Sandie D's Testimony

When I think about what my personal testimony would be, I would have to say that all depends on what area in my life. There are many areas where God has been present and I would never have been able to make it through the things I have without my faith.

My actual walk with Christ began a very long time ago.

We lived in Indiana when I was a child and growing up wasn't the easiest. But my mom would send us to church with some people and that was what helped me the most. I don't thinks he knew how much of a difference that would make but it did.

My Grandma Grace was also a Sunday School teacher and she always made sure we understood what Jesus did for us. I still remember her reading her Bible at the kitchen table each night and she would read to us also. It was actually a funny memory. Because my grandma was a farmer. She wore bib overalls, combat style boots and smoked a cigar. To see her sitting there at the table reading the Bible was priceless. God accepts us for who we are and doesn't matter if we come to Him in a dress or bibs or even our birthday suit.

I remember watching some members of the Nazarene Church in Knox Indiana getting baptized. I wanted to do that so bad. I knew what it meant to follow Christ and I think I was older mentally than my age. You see, in the Nazarene Church you can't be baptized till you are 14 yrs old.

We moved to AZ when I was in the 4th grade and I became involved with a little Baptist Church that met in a trailer in Hyder AZ. The baptisms from Indiana still stuck with me and it was something I wanted to do so bad.

In Hyder there wasn't much to do, it was in the middle of the desert between Gila Bend AZ and Yuma. It was hotter or almost as hot as Hades. The area was mostly farms and where we lived that is what we had. We had cotton farms. On those cotton farms we used irrigation ditches to water the rows of cotton. When they had no chemicals in the ditches we would swim in them. It was the only way to cool off.

My friends and I would go swimming and we would go through the whole baptism process. We would take turns dunking each other and asking them if they accept Jesus Christ and that they believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Once we said yes, we would immerse the one we were holding, with noses plugged and we felt like we were baptized. Now, we didn't know we had to do this every-time we went swimming, but we did. I wanted to make sure I was baptized completely. I needed that peace of mind I think.

After we moved from Hyder to Willcox AZ, I joined the Willcox Church of the Nazarene. That was also a life changing place for me. My best friend Diana was a pastors daughter and they lived right around the corner from me. For me they were like a safe place and a second family too.

One of Pastor Harry's daughters stood up during a revival and answered a question the pastor asked. He asked the congregation if there was one thing you would not want God to say to us and she said " why didn't you share my message?" She said her worst fear was her friends standing before God and they were turned away because nobody chose to share the message of hope with them. They would be condemned to hell because nobody said anything to her. That stayed with me and still stays with me.

I did get Baptized officially in the Willcox Church of the Nazarene at 14. It was on my birthday. My poor pastor wasn't going to hear the end of it from me. At the time I was baptized Harry was no longer the pastor, but Pastor Randy was happy to help make this happen. Honestly, I think he was tired of hearing me asking about when he was going to let me get Baptized.

Ever since I could remember, God has always been there for me. There are times He is hard to see or know He is there. But that isn't because of Him, it is me being stubborn and wanting things my way.

There is so much more I could add to this, but it would be a book if I wrote about all the ways God has touched my life...