*Katelyn Collin

For most people their salvation story involves a specific place, time, or event. I was not introduced to this idea until much later in my Christian walk. As a child I cannot think of a time where I wasn’t close with Jesus. I was a very anxious child and early on my parents explained to me that when you felt nervous, scared, or uncomfortable to pray and talk to Jesus about it. If you know me, I have always been a rule follower and so I took that to heart. I prayed all the time and Jesus comforted me. The idea that Jesus died for me and would take care of me was what got me through the day. When I became a teenager I made tons of friends that had “salvation stories.” This seemed like a wonderful thing, but I was very confused as to why I had never experienced this. Growing up I had always heard just “ accept Jesus into your heart.” I had done that right? All these doubtful questions began to fill my mind. The anxiety started to overcome me. I began praying over and over asking Jesus into my heart and asking God, “Am I saved? Do I have salvation? Am I going to heaven?” It sounds very silly now, but for me this was a turning point in my life. As the tears rolled, I cried myself to sleep that night. I had lost all hope and I felt defeated. That night I unexpectedly had the most peaceful rest and I had a dream that I was surrounded with clouds and warmth. I felt new and calm. Suddenly a hand reached out of the cloud and gripped my hand tightly and I heard a loud voice say, “Hello Best Friend.” From this moment forward I had NO DOUBT in my salvation and no doubt in God’s power. If you are struggling with your salvation, talk to God about it. Get angry if you have to, but let Him reveal to you that YOU ARE HIS.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 1 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Evelyn’s Story

        I began attending a Baptist church in the early 60’s in Russellville.  I lived In a foster home.  I was a teenager and while attending I gave my life to Jesus and was baptized.

        After I got my driver’s license, I moved back to TN for a couple of years.  Then I moved back to AL and lived in Phil Campbell.  I worked at a pant’s factory and met L.T. Kelley.  We married in 1969.  Then my children started arriving – Jackie in 1971, Jon in 1973, and Trisha in 1975.

Today pray for our Youth Group. Pray for Kyle, Emily, Lisa and Andy as they help our youth understand God’s word and apply it to their lives. If you remember from your youth life gets hard after high school.  Our youth need a firm grasp on what they believe about The Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, a strong faith, a strong prayer life, Christian friends and a Body of believers for support.  We all play a part in that.  Pray and ask God how He can use you to minister to and support our youth group.  Pray for protection over their hearts and minds as they mature and grow and pray for their salvation.

* Tommy McDonald

Easter

During the course of my life I have tried living without God and I have tried living with God.  Without doubt living with God and accepting Jesus as my Savior is far superior to anything else I have ever experienced in this world.  As a teenager I was baptized and joined a church.  It was my hope that this event would assure my entry into Heaven when my time on earth was done.  Unfortunately, it made no difference in the way I lived my life.  I failed to realize that salvation is not just an event but a lifelong journey.  My entire spiritual future was based on the hope that Jesus would return on a Sunday and find me in a church.  I have since realized that sitting in a church does not make a person a Christian any more than sitting in a tree makes one a bird.

Satan’s oldest trick is to convince us we have plenty of time and we can always come closer to God later.  Like many others, I fell for this excuse.  The unexplainable love God has for us has always been a mystery to me and I was convinced God could not love someone who had turned his back on Him.    This is another lie that Satan places in our minds.  But, this is sort of where God’s unending grace enters the picture.  Grace is the eraser which blots out all the reasons we believe we are not acceptable to God.  I now know that there is no life that is so messed up that the saving Grace of Jesus Christ cannot redeem and make whole again.   This message finally got through to me while attending an Emmaus Walk several years ago.

I am far from perfect and the older I get the more I know this is true.  On my best days I generally mess up before breakfast.   I am just a redeemed sinner who keeps on trying.

* Gwen Jones

God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 (Most powerful verse in the Bible)

My parents were divorced when I was very young. There was very little love showed or expressed.  I really didn’t know the meaning of love other than it was a strong emotion or affection.  I couldn’t understand how someone I didn’t even know love me so much that he was willing to give his life for me.

When I was about 12, the pastor from the church we had been visiting came by earlier one day to visit with my mother and step-father.  My step-father said he had made a profession earlier in his life but my mother had never done so.  She accepted Christ that day and asked the pastor if he would come back later to talk to me.  So this is where my story begins……he showed me all the scriptures about sin, hell and salvation and finally asked me that most urgent question “Do you want to go the hell for your sins?”  Of course I did not, so I said I believe, not fully understanding the scope of what that meant and not understanding how a God could love me so much that He would be willing to let His Son die for me. 

Over the next few years I struggled with this issue of salvation.  Although I was active in church with the youth, going to Bible studies and every service possible, there was always this nagging feeling of was I REALLY saved.  I can remember praying to God that if I wasn’t saved to please save me.  But I still had doubts and insecurities.

