I was raised in church my entire life. My father was a minister and Pastor of Bethel Missoinary Baptist Church where I grew up. I came under conviction when I was around 10 years old. I knew in that moment I was lost and wanted to be saved. I went to the altar to seek the Lord to be saved many times over the next several years, but I was not satisfied. As time passed, I became more deeply troubled but I was still under great conviction. In 1969, my fiance asked me to tkae her to a revival at her friend's church, coincidenrtally named Bethel Baptist Church. That night in a church full of people I had never met, I was convited deeper than ever before and the Lord enabled me to fully trust in Him. A peaceful assurance came into my heart and soul that night and I knew I was saved.

In September of 1964, I was nine years old. We went to church as usual and I was sitting on the first row of the choir with my mother. Pastor Ash was preaching and gave an altar call. God showed me people screaming and trying to get out of where they were. It was the first time I felt fear like that. I knew it was Hell and I knew I didn't want to go there. I asked God to save me and that I wanted to be with Him. He saved my soul before I went to the altar. I've never had that feeling since and I know I'm going to Heaven and I will never have that fear again.

I was 15 years old when God saved me. Growing up in church, I had always had a desire to be saved and I remember asking God several times to give me an opporutnity. Then, one Friday night in a revival meeting, He did. I had absolutely no doubt in my mind that God was speaking to my heart but I ended up turning Him away that night and going home. I vividly remember that the day after I begged God to call me again in that night's revival meeting because I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I didn't want to stay lost. When the service started, I immediately started to feel God's convicting power again but was again terrified to go to the altar and pray. In my seat, I began to reason with God and I told Him that if the youth sang a specific song (one I knew we rarely sang), I would go pray. Sure enough, somebody immediately requested that song and it was sung. Af ew short minutes later, I stepped out in faith and recieved God into my heart and life forever. It's the best step that I ever took and I am still in awe about how God used His people and their discernment to make it that much easier to accept God that night.

I was saved August 23, 1967 at Bethel Missionary Baptist Church on Orchard Street in Toledo, Ohio. I was on a Wednesday night of a week long revival. Brother Pete Porter from Tennessee was the evangelist and He called out to me as I was leaving the sanctuary during the altar call. I went to the altar and I prayed earnestly for the Lord to save me. The Lord came into my heart that night and I will never forget that sweet peaceful feeling.

I wasn't raised in church. When I was about 12, I went to a church and with some of my friends, repeated a prayer. I thought that saved me and I went on with my life. I prayed a few times to God asking for things for my children and other over the 30 years until I was 42. I promised God that I would bring my kids to church if they would be born OK. Deb had trouble with Scott and I was afraid that she would with Chad as well. Chad was born and was well, so I brought them to church. The preaching of the gospel started to sink in and showed me I wasn't saved. I started listening to Christian programs on the radio and one night it was the blind man and how he could see. I told God that night I wanted to see like him. That was a Friday and I went to church on Sunday and guess what the preacher preached!? The blind man. That was my call and I went to the altar and was saved that day: March 20, 1997 and I was baptized April 20, 1997. My favorite verse is Psalms 56:3: "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee."

Being a young boy and growing up in this church, I was always taught that I needed to be saved. The thought never became reality until the Gospel got a hold of me and showed me that I was lost and convicted me of my sins that I needed to have something than just a belief in God. I needed to give my heart and soul unto God by believing in Jesus and accepting Him as my savior. One night in revival, or a series of meetings, God spoke to my heart. My thought was, "Does God really me? Is He talking to me?" Yes, He does. I received good counsel on what to do and what not to do and the moment I trusted in God instead of myself, He saved me and let me know I was secure with him - "SAVED".

After growing up in a Godly home and a good church where the Gospel was preached, I knew that someday I needed to get saved in order to go to Heaven and escape Hell. But when I was 12 years old, God spoke to my heart and those truths of Heaven and Hell became very real to me. The thoughts of going to Hell really scared me and God spoke to my heart on a Tuesday evening in a revival service at my church and I asked Him to save me from my heart and He did. The burden of sin and fear of Hell was lifted and I have been gloriously saved ever since.

I've never known a world that I didn't attend church. It was the most important thing my parents taught me to do. When I was 13, it became more than just a place I attended. That night, I felt like every word Larry Head preached went straight from his mouth to my heart. I remember altar call so vividly in my mind. Thinking I just wanted this empty and heavy feeling to go away. I can still hear all of those gathered around me pouring their hearts out on my behalf. When I asked God to save me, He immediately answered and lifted my burden and gave me eternity with Him. He is truly my Everything!

I was born and raise din the heart of Detroit, Michigan. My father worked on the railroad and had to work every Sunday. Mom would walk us to a little Baptist church a couple of blocks away. When us kids turned 11 years old, my folks moved to Lincoln Park where it was a much nicer and safer neighborhood. We started going to a much bigger church called Friendship Baptist on Southfield Highway. When I was 15 years old, my mom let me go to the Bible retreat which I loved and where I was saved in 1961.

