My Conversion (Part 1)

Today I thought I would write a little about my conversion experience. I may have to write it out in different intervals, as I am sure I will not be able to get it all done in one setting. My husband and I were living in Elizaville at a farm house that we rented. We had two small beautiful daughters, Kathy and Darla, when we moved there. And one on the way. While living there our third daughter was born, Carol. Shortly after Carol was born the landlady invited us to a revival at the old Bethel Baptist Church, close to where we live now. We all went several nights in a row, I believe it was the third night of the revival that the evangelist made a serious altar call. My father-in-law who met us at the church was the first one to go to the altar, then me, and then my husband followed, several others also went forward. My father-in-law immediately threw his cigarettes down on the altar vowing to never smoke again. He had accepted the Lord many years before, but always felt convicted about his smoking. All I did was just kneel at the altar, I really did not know what to say, or how to pray. Then they tooks us into another room where we would be individually prayed for and with and given some new converts reading material. I prayed with the lady that was praying and counseling me. But I must say, I never had a big feeling that I was different. I did not break down and cry hysterically as I have seen others do. But there was a change now, that I do know. I began to really desire to go to church and read and study the Bible. Even though I had a very difficult time understanding exactly what I was reading. But the desire to learn was always there. But then remembering back when I was a kid, I had a desire to learn about the Bible and Christianity back then already, so that was not really anything new. The new part was now I began actively doing so, and desiring to be in church. We continued going to the church at Bethel Baptist and my children were actively attending Sunday School, Vacation Bible school and later the AWANAS group. My husband continued coming to church for about a year, and he read the Bible all the way through in no time, as he always read every night before going to bed. After about a year my husband lost interest in going to church, so he began dropping out. But the kids and I continued going. But it is very difficult for a wife to serve the Lord without her husband standing with her in this. We also had two more children, that many times I had to send the kids on to church on the bus, as I could not always be there. The kids and I had regular Bible studies, prayer and devotions at home also. They immensely loved going to the AWANAS group as they got older, and they learned much. But there were many change overs in the pastoral staff at the church, and this was so disapointing to me. Many times we would not have a regular pastor and only had someone to fill in with the preaching part. Then after almost ten years of going to the Baptist church. I got a job at Mallory's in Frankfort. Where I met a couple of Christian ladies, who invited me to have lunch with them in their car during the lunch break. They were talking about the Lord in such a much more dynamic way, I thought. Talking about things that were in the Bible, things I had never heard of or seen before. And our prayer time was with so much more power... that I was thorougly drawn to these ladies, and I could not wait till the next day to have lunch with them again!

More to come on this subject!

Love, Aalie