Episode 2 Faith, Love, and the Unexpected

We delved into our personal testimonies, sharing the moments that led us to a true relationship with God. These powerful stories highlight the importance of personal faith and invite listeners to reflect on their journeys. 

• Sharing experiences of loss as a catalyst for testimony 
• Calvin's early struggles and church community support 
• Realization of needing a personal relationship with Christ 
• Holli's growth as a pastor's daughter and her own conviction 
• The transformative power of accepting Christ 
• Reflections on shifting from earthly desires to serving God 
• The urgency of being ready for life’s uncertainties 
• Encouragement to listeners to share their own faith journeys

SHARECROPPERS COFFEE ON FACEBOOK

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100072208428425

Music from #InAudio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5NgiN3KLb4

Transcript

Testimony of Salvation

Speaker 1 0:34

Hello everyone and welcome back to our Running on Coffee in Christ podcast. We are so excited to have you here that you've decided to join us and listen to what we have to say, and today we were really contemplating on what we were going to specifically talk about in today's episode, and we have a list of things written down that we feel like God's laid on our hearts to talk about for the next few months. We really felt like we just needed to share our testimony of salvation tonight. It's tonight for us, because we're recording this pretty late. That is, the most important thing in our life is our relationship with God.

Speaker 1 1:16

We feel like we just need to make sure that you know why. You know why we trust Jesus as our Savior and when it happened for us and that was really made evident tonight when we received really devastating news about someone close to us that lost someone very important to them and our hearts are just hurting for them, and it was somebody really young, and it's like you know what? Yes, we, we need to share our testimony. We don't know when it's going to be our last breath on earth and death is not a respecter of persons, and so we need to make sure that we're ready. You know we need to be ready at whatever time. That it's our time.

Speaker 2 1:57

That's right.

Speaker 1 1:58

So, um, we really wanted to share our testimony with you guys and, hopefully, throughout the uh, the longevity of this podcast, we would love to hear you share yours with us as well. So, calvin, do you want to lead off and share your testimony?

Speaker 2 2:14

Certainly, certainly. I'd love to Um. So my testimony is actually um a situation that a lot of people don't ever want to be stuck with. When I was a young child, we moved to Alabama when I was in first grade. I kind of jumped around a little bit before that when I was in diapers, but we wound up here and I'm thankful to be here. For sure my life wouldn't be the same if I wasn't. But, that being said, when we moved to Alabama I was first grade and I had two older siblings and one younger sibling, and my father and mother actually got a divorce when I was in first grade. So that's a common story for a lot of people nowadays. You know when, when, when over half of marriage is ending in divorce.

Speaker 2 2:56

But we were left here to kind of fend for ourselves and my mother didn't have any education past high school, working a minimum wage job, and she really depended a lot on the community for support. So we grew up very poor. We had to really let the dollars stretch as much as it possibly could with the powdered milk and the mixed cereals and really letting things stretch. But, that being said, my mother did have a relationship with God, um, and I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for that. That she did keep us in church. She kept us, um in church every time that the doors were open. We went to every event that we possibly could, so I had a lot of father figures in the church itself. So it really taught me a lot of work ethics. You would have me go and work with them in the fields for things and and do things. Whenever the men of the church were doing something, building something or going somewhere, I was with them. Um, so I am thankful for that. Yeah, uh, so I grew up in the church. Uh, a lot, a lot of the, a lot of the.

Speaker 2 3:51

My experiences at any young age, um, revolved around things in the church, whether it was mission trips or vacation Bible schools, where you go during the summer for an entire week and it's just Jesus, jesus, jesus, fun, fun, fun. So as a young child, the church was really my place where I felt the most connected, where I felt the most included, and so it felt natural to do kind of whatever the church was doing. It felt comfortable that way. I wasn't wanting to really step out of line and really um try to do my own thing per se, but when there was some other younger kids that were getting saved at a young age maybe when I was maybe in third grade, fourth grade or so where they would say, do you want to accept the Lord as your savior?

Speaker 2 4:36

And they were like, yeah, I want to, I want to. And I was like, well, I'm just going to do what other people in the church are doing. This is what they're doing. I'm supposed to do this. So so I did it and and I said it, and I got baptized and and I thought I was just doing what I was supposed to do, you know, and and I didn't really realize what I was doing. I was just going through the motions that the church was kind of providing for me.

Speaker 1 4:56

You didn't want to be left out.

Speaker 2 4:57

I didn't want to be left out. I wanted to be involved and I wanted to be there because these are the people who really cared for me, you know, like I knew that they had my best interest at their heart and my family, like they provided so much for us when it comes to our came to our needs and our emotional support during that time. So I wanted to be there. But it wasn't actually until I was a senior in high school where I had really been struggling with understanding that I didn't have a relationship with Christ at all. My relationship with him was completely built on the relationship that other people had with him and me, just kind of understanding what they had, and I was really under conviction for a while that I was not living the life that I needed to live.