Ever since I can remember, I have been raised in church and I truly thank the Lord for that. Salvation was a topic my family talked about often. I can vividly remember asking my dad about his salvation experience and he would always tell me the Lord spoke to him, and I, being young, would get frustrated because I would ask, "What did He say?" Dad would always respond with "I can't explain it, but you will just know when He speaks to you." One Sunday as an eight year old boy in July of 2012, I went to church like every other week. I can recall sitting in Debbie Jones' Sunday school class and the topic of salvation was brought up. She began to talk about salvation, then later gave her testimony. As an eight year old boy, it was the first time I can remember seriously considering salvation. After Sunday school, we began our worship service. Following the choir singing, it was requested that the youth group would sing. While sing "I Just Got Up," the Lord spoke to my heart for the very first time. I did not have to ask my mom or my dad who was speaking to me, even as an eight year old boy I knew it was the Lord! I realized then, for the first time, that I was lost and needed to be saved. After being under conviction for only a couple of minutes at most, I threw down my song book and went to the altar. Right then and there the Lord heard my heart, lifted my burden of sin, and saved my soul! I'm thankful that as soon as I took that first step of faith, He reached down further than I could reach up and saved me! I am so thankful for His saving grace and His mercy that He has had on my life.

I was not raised in church. My mother was a widow raising four kids, most of the time working two jobs. When I was nine, I met a new girl at school. I started going to church with her family. When I was sixteen, I was saved at Northend Baptist Church. I was then baptized in the Maumee River by her father Gus Davis and Jon S. Tye. I have remained friends with the Davis and Tye families. I thank them for sharing God and Jesus with me and showing me a Godly life. I thank them for the peace I have in my life to this day.

I was raised in a Methodist home. We attended Convoy United Methodist Church where my mother grew up. My grandma always sang in the choir, my mom taught Sunday school, and my dad was the Sunday school superintendent. We went every Sunday and I remember my mom telling me that if I didn't sing during the hymns, I wasn't allowed to go see my friends after church. Even my Grandma Baksa went to Paulding United Methodist church, and I remember when we would go visit her, she always had her Bible on the table next to her chair she always sat in if she wasn't reading it when we got there. My aunt Charlotte's husband, Harold, would ask me every now and then if I had accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior. When I was younger, I didn't really know what he meant. When I was 13, I started going through our confirmation classes at Convoy. Our pastor, Greg Leigh, grew up in Kentucky and had a lot of southern influence in how he ran the church and our services. He started teaching us about God and who He is and that He loved us and wanted to save us. We read the Bible exhaustively in those classes and I started to feel like I learned a lot about Him. It was after one of these classes that, while waiting for my dad to finish up counting the Sunday attendance and offering, I was just roaming around in the basement wasting time. There was no one else there at that point when, out of nowhere, I heard those words from Harold again about accepting Jesus Christ as my personal savior. In the basement hallway, I asked Jesus to come into my heart. I had the feeling of little doors in my heart opening and Jesus coming through. While I have failed God time and time again since that day, He has given me so much despite that and He has proved faithful time and time again.

Having been raised Methodist, I went through "Confirmation class" and was sprinkled at my church when I was 12 years old. Growing up, I thought I was good with God and was going to Heaven. I had no idea there was more to it than that until I met Ronnie and started dating him. While we dated, I asked Ron to go to church with me and he did, but he started to want me to go with him to his church also. I did, and it felt so different. I felt so much love there. I realized I was missing something and I wanted what these people had. It was the personal relationship with God that I was missing. After attending more at his church, God spoke to me at their Sunday night service and I accepted Christ as my savior. I felt so changed and had God's love in me and felt His peace and I knew I was going to Heaven. I love my church and thank God that he used Ron to meet me.

I was brought up in Church at a young age and my grandfather was a Pastor in Kentucky and I was saved at North End Baptist Church. It took me a number of years for me to accept theLord and be saved at the Northend Baptist Church. I was honored to be baptized by Pastor John S. Tye who was the same Pastor that had baptized my Mother. However, I let my life choices lead me away from the Church, because I started working full time and going to College. During this time I drifted away from the Church for a number of years but the Lord never left his place in my life. The Lord has a plan for all things and it just took one of his servant to lead me back to the Church. A man that I did not know walked into a hospital room and met with my Father when he was ill and helped bring him peace. This same man Preached at my Father’s funeral, and little did Pastor David McGregor know, but he hadspoken the words needed to lead me back to the Church. Never doubt that the Lord has a path and plan for all things if you would just listen and have Faith.

Being raised in church, I always knew that the most important thing in this life was being born again and having a personal relationship with Jesus and that it was required if I wanted to go to Heaven when I died. I also knew that the LORD must speak to my heart through the Gospel before I could be saved. On a Thursday night in 1981 during a revival service, for the first time I knew the LORD was dealing with my heart. Later that night, I bowed in the living room of my home and asked God to save me and HE DID!!!

Tyler and I starte dattending Athens in 2017 because we were looking for a church to be married in. David could've said no as we weren't living how we should've been, but he said yes. He just required that we go to one service and sith with him for marriage counseling. Our first sevice we attended was in August. Little did we know that we wouldn't ever leave. In September of 2017 on a Thursday night during a revival meeting preached by Terry Brock, I knew the Lord was speaking to my heart and that if I didn't move and get saved that night, I would die lost and go to Hell. My entire life changed that night. The Lord took away the desires that I used to have. Without the Lord, I truly don't know where I would be. His grace and mercy is so sweet. He loved me so much that He died for me. I love this life He has blessed me with down here but I can't wait until the day I get to see Jesus face to face.