The Journey - Winter 2009

Christmas Edition 2009 Inspirational Stories by People You Know See Page 17 for Restaurants Open On Thanksgiving!

The Question That Changed My Life

“B Photo by ASU Athletics/Keith Cline

Cortez Gilbert

Father To The Fatherless

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oving to North Carolina probably saved my life! At least when I think back on it and the path my life has taken that’s the way I see it now.

I was only six (6) years old, living in a rough part of Detroit when my mama stopped to get gas for our car. As she went to pay her bill, a man got into our car with

(Cont. on Pg. 3)

uzz, there is a question you need to answer. Where do the kids and I fit into your life?”

I was in my second year as head coach at Appalachian State University when my wife, Jan, laid that question on me. It was a question that changed my life. Nine years earlier as an assistant coach at App, I had set a goal for myself of becoming an NCAA head basketball coach by the age of 32. I had made it. Now my goal was to coach a major college team that could contend for an NCAA championship.

The only way I knew to get there was to outwork the competition. I was in my office or on the court from 7:00 in the morning till 11:00 every night.

My wife and kids were seeing very little of me.

Jan is my best friend and the backbone of my life so when she asked me that question, I knew I couldn’t blow it off.

With just a little bit of self- Photo by Coastal Carolina Athletics evaluation I realized I had made

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Coach Buzz Peterson

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(Continued From Front Page) a gun and asked me where my mama’s purse was. He got away with the purse. Not long after that, my mama decided then and there to move to North Carolina. Her sister lived in Fremont so that’s where we moved. I believe it wasn’t just to get away from Detroit, but so my mom could get some reinforcements to help in raising her three children of which I was the oldest.

To go from living in a drug infested, rough part of Detroit to a place where my aunt took me to church every Sunday was a welcome change. Hearing about God and His love made a strong impression on me.

Early on I began to play sports and I still remember how I felt when I saw the other kid’s parents come to their games.

It made me long for a Father like they had. I remember distinctly when I was twelve years old reading my Bible and seeing God described as a Father. At that very moment, I asked God if He would be a Father to me and something happened in my heart that changed me. As I watched my mom work to support us and go to college where she got, not one but two degrees, it inspired me. I got my work ethic and my passion to succeed and not give up from my mom. That’s what paved the way for me to get a scholarship to play football here at ASU. I wish I could say I stayed strong in my Christian faith when I came to ASU as a freshman, but that’s not what happened. I didn’t stop loving God, but I did stop serving Him. The party scene became a part of my life, but was an empty part. After doing that for a while, I realized in my heart this was not the path for me. It was at about this time that Coach Moore introduced me to a person who would offer me an opportunity that has brought real change in my life. The man’s name was Ricky Jimmerson and the opportunity was working as a counselor at a Summer Athletic Camp for inner city kids.

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The work I did at that camp that summer was rewarding and fulfilling. I saw kid’s lives who had come from rough neighborhoods like the one I came from change for the better. We taught them about the life of Christ through sports and we gave them the kind of positive role models that they needed.

As I invested in these kids’ lives I realized that the reason I could do this is because of the investments people had made in me. I’m grateful for my mom and my aunt and the Christian influence of the church she brought me to. I’m grateful to Coach Moore and to be playing on a team where many of the guys love God too. I’m grateful for the opportunity that Ricky Jimmerson gave me to be a counselor at this camp. And I’m particularly grateful to my mom who set an example for me to follow and for having the wisdom and courage to do what was best for the family.

Cortez Gilbert All-American Football Corner Back Appalachian State University

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Merry Christmas A-1 Vacuum Solutions.......................... 21 All American Hearing Center................26 App Insurance.........................................2 Appalachian Blinds and Closets.............14 Appalachian Brian Estates......................21 Appalachian Manufactured Stone..........26 Appalachian Music Shop........................13 Appalachian Party Rentals.......................9 At Your Wits End Vacation Rentals........29 Audiovision...........................................14 Austin & Barnes Funeral Home..............7 Beverly Guy Accounting........................27 Blue Ridge Air.......................................27 Blue Ridge Electric................................13 Blue Ridge Insurance Service.................24 Blue Ridge Mountain Rentals................26 Boone Rent-All........................................3 Burger King...........................................24 Castle Auto Repair.................................10 Closet Design Center.............................18 Community One Bank............................4 Cornerstone Christian Bookstore...........22 Dan’l Boone Inn....................................17 Deerfield Ridge Assisted Living ............3

From These

December 2009

High COuntry Businesses

Denton Insurance..................................1 Dogskin Automotive..............................8 Dr. Jeff W. Lineberry Dentistry............31 Dr. Pepper............................................11 Faithbridge United Methodist Church.10 Foggy Mountain Gem Mine................15 Full Circle Wealth Management...........29 Glenbridge Assisted Living..................16 Golden Corral......................................17 Goldsmith...........................................23 Grace Lutheran Church.......................23 Hampton Funeral Home.....................15 Hardee’s................................................7 The Heart............................................28 High Country Cabinets........................8 High Country Hospice........................27 High Country Signs............................25 High Country Stone............................20 Highland Landscape Supplies..............15 Howard’s Creek Baptist Church..........13 Incredible Toy Company.....................28 Jeff’s Plumbing....................................19 Jo-Lynn Enterprises, Inc......................28 Living Hope Ministries.......................30

Los Arcoiris..........................................6 Magic Video............................................7 Modern Toyota.....................................32 Mount Vernon Baptist Church..............19 Mountain Therapies & Foundations.......2 Mountain West Builders........................23 Mountaineer Insurance.........................24 Mountaineer Sheet Metal......................24 Mr. Original Gyros.................................6 My Free Dining.....................................17 Mystery Hill...........................................8 Nationwide Insurance- Andy Harkins...20 Nationwide Insurance- Park Terrel........19 New River Surveyors.............................21 Pet Place................................................11 Precision Cabinets.................................14 Precision Printing...................................5 Stick Boy Bread Company.....................15 Studio K Youth Ballet.............................5 Subway..................................................13 Sunlife Sunrooms..................................31 Watauga Building Supply......................13 What A Deal.........................................19

I love a good story! That’s why we take the time to find interesting people from all walks of life who are willing to share their stories through this publication.

As we enter into this Christmas Season, may your hearts be warmed by the love of God that each of these folks have experienced.