Speaker 2 5:41

I had other people who I was mentoring. I was going on mission trips and I was really doing the ministry of the church singing in front of the church, doing quartets in the choir and really doing what I was expected to do as a proper Christian. But I didn't have a relationship and it was during one youth event where we had an outside minister that came in and was really presenting the gospel hard and heavy, because he wanted us to understand that it wasn't about what you did for God, but it's what God did for you. It was about a relationship and us allowing him to be a part of our life, to try to bring us back into that relationship with him, the way he originally designed it, you know. And so when I actually gave my life to Christ, it was a unique situation because I grew up in a large youth group. I know I think your youth groups growing up was, you know, maybe 10 people or less or so.

Speaker 2 6:34

I was around a youth group that was a hundred plus, so it was a lot of people. So we were in this building that probably only held about 100 people in the old sanctuary. We were there and it only held probably about 100 people, so it was packed. And I remember I was holding on to that pew in front of me and I was like I knew I needed to change, I knew I needed to actually give my life to Christ and God was basically telling me in my mind, you know, like now is the time, or else I'm going to give you over to the world Does that make sense yeah.

Speaker 2 7:05

I really felt like God was saying it's now or never, because I had a lot of situations that were drawing me away and my desires of the flesh and of my young manness, I guess you could call it was drawing me towards other things, even though I knew, because I was part of the church, I shouldn't be doing, but I didn't actually have a spiritual conviction of not doing them.

Speaker 2 7:28

I just knew it wasn't the right thing and but I said, okay, god, I'll give my life to you. But I was so afraid of my situation that I didn't want to go, because there was people on both sides of me and I told God. I said, god, you know, if you'll just make a way for me, then I'll give my heart to you. And I gave him conditions. I said, god, if you do this for me, I'll do this for you. You know, and that's looking back on him like you were really pushing it there, buddy, but uh, but God was gracious, he was, and the person that was in front of me, they went down to the altar and the person that was in front of them, they went down to altar and I could see the altar. At that point I could see straight line of sight to the altar.

Speaker 2 8:09

And at this point I had been dabbling in the running sports. I had never done anything athletic in my life. The year before that I was like I'm going to just do some running, I'm going to run the mile. And here we go. And I was like that didn't work for me that well. And I was like so I'm going to try the hurdles this year. Well, I've been practicing the hurdles and kind of teaching myself some of the techniques and things Well.

Speaker 2 8:30

I reached this point where God was like you know what? You thought that you were running hurdles to be able to do something athletic, but I was teaching you that it doesn't matter what's in front of you. You can conquer it and you can go over it If you put your heart and your mind to it I can preach today.

Speaker 1 8:45

I mean right, yeah, a hundred percent.

Weight of Burden Lifted Through Relationship

Speaker 2 8:46

So God was like okay, buddy, this is why you've been training in the hurdles and my long legs had no excuse to not climb over those pews and hit that altar hard and give my heart to Jesus Christ. I am so thankful that God made a way when I had every excuse in the world to not accept him.

Speaker 1 9:09

Yeah.

Speaker 2 9:10

I had. I had a bright future of experiencing the world and having fun and being with my friends and and doing all the things that I selfishly wanted to do. Um, but he made a way for me to actually experience peace and joy and have in a way that never before.

Speaker 1 9:29

I remember those things.

Speaker 2 9:31

No, they cannot. And I distinctively remember how heavy the weight of of my, of my flesh, was upon me. It was like the story of the Pilgrim's Progress, where he's carrying this pack on his back. And we even did some with a youth group one time where we acted out the Pilgrim's Progress and I distinctively remember, like when I gave my heart to God. It was like this burden was lifted off my shoulders. It was like my back, my spine, was decompressed until I gave my heart to the Lord and I actually said, god, I want to have a relationship with you and I believe that you died for my sins. You were that perfect sacrifice and I accepted that and the burden that was relieved of me. It's like nothing I could ever explain. I couldn't even explain it to someone who has never experienced that. But I believe that everyone who actually is saved has that same kind of testimony of that burden being relieved, your hopes and dreams, and did they shift that day?

Speaker 2 10:22

oh 100 yeah 100. It was like I saw purpose in life because I was a duty bound to have purpose, but but when I accepted christ as my savior, it's like I wanted to serve him, and he showed me that there's so much more to service than doing what the church said to do.

Speaker 1 10:43

Oh yes. You know not that what the church says to do is bad. No, the church has a purpose.