When I was 17 my mom and step-father separated. My mom and I moved to Dallas where most of our family was.  My brother asked us to visit his church, he said they had a very good youth group and a man of God who preached the Word.  He also mentioned that he had a single son.  I was hesitant to go, not because of the possibility of meeting someone but I still had all these questions and feelings of unworthiness.  We did visit the church and it was a very warm and welcoming body of believers.  We joined and began attending regularly. 

The pastor’s son had been out of town helping his brother move during this time so our meeting was delayed by about a month.  My brother had been talking to him about meeting hoping this would keep me involved in church.  We finally met…..and about 6 months later I became his wife.  His name was Ricky and God blessed us with 35 years together.  He and his family showed me what true love was all about.  Unconditional, devoted, not judging, always there.  I began to understand that you can be loved even with all your flaws, but my doubts were still present.

Every year the church held week long revivals.  I always dreaded going because the evangelists always seemed to preach the same message….”Repent, Be Saved, Don’t Go To Hell”.  But there was this one evangelist that came to the church the first part of August 1979, who had a different approach.  His message was “You have to BELIEVE in Jesus, not just KNOW Jesus”.  That got my attention.  As the week went on and he spoke, I listened.  He said there is a difference in having a HEAD knowledge and not a HEART knowledge.  That was it…all these years I knew who Jesus was and what He had done, but I didn’t accept that into my heart. Even those years that I had questioned and searched, it was all with my head. It was so hard to believe that there was a love that great. I went forward and confessed that I did believe with my whole heart and accepted Christ as my Savior because He loves me.  I could have said to myself “What are others going to think? I’m married to the preacher’s son. I teach Sunday School. I sing in the choir.” None of that mattered to me, I knew I needed to publicly confess that I was now one of God’s children.  I knew from that moment, I was saved and had a place in Heaven, not because of anything that I had done but because of what Jesus had done for me because of His great love.

* Phil Everett

Sheila’s Story

I grew up here at Pleasant Hill.  I know that when the new building was dedicated, there was a listing of the people present for the dedication service as they signed their names upon entering the church.  This was in 1949.  I was born in 1947 and my mother signed her name so I know I was with her. 

I grew up loving the Lord and serving Him in different ways.  I attended classes in children’s department taught by Lena McIntyre, Lorena Butler, Annie Walton Olive, Harold Rhodes, Wes Porter, Granny Seaton and I’m sure there were others.  Then I taught Sunday school classes in the children’s department for years.  I also attended UMYF with Jack and Mary Lou McGee as leaders, VBS with Estelle Thrasher, Lorena Butler, Mary Ruth DeVaney, and others as our leaders. I loved coming to Bible Study Classes on Wed. nights as a teenager with my mom with leaders Stanley Perkins, Hermage Hairrell, & Harold Rhodes.  I had many saints as my leaders.

I joined the church when I was in elementary school – Bro. Dobbs was minister at that time, (here from 55-58) but I’m not sure of the date.  There were many revivals during my life and I was moved and my heart warmed by them.  I would dedicate and re-dedicate my life many times over the years.  I have attended the Emmaus Walk and again my heart was strangely warmed and glowed.  I love Jesus and want to serve Him as long as I live.

Rene’ House

1Peter 4:14 “If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rest upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified”.

* Wayne Kelley

the whole world and yet lose his own soul,” Matthew 26:16

Prayer

Take a day and earnestly pray for your loved ones that need Jesus.  Lift them up before Jesus at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.  Ask God to draw them to Himself and convict them of their need for a Savior.  Ask for an opportunity to share your salvation story and the obedience to do so if God calls you to.

* Cathy Broadfoot Everett

 JESUS LOVES ME!

Mark 10 14-16

“Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong.  Yes Jesus loves me!”

  I am so blessed to have grown up at Pleasant Hill all of my life.  As a toddler I was in the beginner’s class of Mrs. Lena McIntyre (age 3 or 4) there I learned that Miss Lena loved me

and that Jesus loved me too.

   In older classes I learned about sin and our need of a savior, and that God had sent His son

Jesus to die for our sins. I asked Jesus to come into my heart several years before children my

age were allowed to be baptized. I was baptized by Travis Lee Darby during summer revival (about the age of 10?)  I think sometimes we make salvation way to complicated when it comes to children.

   The older I get, and the more time I spend reading my Bible and in prayer, the simpler my

understanding becomes.

*Tyler Rutherford

My salvation story is not a normal one. I was “saved” as a young child but I never changed my life. I grew up, in church and never was a “bad egg”.

As I became an adult I started to live in the ways of the world. For 5 or 6 years of my life I lived without regard for God or the people around me.

I believe God was with me all along the way, even though I never cared. It was only after my last visit to jail when I only could read the Bible while locked up, did I finally started to think that this life wasn’t worth living without God.

A day or two after I got, out of jail I sat on a porch and cried to God That I didn’t wanna live this way anymore. I felt no change instantly, but as days went by I felt more and more inclined to live a better life.

God had changed me and sent people in my life to pull me to church and to push me Godward.