-Ben Cox, Owner Main Street Marketing

828-263-0095

MyFreeDining.com

(Continued From Front Page) basketball my god. My number one priority was basketball and somewhere down the list was my family and my relationship with God. I had grown up going to church regularly. I had known some very strong believers who both talked the talk and walked the walk while I was playing basketball at The University of North Carolina. And, I had married a woman whose faith is the anchor of her life. I had been exposed to the Christian life enough to know my priorities were out of order and that I needed help.

I decided to call on a local minister, Bud Russell, to lead me and the team in a Bible Study and we ended up studying a book by Patrick Morley called The Man in the Mirror. The book caused me to do just that – look at the man I saw in the mirror. But even more, I began to learn that my priorities in life needed to be God, first, then my family, and then my career.

I began to make significant changes but not everything straightened out over night. Instead of working in the office until late at night, I began to take work home.

That was an improvement but it still wasn’t what God and my family needed from me. Finally, I began to leave my work at the office so I could devote time to my family and being the spiritual leader of my home.

That year we went on to win 21 games and made it to the finals of the Southern Conference Tournament. The next year we also won 21 games and the following year we won 23 games and secured a berth in the NCAA tournament.

That was nine years ago. Since then I’ve chased the dream of being a big-time college basketball coach.

I’ve had success and I’ve had failure. Through it all my wife and my kids have stood by me. The last two years

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I have worked behind a desk for the Charlotte Bobcats, owned by my old college roommate, Michael Jordan.

While it was a great opportunity, there was something missing for me professionally. I realized that what I love to do, what I was made for, was to coach. While a big part of coaching is developing winning basketball teams, I have come to realize that the greater value for me personally is found in preparing young men for life.

I often think back on that day when Jan asked me the question that changed my life and I wonder, if she hadn’t put that challenge to me, where would I be now. It scares me to think where I might have ended up. Thankfully, I didn’t have to find out. I’m blessed with a relationship with a great God who loves me, a wife and three kids who mean everything to me and the joy and privilege of coaching basketball again at Appalachian State. I plan to work every day to keep my priorities in that order!

Buzz Peterson Head Basketball Coach Appalachian State University

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Sharing Mercy and Compassion

first got involved with Hope Pregnancy Resource Center when it was still Boone Crisis Pregnancy Center. I was a student at ASU and was touched by what I read in their newsletter. I knew Ann Cook, the director of the center at that time, so I offered my services as a volunteer.

Originally, I helped with office and clerical work but it wasn’t long before I was trained to do peer counseling with clients. That developed into an offer of a part-time job in abstinence education encouraging teens to make good choices. As my involvement with the center increased I became more and more interested in counseling clients. I love being a caring ear, taking the time to listen, and helping women make informed choices about their pregnancy or their lifestyle.

In 1999, I finished my MA in speech pathology and left the center for a while to pursue the career I had prepared for in college. I earned my license in speech pathology and I enjoyed working with kids who I grew to love. I did that for a year and a half but it turned out that God wasn’t through with me yet at the pregnancy center.

I was approached with an offer of a full time job as Client Services Director. It was such a hard decision to make. I loved and enjoyed speech pathology but I also had a heart for women dealing with pregnancy issues. As I prayed and studied the Bible, God seemed to be confirming in me that He wanted me to return to the center. The final confirmation came on a family vacation to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where we visited the National Memorial for the Unborn. We also had several mishaps and near accidents which made us think the devil didn’t want us to get back to Boone. The Lord had given me such a love for the pregnancy center and the women who need its services that I just had to take the job.

Throughout the process my parents were always supportive. They have encouraged me to be and do what God has prepared me to do. I accepted the Lord when I was 9 years old after a revival at our church, Brushy Fork Baptist, but it wasn’t until I went to college that I had to make my faith my own. Looking back I see where the Lord helped

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me make good choices. My dad told me once, “April, your testimony is that God has protected you from a lot of extra baggage in your life.”

A typical day for me at the center involves working with volunteers and carrying out some administrative responsibilities but what I really love is sitting down with young women who think they might be pregnant and helping them determine their situation. We talk about options. I try to answer their questions and walk them through the issues they are facing. Often the biggest issues are things like how to tell parents and what to do about finishing school and other concerns such as childcare, job, or housing. Then I introduce the client to our nurse who can perform an ultrasound if the pregnancy test is positive.

It is very rewarding work that fits well with the spiritual gifts of compassion and mercy that God has given me. When I look back on my life I see that God has been very compassionate with me. How could I not share that with others.

April Isaacs

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(866) 846-5603 Serving the High Country Since 1988

www.magichent.com

December 2009

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A Miraculous Change

hen I was 10 years old, my life and the lives of every one of my family members was radically changed for the better. It all happened because a church in the neighborhood where I lived reached out to my family with the love of God.

Before we moved to the neighborhood, my family was nominally involved in a Baptist Church.

Occasionally, we would go to church on a Sunday but it wasn’t something any of us took seriously. When we moved, we didn’t attend church at all, even though there was a church within 1/2 mile of our house.

At the time of our move, my father was a successful businessman. It was because of his business relationships that he began drinking socially. That social drinking led to full-fledged alcoholism which began to destroy the success he had built. Eventually, he lost his job, his car and we were behind on our house payments. It was in this very timeframe that the church down the road began to reach out to us.

One Sunday my mom looked at my older brother and me (he was 12 and I was 10) and said “Why don’t you boys ride your bikes down to that church.” We did just that and people of the church really showed love to us. Because of that we kept going back, until one Sunday my mom went with us. She was so moved by the love she felt there and the message she heard that she gave her heart to Christ that very Sunday.

When we got back home she told my dad what happened and encouraged him to come with her the next Sunday. He was somewhat defensive and said, “I joined a church when I was a boy. It didn’t do me any good then and it won’t now.” My mom tried to tell him that what had happened to her was real and had nothing to do with joining a church, but he wouldn’t listen. Yet, in spite of his belligerent attitude, the next Sunday he went to church with us. I’m guessing he went because he had seen a real change in mom.