Speaker 2 10:48

It has a purpose in its direction that is, trying to move the cause of Christ forward. But your specific role in that church you can fall in line and do and help other people with their ministries and also identify it as your ministry.

Speaker 1 11:01

Yeah.

Speaker 2 11:01

But you're doing, helping other people do their ministries.

Speaker 1 11:04

But what?

Speaker 2 11:04

is your specific ministry. I didn't feel like I had a purpose until I actually had a relationship with Christ.

Speaker 1 11:09

That's right and I'm so thankful for that, because he does give us purpose. Yeah.

Speaker 2 11:12

And so that actually happened when I was like, uh, when I was a senior already in school, I went from first grade to a senior, um, being heavily involved in the church but never actually having a relationship with Christ.

Speaker 1 11:25

Thank you, Lord, that you know nothing happened to you during that time.

Speaker 2 11:28

I know, because I knew, you know, for a while there that I actually didn't have a relationship and it was pride that kept me from it sometimes too, because I had told so many people that I was saved that if I went back on it now that I'd be considered a liar.

Speaker 1 11:41

Shame.

Speaker 2 11:42

Yeah, and.

Speaker 1 11:42

Satan always tries to bind us with shame.

Speaker 2 11:49

He does, he tries to hold us down and say you're not worthy because you have lied to these people so many times. And I actually had one of the young guys in the youth group come up to me and actually told me after I uh, after I got saved that night cause we went back to some of the parents in the church's houses and spent the night with all the guys around your same age group and I went back and this young guy came up to me and he said you know, like it shocked me that you weren't already saved.

Speaker 2 12:10

He said but I have so much more respect for you now. And this is a young guy, he's, like you know, three years my junior, and I'm like whoa, I'm like he's, he's talking, talking big to me, you know.

Speaker 2 12:23

And he was like but I have so much more respect for you because I understand how difficult that was for you to admit and I was like he's a, he's got wisdom beyond his years you know and I look back on him like it did it did take courage to to actually do something that would cause people potentially to think bad of you, because up until that point I was saved but, I, wasn't right.

Speaker 1 12:45

I didn't have a relationship and that's what it all comes down to. Is that relationship. You know, I um going to my testimony, if that's okay. Um, I grew up in church my whole life. My dad's a pastor and I believe he started pastoring our church. Not only is my dad a pastor of our church, but my dad founded our church and he had been a deacon, in which my dad had led a non-Christian life, and I think he was. Maybe it was early 20s when he accepted Christ as his Savior and he got into church, him and my mom. Both they became hard workers in the church and my dad eventually became a deacon in the Baptist church.

Speaker 1 13:33

Because he did like prison ministry and stuff like that before he was actually a pastor, like my dad, did a complete 180 when he accepted jesus as his savior and maybe one day he'll get to share his testimony on here. But um, fast forward. He became a deacon and so he was in leadership and there were things that were honestly that were going on in the church that he didn't necessarily agree with. He didn't feel like they lined up with the word of God and there wasn't like a lot of nyan-yan going on, because that can happen in church, that can happen anywhere.

Speaker 1 14:07

I think my dad was just like taking a step back and being like you know what is my ministry, what am I supposed to be doing? And not just wanting to follow a certain, I guess, doctrine on paper. You know how are we actually being the hands and feet of Jesus? So that's really how our church got started. But I was two when that happened. But I can remember because this is weird, I have memories from when I was two.

Speaker 2 14:34

And there's no way I can remember anything I do.

Speaker 1 14:36

I remember a specific house that we lived in and I remember lightning striking it and my family has confirmed that that happened.

Speaker 1 14:47

I can remember specific details of that day and I can remember having our church service, our first church service, and we had just gotten a new home, the home that I grew up in, and I remember it and I was two, yeah, so I say all that to let you know that my background is constantly being in church ministry and my parents lived godly lives. They still do they're not perfect people, by no means, but what they lived at church is what they lived at home we had. They were strict, but also not, you know, we had certain standards and guidelines that we went by in our home that lined up with God's word and but me and my sister, we grew up in a very blessed home, happy home. My dad was always bivocational. He worked on cars and I loved going to work with him and most of my growing up he worked for other people. My dad didn't really start his own full-out business where he walked away completely from others until—.

Speaker 2 15:57

Until after we were together Sure.

Speaker 1 16:02

But he had really built up his reputation by then and had done a lot of side work. But in all of that he was a pastor too. So I saw my dad work really hard and my mom as well like my mom worked, and she was always a very supportive pastor's wife.

