that they would listen to the “Salvation Message”. Our wedding was very non-traditional, no booze, no DJ, no money tree, and no big party. We had a pleasant reception, and feel that everything went close to perfect because it was blessed by God.

The following weekend we got baptized! This was another wonderful stepping stone for me since it was a public profession of my faith. What better thing to do, than to tell all that you accepted Jesus into your life and that he has forgiven you of all your sin. This was a “burning of the bridge” to my old self!

As I get closer to God, I find myself moving farther away from the ways of the world. This is a wonderful thing to not be conformed to this world. The world tells you to do whatever makes you feel good, but that’s not what God intended. Read the Bible, you can see what God wants.

Nothing in this world has or will ever fulfill me more than Jesus Christ has. When you have and accept Jesus Christ into your heart, you walk in love. With Jesus, you can depend on him completely. Family and even friends will let you down from time to time, Jesus will never ever let you down, for He is always there, and He never breaks promises, and He never changes, you must trust him.

You see in all the instances when something happened in my life, God allowed me to fall, in hopes that I would look to him for comfort. He teaches us lessons everyday and we don’t even know it because we are so self centered on our lives. When you look to God and accept His will as opposed to forcing your own will, your life becomes richer and more fulfilled, money can’t buy that, not even Bill Gates.

This isn’t to say that something bad won’t happen because it is possible, you see God does EVERYTHING for a reason, but when you have God, and something bad happens, you will understand why things happen, and God does comfort you. Knowing that you aren’t alone and that He is always there and will never leave you is a wonderful feeling. I hope that others will endure what I feel, when I walk with my Lord and savior everyday Jesus Christ.