When we left the church service that morning my dad was visibly angry. When my mom asked him what was going on he said, “That preacher talked to me like I was the only person there and I’m not putting up with that.” I remember him literally swearing to never go back to church. There were over 200 people in the service that morning, so it was ridiculous for my dad to think that the pastor had singled him out. Of course, I know now that it was the Holy Spirit who was dealing

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with my dad and drawing him to God because the very next Sunday he went to church with us again. That very Sunday my dad responded to the altar call and went to the front of the church to speak with and pray with someone about receiving Christ as His Lord and Savior. As my brother and I saw our dad go forward it made such an impression on us that we went forward too. I remember distinctly the man who explained salvation to me and led me in prayer to receive Christ as my Savior.

Since I’ve been involved in church work so long, I know that there are times when children or teens follow a buddy or an emotion to the altar and that whatever it is they experienced wears off. But I know something deep and profound and real happened to me that day. I remember that afternoon saying to my brother “I don’t know about you, but I feel so clean inside. It’s like I don’t even want to do some of the bad things we’ve been doing anymore.”

My brother agreed that he felt the same way.

Just a few weeks after that, my 8 year old sister got saved too and my whole family got baptized together. From that day on, things changed dramatically in my household.

My dad, who had been to rehab centers several times for his alcoholism, completely stopped drinking from the time he responded to that altar call. He got a new job in sales and quickly rose through the ranks of his company to become the Executive Vice President. He went from being a drunk to someone who made a sincere effort to honor God in all he did.

Though I didn’t know it at the time, I found out later that it took my dad 2 years to pay off his liquor bills. That’s in addition to paying off all the other debt we had run up. I knew then that when his life had turned around he made a decision to tithe no matter what. It made quite an impression on me to see what a tangible difference it made in a person’s life when they sincerely purposed to put God and His interests first. That example and the way God blessed and changed my whole family laid the foundation for my call to the ministry.

Experiencing the miraculous change God brought about in my family, motivates me to share that those miraculous changes are possible for anyone’s life, marriage or family.

Allan Blume, Pastor of Mt. Vernon Baptist Church

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Our Lord Has The Last Word

hen a friend asked me to describe the experience of raising a child with disabilities I thought of an article I read recently. It compared the anticipation of the birth of a child to planning a trip to an exotic destination like Italy only to find when the plane lands that you are in Holland. It’s not that Holland is a bad place – it has its own charms - it’s just a different place. The language is different. The sights are different. You meet different people who speak a different language. That’s my life raising Leah.

It all started on Mother’s Day weekend, just 2 weeks after my youngest son, Sam, was born. I was supposed to sing in church that Sunday morning but had to excuse myself because Leah, our 23 month old daughter, came down with a fever that ended up lasting 3 weeks. At first the doctors couldn’t find anything wrong. They treated her with antibiotics but she didn’t get better. Every day, it seemed, we were taking her to the hospital. After a couple of weeks, Leah was sent to Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem where they did a spinal tap to check for meningitis. The tests said there was none and we came back home to Boone where Leah continued to get worse.

She had a continuous fever that ranged from 100 to 103 degrees. The third week of her illness we were sent back to Baptist Hospital. Following an x-ray of her head, a shunt was

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inserted to relieve pressure. Leah was admitted and ended up staying there for 3 weeks. I was able to stay with my infant son, Sam, at the Ronald McDonald House nearby during that time.

What a wonderful blessing that place is.

During the whole ordeal Leah would often rub her cheeks right below her eyes. We never thought anything about it at the time. The doctors had told us Leah couldn’t have a sinus infection because sinuses aren’t fully developed in a child her age. We had no reason not to trust our doctors but it turned out they were wrong. She did have a sinus infection which was why she was rubbing her cheeks.

As it went untreated it grew and blew up into her brain causing meningitis and even some mini-strokes.

By the time the infection was cleared up, Leah had incurred serious, long-lasting damage to her health. At this point she was in a vegetative state. The doctors gave us no hope for improvement and advised that we institutionalize her. They said she would be this way for the rest of her life, but I still remember my mama saying to them, “Our Lord has the last word on that.”

There was no way my husband, Dana, and I were going to put Leah in an institution. If you know Dana, you know he was going to do something. He immediately began treating Leah himself with water-therapy in a warm water pool and we also had a professional therapist working with Leah.

And things did improve. Within only 10 days of bringing Leah home we were able to remove the feeding tube that doctors said Leah would need for the rest of her life. I began feeding her cream of wheat. After about a month she finally managed her first smile since she got sick. She began to recognize people once again and began to respond to stimuli.

At 4 years old we enrolled Leah in the Hardin Park center for exceptional children. This is another one of those blessings we would never have experienced if our lives had gone the way we had planned it. The people there were wonderful caregivers and teachers. Leah learned so much. She went from there to Watauga High School and since graduating from there has continued her education at Watauga Opportunities.

Leah still can’t care for her daily physical needs. She can’t walk, or talk or feed herself but she is just like anyone else in many ways. She is very aware and responsive to what goes on around her. There are people she likes and people she doesn’t.

Don’t talk to her like a baby or pat her on her cheeks unless you want to make her mad. She’s 25 years old and wants to be treated and spoken to like an adult.

I wouldn’t wish what we’ve been through on anyone. Raising a child with disabilities is very hard on a marriage and a family.

But I also know that we - my whole family - wouldn’t be the same people we are if not for Leah’s sickness. I don’t know how people who don’t believe in prayer make it through a crisis like we have gone through. It was the prayers of hundreds of caring family members and friends in this community that brought us through and still give us strength day by day. If not for those prayers who knows but that the doctors’ original prognosis might have been right. But like my mama said, “Our Lord has the last word.”