Speaker 1 16:15

And being a pastor's wife is really hard and not being a pastor's kid is really hard too, but you know a lot of expectations there is, and a lot of times your dad is gone, you know, especially if he's working all day and then he's going to minister people at night, like or inviting people to church or, uh you know, just visiting the sick or going to funerals. I I went to so many funerals with my dad because I just wanted to be with him, and so I was exposed to death at a very young age. It never creeped me out, I didn't love it or anything like in a weird way either, but I saw my dad with a compassionate heart and I've seen him preach over little babies and I've seen him preach over people that he didn't know if they had gone to heaven or not. And so I was exposed to all of that. And growing up I sang in church.

Speaker 1 17:12

I was always a loud singer and loved to sing, went to Sunday school, of course we were there Sunday morning, sunday night, wednesday night and everything to sing. Went to Sunday school, you know, of course we were there Sunday morning, sunday night, wednesday night, and everything in between, and it was good, you know it was good. But I would say when I got around 14 years old, I really started feeling a lot of conviction, and the conviction hit me in the way of fear, and the only way that I can best describe it is that line in Amazing Grace, the second verse. It says "'Twas grace that taught my heart" to fear, and I leaned on that so much because that is how God got my attention. Grace did cause my heart to fear, but it also relieved my fears. So and this is kind of funny but around that time it's starting to get around where it's going to be like Y2K.

Speaker 2 18:11

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 18:12

Yeah, and people were talking, you know 2000 your water pills, get your bottles. Oh yeah, and you know, like when the clock turns over like it's going to be the end of the world all the computers.

Speaker 1 18:20

There was a lot of end of the world talk going on, yeah, and so that was in my mind all the time too. Um, nobody knew this, but I would be laying in bed, I couldn't sleep. I would constantly go and check to see if my parents were still in their bed or if they were in the living room um, you know, watching tv. They had no idea that. And this went on for about a good year and I just finally, I was like I can't do this anymore, like I'm, of sitting laying here and my stomach hurting so bad, because I was so nervous and so fearful that he was going to come back, that I was going to be left behind, that I was going to be separated from him, that I was going to be separated from my family.

Speaker 1 19:04

And I remember walking, getting up out of my bedroom. I had a little twin size bed. I can see the bedding, the decor, everything in there. I can see that room. And I remember going downstairs and telling my parents. I was like I was crying and I said I'm not saved and I want to be. And my dad's like what? Okay?

Journey to Personal Relationship With God

Speaker 2 19:22

Yes, you know.

Speaker 1 19:23

And there was no okay, and now thinking about that, my dad wasn't like what.

Speaker 1 19:28

You're not already, you know, no, it was like okay, and so they came back to my bedroom and we prayed. My dad didn't pray for me. I prayed and I asked Jesus to come into my heart, and what I mean by that is that I confessed that Jesus was my Lord and Savior, and I wanted him to be the king of my heart, and I wanted him to be what guided every decision that I made from then on. At that point, I was 15 years old, so I had gone a really long time in church life, living a lot as well, and maybe unknowingly for a little while, but, yeah, I didn't have a personal relationship with him.

Speaker 1 20:11

Yeah, I didn't have a personal relationship with him. I never thought that my salvation or my confidence in my salvation came from my parents, that because my dad's a pastor, I'm going to go to heaven, or because my mom plays the piano and is a Sunday school teacher that I'm going to go to heaven. I never thought that, because I was not brought up even to believe that, so I never was high and mighty in thinking that I already had a place there. I think I was just going through the motions, though, and realizing that I needed my own relationship with Him, that my relationship with Him wasn't contingent on what my parents' relationship was with Him.

Speaker 1 20:49

Just because my dad's saved and loves the Lord and lives for Him. Or just because my mom is saved and loves the Lord and lives for him, or just because my mom is saved and loves the Lord and lives for him doesn't mean that I'm saved and that I love the Lord and that I'm living for him. And I realized that I wasn't completely living for him. You know, he wasn't the first thing that I thought of when I got up in the morning or the last thing that I thought of when I went to sleep and you know to say that you still don't struggle, even though you have a relationship with him.

Speaker 2 21:15

There's still days where you wake up and your life is busy and things happen and it gets away from you and you're like, wow, I haven't asked the Lord to help me yet today. And it kind of causes you to pause and reflect and it doesn't make you question your salvation, but it makes you reaffirm your desire to to have a relationship with him. It's like I'm I'm, I can be better, I can be closer.

Speaker 1 21:44

I think before before salvation.

Speaker 2 21:44

I think, like reading my Bible and praying, was more of a checklist and like after, after having a relationship with him.

Speaker 1 21:48

It was a yearning of I want to communicate with him. And I would say in the last year of actually, because last year I read the Bible through for the first time ever and I was a little ashamed of that that that was the first time. I mean, when you think about even that I got saved at 15 years old and I'm 39 years old now and I've just now read through the entire Bible Because you're growing. It's like once you get saved, you're not just like oh, I know everything, I have all this godly wisdom, you know no, and you go through struggles in life and we've gone through so many struggles together as a married couple. You know that bring us closer and closer to him and relationship to him. And I'm so thankful that he put me under conviction. I'm so thankful for that fear that I felt and I'm so thankful that he put me under conviction. I'm so thankful for that fear that I felt.