Martha Addison

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God Never Wastes An Experience

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s I look back over the events of my life I am amazed made sure I didn’t get too involved. at how God has used both the good and the bad I did well academically in high school considering my experiences in my life to prepare me for my work home life. After high school I worked for a year before in the ministry. In many ways my deciding to attend Appalachian State childhood is very similar to most University; maybe more so to leave the kids but there are also some unusual problems of life behind than to obtain circumstances that I encountered as an education. Once there I encountered well. Some of my earliest childhood more battles. My previous resolve to memories are of spending my summers avoid alcohol at all costs disappeared with my grandparents and taking care within about 5 or 6 weeks. The peer of my bedridden grandfather so my pressure to drink in order to fit in and grandmother could go to work. I had be accepted was just too strong for me days that were filled with typical maketo resist. I found myself engaging in the believe battles and wars but I also had very same horrible behavior that had some very real battles in life as well. haunted my childhood and life to that As the oldest child of alcoholic parents point. My drinking was pretty limited I had to step up and take care of my though, since I went home almost every younger sisters by doing things like weekend. walking them to and from school and After my parents divorced, finances preparing their meals. I had to make became limited and I had to pay my Joe London sure they had clothes to wear and lunch

own way through school therefore I money. I remember having to take care of home repairs, always had to work. My third year at App I took a job as a take teacher’s calls and even console my younger sisters in Resident Assistant in one of the dorms. The responsibilities trying and confusing times. I remember many nights that I developed as a child in a dysfunctional home were I put my mom to bed simply because she never made it developed even more as I took care of students on an entire that far. Eventually I began to realize that I had to do a lot hall. of things that other kids didn’t do. I sometimes felt like a Working and going to school meant I often couldn’t carry substitute parent. a full load of classes. My academic career stretched beyond Dad drove a truck so he was mostly gone during the 4 years. In the middle of my 5th year the university asked week. When he was home on the weekends he seemed to me to take over a Resident Director’s job, in charge of a remain under the influence of alcohol as well. My mom’s whole dorm. It was a good financial benefit but involved alcohol problem seemed worse because we had to encounter even more time and responsibility. Eventually I had to give and endure it more often. My parents loved us greatly, that up and I went to work full time for a local downtown took care of our needs and were just great overall parents business. I spent the next 15 years working at Boone Sports when they were not using alcohol but those times seemed Center during the week and mostly playing softball on the much less than when they were under the influence. When weekends. they were together and drinking they argued and fought, While at ASU I met and began dating my future wife, both physically and verbally. This made it hard to develop Mitzi. She was an even greater gift from God than I realized friendships. I was always afraid to have friends over at the time. She was a believer and had accepted Christ at because I never knew what might be going on. As I began an early age but had very little discipleship and was not to understand that my parents were alcoholics I tried to extremely mature in her faith yet. We were married in 1985 protect their reputation. I was ashamed of my own family. and about that time God began to put people in my life that I was embarrassed to have my mom come to my sporting “at that time” seemed to be the most annoying pests, but events. I often wondered why all this was happening to me. have proven to be some of the most influential people in my Seeing what alcohol did to them I was sure I would never so life and now are great friends. The biggest pest was Morris much as taste alcohol myself.

Critcher, or just “Critch” as most people know him. Mitzi During my early years there was no spiritual influence in and I bought the house next door to Critch and from the my life at all. It wasn’t until I was in about 6th or 7th grade very first day there he invited us to Howard’s Creek Baptist that I first rode a Salvation Army bus to Vacation Bible Church and did not stop until we finally visited. At the School or to Sunday School and even that influence was very same time a local pastor who had organized a downtown limited. My connection to this organization surfaced again businessmen’s Bible study would regularly come into the while doing a service project in high school which involved sports store to invite us to the study. He was a very godly me opening up their building for after school activities on man and seemed so nice but most of the time we would Tuesdays and Thursdays. I began to get to know some of run out the back of the store when he came in so as to avoid the church people. I even joined a band that would play at him. churches on Sunday nights and at youth rallies. Even so, I Meanwhile Critch remained persistent to invite us to

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(Cont. from Pg. 12) church. I was still too busy seeking happiness and all of life’s answers playing softball tournaments on weekends but Mitzi actually started going. I could see a difference in her life so one Sunday I agreed to go. I didn’t go back for a while but eventually I began to go regularly with Mitzi and after about 3 months I even started listening to what the preacher was saying. Then one Sunday at the end of the service I found myself walking to the front of the church. I didn’t understand what all was involved in being a Christian but by this time I was desperate for something and I told God, “God, I want more out of life. I don’t understand what this is about but I’m ready to try it your way.”

I became like a sponge. I soaked up all I could about God and His Son through the preaching and the Sunday School teaching at Howard’s Creek. Critch got me involved with RAs, a missions program for boys, at the church. There was no youth ministry at the time but somewhere along the way it was suggested that Mitzi and I do something with the kids. We started with only 4 but it grew quickly. It wasn’t long before I was offered a staff position working 10 hours a week as a youth minister. After about a year my job was increased to 20 hours a week. Another year or so went by and I was offered a full time position and was ordained.

I’ve been in youth ministry for 23 years now. I’m probably one of the longest serving youth ministers in North Carolina. I’ve seen a lot of great things happen by being

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December 2009 in one church that whole time. Who would have thought that Shelby boy with the alcoholic parents would end up a youth minister. But as I look back on my experiences raising my sisters, working at the Salvation Army, and being an RA and an RD at ASU I can see that God was preparing me for ministry with youth long before I was even a believer. From all the positive people, especially those at Howard’s Creek all the way back to the negative and trying experiences of childhood, I now see that God never wastes an experience.

Joe London, Youth Minister Howard’s Creek Baptist Church

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Uniquely Prepared

pecial Forces used to be known as the ‘quiet professionals’.

Back when I got started it was hard to recruit for SF because no one knew about it. Our main job was to train armies in other countries. A lot of people think of Rambo when they think of Special Forces but that hardly describes me.

After doing well in school while growing up in Wilkes County, I knew the only way my family could afford to send me to college was on a full scholarship so I applied for one through ROTC. The fact that I got that scholarship was something of a miracle. I remember being asked the question, “If you don’t get this scholarship, will you still go into ROTC?” I had to reply, “No”. The truth was that if I didn’t get the scholarship I would be limited to attending the local community college where there was no ROTC program. I didn’t figure that was the answer the recruiters wanted to hear but I must have impressed them with my honesty because I got the scholarship.

The next 4 years were spent at Campbell University. From there I went directly into the Army. This was the late 70’s, a time when there were lots of problems with drugs and alcohol in the Army. I wasn’t into that so it was a difficult time. As a

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consequence, I decided to pursue Special Forces. That was a much better fit. I got to lead a 12 man team of the best soldiers in the world.

It was while I was in the service that I met Terrie, who would later become my wife. After meeting her, I never dated anyone else again. We dated for 2 years, during which time I was often deployed for months at a time with absolutely no contact. I was in Morocco for 6 months, came home and proposed, left for 6 weeks in Texas, came home and gave Terrie a ring and then went back to Morocco or 6 more weeks. When I returned home the next time we got married.