Speaker 1 22:35

And I'm so thankful for the fear that I no longer feel.

Speaker 2 22:40

That's right. It's like the burden being lifted off of you in the form of peace.

Speaker 1 22:44

It was like something was taking my heart and squeezing it and it burned inside of my chest. And as soon as I released all of that to him, I felt so much better and I slept. And I have slept well every night since then, except when I had my children in there waking me up to be fed.

Speaker 2 23:03

But you know what I mean. That's normal human life.

Speaker 1 23:05

Right but.

Speaker 2 23:08

I never, really until just recently, when we were talking about this. I never put the timeline together about the age that you were when you got saved versus the age I was when I got saved, and then fast forward to the point where I felt like I was ready to meet. I was desiring to meet the one that God had for me. Yes, at the point when I started praying not for a person or for a companion, but praying that God would prepare the heart of the young lady that God had in store for me to work on her, because I knew that he would need her to be in a position to where she was ready to meet me.

Speaker 1 23:53

So I really want you to think about this too, because I believe that he would need her to be in a position to where she was ready to meet me. So I really want you to think about this too, because I believe you got saved in. I'm 99.9% sure that we got saved the same year, okay.

Speaker 2 24:04

Okay.

Speaker 1 24:05

I do believe you got saved in March. March 17th and I got saved in April. So if you started praying for God to prepare the heart of the person that you were going to marry and then I got saved the next month, We'd have to really sit down with a calendar and try to do this.

Speaker 2 24:28

No, I really think that this is how it happened, yes, and I just see his.

Speaker 1 24:32

I've always seen the fingerprints of him, all over our relationship anyway.

Speaker 2 24:37

Because you had puppy love.

Speaker 1 24:38

I did.

Speaker 2 24:39

You had relationships with other people in school where you actually dated and stuff and had boyfriends.

Speaker 1 24:45

And had a little heartbreak. Yeah, I did.

Speaker 2 24:48

And I had a few dates and stuff like that that I had dabbled, but I never really felt like there was a draw or a connection with anyone and I never felt the need to continue trying to date and trying to go out with someone. Uh, if, if I didn't feel like it was going to be the, the forever you know, I was always.

Speaker 1 25:02

I was brought up to that. You know I saved myself for my husband. Uh, that was important to me, that I wanted to have um all of you to give.

Speaker 2 25:13

That's the way.

Speaker 1 25:14

I want it, yes, and a righteous relationship Once again. Not perfect people, but that was my desire, and I wanted that for my husband too, and I remember having my heart broken so bad and I remember my mom was sitting in a rocking chair and she's listening to me and she has wisdom that I don't have, obviously, at that time, and she knows that I'm going to be okay, you know. But I remember laying my head in her lap and that wasn't something that I did all the time or anything and I was crying really hard and I said I don't want to date anymore, like I just want to find my husband. I want to find the person that I'm supposed to be with for the rest of my life. Because I'm just going to tell you, when I got saved, my perspective just changed. Yeah, it was, I don't know.

Speaker 2 26:03

I just felt older.

Speaker 1 26:04

I know, I know and you were praying that prayer. I didn't know that you were praying that prayer, but I was praying that prayer and God led us together in a unique way.

Speaker 2 26:20

Yeah, I love telling our story of how we met yes.

Speaker 2 26:22

So I, actually my brother was getting married and I was just going to be doing the groom stuff, my duties, my duties. I was just going to be doing the, the, the groom stuff, my duties, my duties I was supposed to do. And I remember we were um over in Nectar and they were getting married and I was doing what I was supposed to do and it was raining that day and uh, it had kind of stopped raining right before the service started and everyone was already being. We were seating everyone in there and uh, my brother and, uh, sister-in-law were getting ready to kind of come in. We were going to start the procession and right before the service started there was these two young girls that kind of darted over this little river of runoff water in front of the church, because we were late.

Speaker 2 27:04

They were late that trend hasn't stopped, hey. But they jumped over the church and I had no idea who they were and I'm like I'm at my brother's wedding. How do I not know who? Everyone is here, you know, like I've been around him, I've been around her, we all grew up together at Cleveland, we at the same school and and we, we know everyone. And it's like how do I not know these two young ladies that just ran by me and I was like I mean, I was looking at I saw Holly and I was like she's gorgeous. I want to, I want to figure out who this is. And, uh, I distinctively remember what she was wearing. But I had to do all my groomsmen duties Right.

Speaker 2 27:41

So we performed the ceremony and we went to the reception and and I never saw her again. I never saw you again and I was looking for you actively and I was like who is this? So, after the ceremony and everything, everything settled down within the next few days, I was asking my brother, I was like who? Who was this young lady that was there, this, this, that girl? And he was like I don't know what you're talking about. So he had never met her either. And uh, and I was even asking Brandy uh, my sister-in-law was like, who was that? She's like describe her? I don't, I don't know. You know, it's a whirlwind of a day for them and they're getting married, you know.

Speaker 2 28:15

So, anyways, the the VHS came back, the old cassette right the Chris cassette.

Speaker 1 28:22

Our wedding is on a VHS too.

Speaker 2 28:23

Yep, it is, and we had to go back in in it and purpose to try to find her. So I could say who is this? And um, they got there late, remember, and then y'all passed to the left side of the sanctuary or whatever, and um, you got in there and when you stood in there, I saw only the color of the strap on your dress and I remembered the pattern of it and it was like this like orangish, you know, like you know?

Speaker 1 28:50

yeah, it was bright pink.

Speaker 2 28:52

Yeah, and I remembered that dress and the camera only saw your shoulder and the strap and I said that's her, that's her and it was nothing to go off of. And they didn't have any video footage during the reception until later on, after they had already left. So at that point I was like, okay, I don't know who she is, but what's your side?

Speaker 1 29:10

From perspective, that day I had. So I had turned 16 in May, and that's August. At that point, and that day, my dad had surprised me and we had went to the Valley Ford in Oneonta and we were looking at cars. I had no idea that we were looking at a car for me, though, and when we pull up, there's a little white mustang sitting out there. You know, I still didn't think anything about it, like my dad's inside, like I didn't know that he had already orchestrated all this. He had already, like, bought that car yeah, he'd already went up there.

Speaker 1 29:46

Yeah, he was just finalizing everything and then he comes out and it's like this is your car and I'm like what? You because I was all about cars. My sister didn't give a flip about cars, like she would have driven anything that he gave her. And I mean, and I look back now and I think, oh, I hate that I was even that kind of teenager that I cared about what car I drove.

Speaker 2 30:09

But you loved cars with your dad. That was was. That was a bond that you and your dad had like I loved going to work with my dad.

Speaker 1 30:15

If we if me and my sister had to go to work with my dad, I was out there in the body shop with him you came home nasty with I did my mom was always just like this is not my daughter, kelly would stay in the office and like answer the phone and stuff like that, you know, and be like perfect and prim and proper and um. So anyway, I loved cars and always have. I've always known like make, model year, you know, I can just tell it immediately on a vehicle. You know like VIN numbers, you know all this kinds of stuff, you know I would just, I loved it.

Early Love and Life's Changes

Speaker 1 30:49

My dad subscribed me to Motor Trend Magazine still does, and I love getting that in the mail and so I loved cars and having a really cool one was important to me at that time, you know. So anyway, he surprised me with the Mustang and this was the day of Brandy and Caleb's wedding that my sister and I had been invited to because we grew up with Brandy, we didn't see each other much. Then, you know, once we got into school and things like that, ours was mainly like when we were kids.

Speaker 2 31:18

Yeah she got saved at our church.

Speaker 1 31:18

So we were. She did get saved at our church and so we were super excited about that. She even invited us and it was like, yes, we want to go, but I didn't know if we actually were going to go. And then I got the car and it was like it was a place to drop the car.

Speaker 2 31:32

It's an excuse, you know.

Speaker 1 31:34

And so my dad was like okay, like cause we're going to drive on 160. Now that I think about that, Okay, it's a dangerous yes. And, um, he was like, okay, since Kelly's going to be with you, you can go. And so we went, skirted in almost late, you know, went in and I remember sitting there and you were already standing up there when. I'm like looking around and everything and I was like, oh, he's cute. I always wanted somebody that was tall, because I'm really short.

Speaker 1 32:07

There's a foot difference between us and so I guess I was just kind of attracted to tall guys, I don't know. And you were tall and I thought you were so handsome and I had never seen you before. I was like, who is that? Kelly sort of kind of knew, but didn't really. She had no idea what your name was or anything like that. And so after the wedding, we quickly went in, said our hellos to Brandy and everything, and then we went on. We went on home, because we didn't really know. I mean, I knew Brandy's parents, but I didn't really know anybody else around there to just hang out and eat food with you know. So we went home. And what I didn't know, though, is that Brandy and Kelly, my sister, were conspiring with one another about us meeting. Now, kelly did know that I had seen you at the wedding, but Brandy did not know.

Speaker 2 32:56

Brandy had no idea who I was talking about, so she didn't realize that there was already an interest there, right? So I guess when?