My service in the armed forces has taken me to Egypt, Panama and Germany as well as posts here in the United States.

I tried to retire after 20 years as a Lt. Colonel but the army wasn’t ready to let me go. I ended up staying on for another 6 years so that when I did retire I did so as a full colonel. It turned out to be a very good thing because the higher pay grade has allowed me the financial freedom now to serve God with my time.

I’ve always been very active in church. I never went through a rebellious phase. I’ve never tasted alcohol in my life. I accepted the Lord at Vacation Bible School when I was 11 and was baptized but I think I did it as much out of tradition as anything. The real defining moment of my spiritual life came when I was 16 and was involved in a hunting accident that resulted in my best friend being killed. That experience caused me to turn to God. Only God could understand what I was going through. He was the only one I could talk to and my only source of comfort. I spent a lot of solitary time in prayer after that tragic accident. That was when my relationship with God became personal.

After that, even while stationed in other countries, I would find a local church where I could worship. During those times I have seen God work in people’s lives in amazing ways. In Panama, I saw a friend whose life was radically changed when he came to Christ. In Germany, a woman in our church called us for prayer. Her husband had tried to asphyxiate himself in his car but was unsuccessful. Afterwards, he turned to Christ and went from sad and gloomy to being totally committed to Christ. My greatest joy comes from seeing God work through people.

My background in Special Forces uniquely prepared me for international Christian relief. After retirement I applied to Samaritan’s Purse to provide help in emergencies. Shortly afterwards they called me to be head of security in Sudan. It was a perfect fit of experience and need. I spent a whole year on that assignment. After I returned to Boone, I was asked to set up a security program for all of SP’s projects. Finally, I am back to the original plan – to be involved in emergency relief, to be actively involved in my local church and to continue to experience the joy that comes from seeing God work through people.

Len Blevins

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A Visit From Jesus

thought I was gone – dead. I was headed home on the evening of January 5, 2008, when my boyfriend, who was driving my car, lost control and began to fishtail. We crashed and I was thrown 30 feet from the vehicle. I felt my neck break. That’s when I thought I was dead. I remember not being able to feel my body.

I remained conscious for a few moments before blacking out.

When I came to my dad was there.

He had heard about the accident on the scanner and was the first one to arrive. He even arrived before the first responders.

I was transported to Ashe Memorial Hospital and was then taken by helicopter to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. For 4 days I was in traction with screws in my head to keep me from moving my neck. The doctors told me I would be paralyzed for life, never being able to move anything from my neck down. That was a diagnosis I couldn’t accept.

After I got out of traction, while I was still in the hospital in Charlotte, I had a dream. In my dream I felt as if I was

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floating above my bed. There was a flash of light and then I saw the figure of a person. As the figure got closer I realized that it was Jesus. He wrapped his arms around me and told me that everything was going to be okay.

When I woke up I just cried but almost immediately within five minutes – I began to get some feeling back in my arms and legs.

I spent 2 weeks at Carolinas Medical Center before being transported to the Shepherd Center, a rehabilitation hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, specializing in spinal cord injury. At the Shepherd Center I spent 4 months in intensive therapy and I had several experiences of being visited by angels. These visits reinforced my confidence in Jesus’ words to me in my dream that everything was going to be okay.

I’ve been home for over a year now. I go to therapy in Lincoln County twice a week, I have regular exercises I do at home and just as Jesus promised, I continue to improve. The bone in my spine has grown back where it was crushed and it has been determined that my spinal cord was not actually severed but was compressed, instead. Now the doctors believe, with me, that someday I will walk again.

Since I grew up going to church every Sunday and Wednesday, my faith has always been strong and has been a very important part of my recovery. Before the accident I was in my freshman year at Walters State Community College in Morristown, Tennessee, where I was playing softball on an academic and athletic scholarship.

Obviously, the accident completely changed my life and while some might become angry or bitter or even lose faith, my faith is 50 times stronger than it was before. Not that I don’t have moments when I am in a bad mood or have feelings of anger or bitterness but I choose to focus on the positive. I am alive.

I am much more appreciative of my family now and value the time I get to spend with family members. Someone asked me if I ever get angry at God but I could never do that. I know God didn’t plan for this to happen to me.

God never wants his children to go through suffering. He knew that my accident would happen, though, and he prepared me for it. For instance, the athletic conditioning I received playing college softball strengthened me for the physical challenges I would face.

The way I see it, God has given me a second chance at life and that is something for which I am very thankful.

Tiffany Jones

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Second Class Citizen

rowing up my mom took me to church every Sunday and Wednesday but my dad very rarely came with us. My mom explained that my dad “didn’t believe in Jesus the same way we did.” Since that was the only thing I knew, it seemed normal to me at the time.

My dad owned an X-rated drivein movie theater. I guess that was strange enough, but then they sent me to a Christian school. Because of Dad’s reputation the other families kept our family at arm’s length.

On the surface things were fine but parents didn’t want their kids coming to our house and dads didn’t want their daughter dating me. I always felt like a second class citizen.

My experiences with Christians weren’t all bad, though. When I was in elementary school my dad moved out for a while. At the Baptist church I attended I was involved in a mission education program called RAs. It was during that time that some of the men who were RA leaders really stepped up and became good role models for me - like helping me with mission projects since my dad wasn’t around.

After about a year my mom and dad got back together. In spite of my dad’s line of work he wasn’t all bad.

He was actually very generous. I remember Dad taking food and Christmas gifts to a huge amount of less fortunate people and every time he did something like that he was adamant that it was anonymous.

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Dad also had a drug habit. Eventually his dependence on crack cocaine spun out of control and he ended up in rehab.

That was a turning point in his life, however, because that is where he became a Christian. Later, when he was helping with the prayer ministry at our church and he didn’t know where to start, he pulled out this really worn and tattered prayer card thinking, “This poor sap must need a lot of prayer.” When he discovered his name on the card with all these signatures he realized how much prayer had been lifted on his behalf.

At a youth retreat when I was a senior in high school I experienced what is often referred to as the “call to ministry”. After high school I went to Campbell University in Buies Creek.

My freshman year I was driving home to Shelby for fall break when God gave me a message to preach, outline and all. I knew I was supposed to preach this message but I argued with God about it because I didn’t have any place to preach. However, on the first day back on campus after the break I was asked if I would preach at an outreach team event 2 weeks later. I preached that message God mysteriously gave me. It was through that experience that my call was really confirmed. I knew I couldn’t do anything else.

During college I took a job at a local church doing youth ministry. Across the street from the church building was some low income housing. I found my previous experience of rejection at the hands of Christians influenced my view

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of ministry and I began to reach out to neighborhood kids across the street. That wasn’t very well received by the church members. Those weren’t the ‘right kind of kids.” Things got really tense and nasty and it wasn’t long before I moved on to another church, but not before this “insider-outsider notion was strongly reinforced.

I stayed at my second church for 7 years, through graduation, graduate school and marriage to my high school sweetheart, Felicia. This church was very supportive of my ministry to those often rejected by the church, and consequently, I felt liberated and empowered to push farther outside the walls of the church.

From there I went to a large church in Florida where I initiated a lot of ministry to kids who many would describe as punks and goths. It was here that I began to develop my ministry philosophy of taking the church outside the church building. We were reaching kids and young adults from all kinds of backgrounds through these home groups we started.

God then led me back to North Carolina, to Boone, where I started a church in which we hoped to build on the idea of decentralized home groups. Due to a number of mitigating circumstances it never really got going, certainly not sufficiently to support my family. Before long I needed a job and at the same time the North Carolina Baptist State Convention needed a Baptist Campus Ministries director at Appalachian State. I never had a real positive image of App State as a school or of campus ministry as a profession but God has a way of challenging your biases. I became the BCM director at ASU and disbanded the church I had started.

I never would have thought that a college campus would provide the fertile ground for my decentralized concept of church but that is exactly what happened. Today, Baptist Campus Ministry at ASU consists of a network of groups made up of “outsiders”, non-Christian students, Buddhists, Pagans, atheists, agnostics, Wiccans Jews and some really far-out people. They meet all over campus and are led by a multitude of student missionaries we train and send out.

New communities are starting up all the time. The concept of decentralized church I brought with me to Boone is alive and well on the ASU campus and the passion I have for those who have been made to feel like second class citizens has led to more opportunities for ministry than I could have ever imagined.

Jonathan Yarboro Director, Baptist Campus Ministries Appalachian State University

December 2009

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Finding Hope, Sharing Hope

never really knew my mother. She died when I was 2 years old. That set the stage for a rather unhappy childhood. When I was 11 years old, I began drinking to cope with the pain. There was a history of alcohol use in my family so it just seemed like the normal thing to do.

My cheerleading coach in high school was a Christian. She often invited me to church and I usually refused until one day I finally accepted an offer to go to a drama that was being presented. That was my first introduction to the hope that can be found in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

I was given a book called the “Book of Hope” which radically changed my life.

The “Book of Hope” is a harmonization of the four gospels telling the story of Jesus in a chronological sequence. Overnight I became a different person. I quit drinking.

I no longer went to the parties where alcohol was served. I even gravitated toward new friends.

As graduation preparations were being made toward the end of my senior year in high school, I was asked to sing a duet during the ceremony. My faith in Christ had become a vital part of my life so I asked our school principal if I could also say a prayer. I was told in no uncertain terms that I could not and that if I did pray at graduation I would not be allowed to graduate and that

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I would be arrested. Shortly afterwards, I even received a letter from the school district’s lawyers emphasizing that I was not to pray. It became quite a controversy. The American Civil Liberties Union got involved in the fight against my prayer and the American Center for Law and Justice became involved in the fight for my prayer. The topic was discussed all over school and was even debated in some classrooms. At that time my dad was even against me. He was embarrassed by the whole ordeal and said that if I prayed, my family wouldn’t come to the ceremony.

When graduation night came and it was time for me to get up and sing I said, “I’d like to say a prayer.” Immediately, my microphone was cut off. Everyone knew what was going on. Some shouted encouragement for me to go ahead and pray, which I did. Others shouted “No”.

Before long my mike came back on. After the prayer and song the principal got up and denounced me. She received a lot of boos for that.

And, as it turned out, my family did attend. After it was over my dad cried and said to me, “I’m so proud of you for standing up for what you believe.”

Two years later a speaker came to our church to talk about missions. I couldn’t resist the call and soon I was a 20 year old missionary taking the “Book of Hope” to children around the globe. For the first time in my life I witnessed real poverty and persecution. Over the next nine years I ministered in 35 countries in some of the most hopeless places in the world. I took the message of hope to children like Dennis in Uganda who had been abducted and forced to become a child soldier. And people like Vesa in Kosovo, a war-ravaged country of devastated towns and bombed-out buildings. I asked Vesa if she had read the “Book of Hope” we had given her the previous day. “Yes,” she said. “I couldn’t put it down. Jen, do you really believe that what is in this book is true? Why has no one ever told us before?” It was a heart-breaking question that I couldn’t answer. I could only tell her that we were there telling her now.

Our ministry literally took us around the world.

During the day we would speak at school assemblies and invite the children to an evening outreach event featuring testimonies, dramas and, of course, the “Book of Hope”.

Each week our message reached tens of thousands of people who had come to us without hope. In nine years on the field it is no exaggeration to say that I had the opportunity to touch the lives of millions of people.

Looking back on all my experiences, I am continually amazed at how God can take an ordinary small town girl like me and touch millions of lives. Someone helped me find hope when everything in my life seemed hopeless. The rest of my life is dedicated to sharing that hope with others.

Jen Smith

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Back To The Basics

y Dad worked for the N.C. Fish and Game Commission, so I learned early that the outdoors was “important”. It was a place of peace and refuge, especially for a little boy who lost his mother at five years of age.

Living in Alaska was Dad’s big dream. At one point he applied for a position there, but Mom developed cancer and died and the dream died too. However, my wife, Tracy and I leaped at the opportunity to go to Alaska. We packed up our two children and headed for adventure. Alaska was everything that we had hoped for. It was “outdoors” personified and we jumped in with both kids. We went back country camping, blueberry picking, prospecting, fishing creeks with grizzly bears, catching salmon, halibut and graylings hunting. It was the adventure of a lifetime.

We were so infatuated with Alaska. I’m sorry to say we put Christ on back burner. The architecture business was booming and money was flowing. We invested in a large house, property in a mountain side, a camper, cars and other toys. Life was great! But in the late 80’s, the economy in Alaska, went “belly up”. Basically, we lost everything in the process. Our whole lives were turned upside down.