Speaker 1 33:03

Kelly's talking to Brandy at a ball game, like, hey, I think Calvin and Holly might be good together. You know, like should we exchange our phone numbers and?

Speaker 2 33:13

Brandy was all for it too. Nice young Christian girl, nice young Christian guy, and they were at a Cleveland ball game and I was a cheerleader at that time for Susan Moore.

Speaker 1 33:20

I was in 11th grade and so Kelly was wearing my button on. She was a sweet little sister thinking about that, yeah walking around at a competitor's ball game wearing. Susan At another ball game wearing my little button, yeah.

Speaker 2 33:34

So which they walked up and they asked me hey, we know this girl that that we would like for you to call we think y'all would hit it off, you know. And I saw the button on her shirt and I was like, oh my goodness, that's the girl from the wedding and then brandy's like what?

Speaker 2 33:48

yeah, they were like oh, my goodness, you know so when they, when that connection was made, I really felt like there was multiple opportunities and, from what I understand, mark had actually mentioned me and my family to Kelly way prior to this situation. But nothing ever panned out for me and I really, truly believe that nothing panned out for me because we weren't ready for each other At this point in time. God designed it to where we would meet.

Speaker 1 34:16

Yes.

Speaker 2 34:17

And the phone conversations that we had leading up to our first date. And we went on our first date and I just felt like God was preparing us to this point.

Speaker 1 34:25

I was so comfortable I'd never been that comfortable with somebody in my life I was able to talk to you like I'm talking to you right now. Yeah, I was so nervous and I didn't know you from Adam, like I hadn't and we've talked about this in the past like because you were in the band.

Speaker 2 34:42

I was in the band. We were both in leadership and you know the bands always meet.

Speaker 1 34:44

We would have met each other. We think that we had met each other, but we didn't know. You know that we had, but you know, I think about when we got together. That was in September, and you go on through the summer and I I had not told anybody this, but I had a lump in my breast and I had had that lump there since I was probably 12 years old. So when you think about this, I'm 16,.

Speaker 2 35:10

Okay, that's a long time.

Speaker 1 35:11

I had been carrying that around for a very long time Now. Mind you, I had an aunt that had breast cancer, another aunt that was constantly having cysts removed. I was terrified. At that point the knot had grown to about the size of a golf ball, and I'm a very small, petite person, I'm not large in that area, and so that was huge and I remember telling you about it and I think about that too, that God put you in my life, for me to tell you that.

Speaker 1 35:44

I felt like you were my safe place Not that my mom wasn't, but because I knew that when I told my mom that my mom was going to take care of it.

Speaker 2 35:53

And.

Speaker 1 35:53

I was so scared to death about getting it taken care of.

Speaker 1 35:58

So you persuaded me and you were like you have to tell your mom, and at that point you're scared, you know for me too, yeah, and my mom took me to the doctor and that was a lot of doctor's appointments and a lot of poked and prodded and mammograms and you know I'm 16 years old, it was a lot and I ended up having to have surgery to have it removed because it wasn't cancer, but they said it was pre-cancerous, it was very suspicious and so we had to get it taken out.

Speaker 1 36:28

And it just changes your perspective. Like you grow up really fast, like when you have that fear, that that fear of death being there. I mean I'm not trying to, um, make this bigger than what it was, but it was something and especially when you're 16 years old, yeah, you know, um, and then I also think I'm so gracious to god that that he took care of me during all of that time. But your perspective changes in that what do I want to do with my life? What am I doing with my life? And I think we knew that we wanted to do life together. Yeah, period, and not long, like maybe a week after my surgery, I believe you proposed to me.

Speaker 2 37:12

Yeah, it was very fast because we knew and I think that's the reason why we felt so drawn to do this tonight, as far as our podcast or recording session that we were having was because life can change in the twinkling of an eye. Yeah, life can change at the drop of a hat. You, you, the moment you step into that car, the moment that you walk out that door, the moment that you open your eyes and start breathing or start putting food in your mouth, how many people choke Like there's anything can happen that can completely change your life in an instant. And it's like, are we ready If life was to change that quickly? Is there confidence that we have in our creator, that that we have placed ourselves? Do I know that? You know where you're going? Do you know?

Speaker 2 37:55

And and perspective is everything Uh, not just when it comes to the things that we talk about in this podcast or in our things that we're doing in our life. But perspective on eternity is important because, like you said, the things that you are drawn towards like things that I was drawn towards before Christ now just pale in comparison. It feels like nothing when it comes to actually doing the cause, the ministry of Christ and reaching out for the cause of Christ. When people say you're judging someone because of something or your thing, it's like no. I want you to experience the same relief that I had. I desire for you to be able to know the creator that I know.