About this time, my niece, Lisal, came to visit us.

Lisal was a seminary student who, on Sunday, wanted to go to church to worship. We didn’t even know where to find a church so we began to make inquiries. It seemed the “big” church in town started at 11:00 a.m., so Sunday found us lined up in a pew. Pastor John Tindall’s sermon was from the book of James. We were told to count it all joy when we encountered trials and hardships, because they would teach us endurance, steadfastness and patience. It wasn’t what I wanted to hear. I was desperately trying to solve financial, business and family problems. Yet, the harder I tried, the deeper in the hole we got and more depressed I became.

Anchorage is a relatively small town so you soon begin to recognize everyone. I knew most of the folks around town at least by face. One day we went into town for ice

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cream. I was mad at Tracy, mad at the kids and mad at the world. As we sat there in stoney silence, a stately, elegantly dressed older gentleman came into the store. Among men who wore bear claw necklaces, he definitely stood out. As he passed our table, he paused, looked at me and said, “Sir, you have a fine family here.” He then smiled and walked away. We had never seen him before and we never saw him again. We looked at each other and that was the turning point for us. The reality of what was really important sunk in.

I began looking to God for direction rather than trying to solve everything myself. Pastor Tindall had mentioned “heavenly nudges” in his sermon. Some of use needed a “heavenly hammer”. Everything changed: our relationship with each other, with the kids and with God. We got involved in church. I went to “Promise Keepers”. During the early 90’s I experienced the greatest explosion of spiritual growth in my entire life. I began to think about coming back to N.C., but we were literally so broke we couldn’t afford to come back.

For the next four or five years, we learned about the joys of a simple, quiet life and trusting God and enjoying one another.

When we recovered financially, we headed back to North Carolina.

The kids are grown now, but this past summer Tracy and I found ourselves once more caught up in the hustle and bustle of life. We knew we needed to go away and take stock of our lives, get quiet and seek direction. We got in our little Volkswagon camper and spent the month of July with our God getting back to basics. After all, isn’t that what Jesus did? He found a quiet place on a mountain top or beside a lake and talked everything over with His father. I can relate to that.

Economic crisis and world events don’t shake us anymore. We’ve seen what God is able and willing to do, so we just take a deep breath and relax.

Don Woodruff

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God’s Hand On Me

knew from the time I was 8 or 9 years old that God had his hand on me. My faith was developed in great part by my mom, who is a Christian, and as I was growing up she talked to me about God all the time. I can remember her telling me from time to time, “Marianne, God has plans for you.” So when, at 8 or 9, I had a dream in which I saw and had a conversation with an angel, it just confirmed that God had his hand on me and that I was being set apart for His purposes.

Then, when I was about 12 years old, I heard a sermon based on the prophet Ezekiel’s call. I remember very clearly the refrain that pastor repeated throughout the sermon, and I knew that God was speaking directly to me in that sermon. The preacher said over and over again, “Open your mouth and God will fill it.” I didn’t understand it at the time, but God was calling me to speak for Him. After graduating from high school in Charlotte, I went to North Carolina State University to prepare to be a math teacher. During the summer following my freshman year, I accepted a short-term missionary assignment from the United Methodist Church to go to Kenya. The Bishop of the Methodist Church in Kenya had arranged for me to work at a School for the Blind, but when I arrived I was told they couldn’t use me because I didn’t have any experience working with the blind. I

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was shocked because I was completely convinced God had led me to Kenya and all my expectations were blown to pieces. That night I prayed my guts out in the room they gave me to sleep in.

The next morning, I found out that I had slept in the dormitory of a Methodist seminary just around the corner from the School for the Blind, and it was suggested that I teach English writing skills to first year students in the seminary. I think that’s just what they came up with because they didn’t know what else to do with me. Later, I could see God’s real agenda – to disciple me through the forty future ministers in that seminary and to call me to the preaching ministry.

I grew tremendously in my faith that summer, as students there encouraged me to seek God as I never had before. Every morning and evening there was a chapel service and usually one of the seminary students would preach, and pretty soon the students began trying to get me to preach in chapel. At first I said, “No way,” but finally I agreed to give it a try. It was like a fish discovering water to swim in, or a person coming home who never realized they’d been away.

I found such joy in sharing a message from God that might mean something to those hearing it. Afterwards, several of the students said to me, “Marianne, we believe God is calling you to preach. We are going to pray that you will go to seminary.”

“Please, don’t!” I told them. I knew them well enough to know that if they prayed, it would happen, and I still had my own agenda for my life.

During the next 4 years, I kept trying to ignore God’s call. I completed my degree in math education and went on to teach briefly at the high school level, but every time I would think I had left behind my sense of call to ministry, God would send me a reminder. A former pastor would call and say, “You know Marianne, you really ought to consider seminary.” Or a fellow church member would say, “I’ve always thought that you have gifts for ministry.” One time the Assistant to the Bishop called me out of the blue to encourage me to consider becoming a pastor!

Around the time of my graduation from college, I was praying about my next step. After years of wrestling with the issue of teaching vs. ministry, I reached a point of frustration where the only way forward was to simply ask myself, “When I die, what will I wish I had done?” In that moment, I finally knew what my answer had to be. I knew if I didn’t go to seminary and at least explore my call, I would regret it. So, that’s what I did and I’ve never second guessed my decision; ministry is a great joy to me and God has brought fruit from my efforts.

Even though my mother was a churchgoer, that wasn’t true of my dad. He didn’t go to church with us. Somehow, someone had given him the idea that sinners didn’t belong in church and since he was a smoker and an alcoholic, he was convinced he shouldn’t go. My brother was a fairly active Christian until becoming disillusioned by the televangelist scandals of the 1980s. He became convinced that all preachers were only in it for the money. So, both my brother and my father, two of my three closest relationships growing up, were people who were on the outside of the church by their own decision, and this has fueled my passion for those who are excluded or who are on the fringes of the church. I believe God has called me to reach out to those who are “disconnected” from church; that is what FaithBridge United Methodist Church is all about and I am truly privileged to serve as pastor there. I believe it is to answer this call to reach out to the “disconnected” that God has had His hand on me.