Speaker 2 38:35

And it's so important that we share that, and, and I guess that's why we were just drawn tonight, there's such a heaviness on our hearts for, um, how quickly what our friend is feeling right now too, because I know that at 17 years old I had met the love of my life.

Speaker 1 38:49

If something had happened to you then I would have been completely devastated and destroyed, and so you know, a lot of people want to just um, blow off the youth, you know. If that you know. But you can find your person when you're really young, and so our hearts are still in school.

Speaker 2 39:08

We got married and we were, and God needed that because later in our life we experienced some, some uh some growth with our family, with some of uh one of our youth. Actually, yeah, we were married.

Speaker 1 39:18

We were married seven years before we had children, like we really had just. We grew, just. We grew up. I was going to school and we were finding our careers, like what we were going to do, and we waited a long time before we had Jude. And then Jude was probably about two, two right, and we were youth leaders and we brought in one of our own and he's our son. He's our son, without a doubt, and he's married now and has his own family. But you know he was only 10 years younger than me.

Speaker 2 39:49

And we had to be so mature to be able to handle that situation. We know that God orchestrated so much of our early life to be able to be there for him.

Speaker 1 39:57

I don't even know if you like, sometimes I forget about this, but after we got married, because we just sped everything up and we had rumors that were said against us that we were hurrying getting married because I was pregnant and things like that. It wasn't true. There was no way it could be true. If you guys know what I'm talking about, we truly saved ourselves from marriage. So to have lies said like that on you, um, but you get over that, yeah, but, um, after we got married, that was in November of my senior year and I still am in all that.

Speaker 1 40:36

I got married when I was in high school, but it was just meant to be. And that February I was very sickly, growing up with strep tonsillitis. I just kept it all the time. My tonsils were huge. Doctors would never do anything about it. It finally just came to. It had to come out. They had to come out. It was a horrendous surgery, honestly, wasn't it? And so we got married in November. That was in February of that year.

Continuous Pursuit of God's Glory

Speaker 1 41:06

And I remember even you know like, when I say we grew up together, I mean like we, we got an apartment right when we got married. We had very little money, like because and I know when, my, when we said that we were getting married, my parents said, okay, like you know, that means that you're, you're on your own, you know like you're and and so my parents were not keeping us up, your mom was not keeping us up. I was in high school. I did not have a job. You had a job and we made it. We. You know, I remember balancing the checkbook and all that stuff and and timing, and we can we could get into a whole story about that timing and we can we could get into a whole story about that.

Speaker 1 41:49

But I had that surgery and it just it really went wrong. Like a couple of days after I was just bleeding out. I was bleeding so much from my throat we couldn't even catch my breath. You know, I had to end up going by ambulance to the hospital and then getting transferred to Birmingham. I was in the hospital for days and that was right off of getting married and that was just one of the small things that we went through. But I am so thankful I see God's hand from 14 years old. I've seen His hand in my whole life, but from 14, him chasing me and convicting me and having mercy on me for that whole year and accepting Him as my Savior and saying I want my life to be devoted to you, and not that I was perfect, but I was striving for him and things started to fall into place and it led us to each other. And I see that in your life too, that after your salvation that you can God was free to move, I guess.

Speaker 2 42:58

Yeah, and I want to point out the fact that that God's not stopped moving since. So in five, ten years' time from now, what are the things that God's doing right now in our life and in the listeners' lives and your lives that you're going to be able to look back on and say I see how God was moving to be able to provide for us and prepare us for this? Yes, that's right around the corner.

Speaker 1 43:17

And I see that, even like right now, like I have things that I feel convicted about right now that I'm and God doesn't I don't think he convicts us about everything all at one time, you know but I'm convicted about like, like I want us to manage our money correctly, I want us to manage our relationships correctly, you know, and and I was actually praying this morning at church, I was like God helped me to manage my finances the way that are honoring to you that I don't want to do anything that brings shame to your name, because here I am on a public platform claiming his name and I don't want to do anything that would defame him you know, Um and that's just one one thing that I'm pointing out finances or relationships, the way we do business um, the way that we're parents.

Speaker 1 44:10

You know I'll I'll when I say that I want him to get the glory out of everything I really do. I want everything we do to be for his glory.

Speaker 2 44:20

So we'll definitely have a lot of topics to talk about and little stories to share with y'all, little nuggets, but we just want y'all to know that we do love God and we do love each and every one of the, everyone that tunes in and listens to us and supports us. Let us know your testimony, let us know what you're thinking, share with us your thoughts, but y'all are definitely a blessing to us If anybody is willing to ever come on and share your testimony, let us know.

Speaker 1 44:47

If God lays it on your heart, then that means that somebody is needing to hear it. So we're very thankful for you and we can't wait to see you again. And may God bless you, keep you and make His face to shine upon you.