Marianne Romanat, Pastor

FaithBridge United Methodist Church

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Looking For The Good In People

y first experience with controversy happened at the church I attended when I was growing up. Rumors surfaced, accusations were made and pretty soon the preacher was thrown out. As I watched the actions of the adults in that church I learned a valuable lesson from my parents that has guided me my whole life. Rather than join with those who threw out the preacher, I saw my parents offer him their friendship and forgiveness.

This was a pattern of looking for the good in people that I saw over and over again in the lives of my parents.

Later, when I entered high school, the baseball coach encouraged me to try out and I was fortunate enough to make the varsity team as a pitcher. This coach had a lot of positive influence on me. He is the reason I am in education today.

Unfortunately, once again the rumor mill started turning, accusations of inappropriate conduct were made and the coach lost his job. And once again, I saw my dad offer friendship and forgiveness. In fact, my dad even gave my coach a job. He was always looking for the good in people.

What I have found is that forgiveness sets the foundation for working in education. As the principal of Green Valley Elementary School, I often have to deal with children, parents and teachers that are upset. Sometimes they are even very mad. If I didn’t have my Christian faith to guide me in dealing with people, I’d probably go around reacting to everyone else’s anger. Instead, I try to follow the principles of forgiveness my dad demonstrated. I try to look for the good in people. When confronted by an angry parent or teacher I try to put aside the urge to blame someone and instead try to focus on solutions.

The hardest time to do that is when I see children being mistreated or neglected by the adults in their lives. When that happens I ask myself the question, “Who is going to step up?

Who is going to help? Who is going to put something in place to keep the mistreatment or neglect from happening again?” I like to be a part of the solution.

The reward comes when you can see that you are being a positive influence on those around you. In 1999, I was in my first year as a principal at Trenton Elementary School down near the coast. That was the year Hurricane Floyd hit

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the North Carolina coast causing massive flooding. Our school was inundated with eight inches of water resulting in us being closed for three weeks. Many of the families in the community were wiped out. We learned from that what it meant to deal with disaster.

The next spring we heard about a school in Georgia that was devastated by a tornado.

Since we had just dealt with a similar hardship our school decided to do what we could to help those folks in Georgia. We encouraged people in our school and community to give what they could and they responded. I remember very vividly one little girl named Annette. One day as we were collecting money, Annette came to me and gave me a little ring box with 46 pennies in it. It was probably all she had.

I’d like to think that I played some part in the beauty of little Annette’s action. She has since gone into social work and I would like to think that I had some influence on her life, much as my high school baseball coach had on mine. As a reminder of the goodness in people’s hearts, I kept the ring box Annette gave me. It sits on the desk in my office at Green Valley so that everyday I can look at it and remember to look for the good in people.

Phillip Griffin, Principal Green Valley Elementary School

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I Am Home

never really felt like I had some place to call home. My dad was an officer in the Air Force so we moved around a lot. I was born in Hawaii and lived in Washington, DC, Norway, Germany, and Alabama - all by the 5th grade. That was when my dad retired and we moved to Charlotte. I loved adventure and loved moving but this was different. I had always lived within the safety and security of a military base. The idea of living outside the fences was scary. In Charlotte, I always felt like the new kid, the outsider. My junior high years were the first years of forced busing in Charlotte which produced riots and fighting. Survival became the goal. I coped by skipping school a lot. I began drinking and got involved in sex, drugs and rock and roll, as they say. When I was in the 11th grade I transferred to a private school to get a fresh start, but I found a way to get involved in the same old stuff. I learned to manipulate people and situations to stay out of trouble.

My family became members of Providence United Methodist Church in Charlotte but because of my worldview, I never heard or responded to the name of Jesus. To my knowledge the military had chapel but no Sunday School. The people in my extended family are good, fine people but Jesus was not a part of our everyday life other than praying at meals and going to church on Sunday.

After high school I went to UNCG for a year before transferring to ASU. I have always loved the mountains, camping and hiking and I wanted to ski so ASU was a logical place to go to school, but unfortunately my old habits followed me to App. I skipped most classes but somehow managed to pass and get a teaching certificate.

From there I decided to go out west. I spent a year in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado where I continued to make bad decisions. I supported myself and my wild living by teaching skiing and waiting tables. I had no car and no money. After a year I decided to come back to North Carolina. I missed the colors and the seasons. I was also thinking it was time to settle

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down, marry and have a family.

A year later I was married to a guy whose family I had known through high school. We had 2 children and stayed together 13 years, but I grew restless once again and looked for another geographic cure for my unsettled soul. I called my mom and asked if the kids and I could move in with her and dad. I had stayed clean while married but when I moved back home I drifted back into my old habits of partying.

All this while I tried different churches looking for something that would make some sense of my life but I never found it.

After a year and a half at home I found an apartment. In an apartment near mine there was a man I couldn’t help but notice. He also had two kids and was going through a divorce but there was something very different about him. Even though they were separated, he and his wife were always nice to each other and were always looking out for the best interests of the kids. He went to church every Sunday, even when he didn’t have his kids with him. That was baffling to me.

We struck up a friendship that developed into hours and hours of talking. Our kids played together and we kept each other’s kids when necessary. He talked a lot about his beliefs and his trust in God. All the while he was always so respectful of me. He never condemned me or belittled me. I had never been treated like that before. Slowly our friendship developed into more but Jeff was clear that he could not marry a non-believer.

He invited me to the Singles Sunday School Class at his church. The people were so nice and I liked it so much I kept going back. Then one day at the end of the worship service I found myself going down to the altar where I gave my life to Christ. The change in my life since that day has been amazing.

My habits, my decision making and even my language are all radically different.

Jeff and I were married in 1996. Everything was perfect, except I still just was not a city girl. One day Jeff learned of a job opportunity in his field at Samaritan’s Purse in Boone.

He applied, interviewed and got the job. We moved to Boone and bought a house. I remember very clearly the first day I stepped out onto the deck of my new home in the mountains.

God placed us here in His amazing grace and goodness. How crazy is it that after the lifestyle I chose and the wreck I left along the way, that Jesus gave me all of this? He gave me His life first and then gave me a home in the mountains, a beautiful marriage and family and gave Jeff and I jobs that are after our own hearts. He also gave me the full knowledge that it isn’t about living here, or our great friendship and marriage or anything else but an ongoing love relationship with Him who first loved us while we were yet sinners. AMEN! I could finally say for the first time in my life, “I am home.”

Medora Hoskins

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