Before this time I have never professed to be a devoted Christian, yet somehow I had the feeling that God was close to me. In fact it is my belief that I have come to know the Lord through the true Christian faith of my sister Sylvia. I can recall as if it were just yesterday, how she took care of me when we were allowed to be together while at different Foster Homes. It was also that Christian faith that brought me through the night that I lay deathly sick on her bathroom floor from overdrinking, for believe me, I have not drank since. Yet this was only one of many challenges of life.
The second came on the cold winters night of March 21, about 13 years ago. My new bride of barely a year and I had just left the Anchor Inn Restaurant that we cleaned. We were traveling on Nugents stretch when suddenly what we thought were the eyes of a demon appeared in our rear view mirror and before we knew it we were hit with such force that we landed up on a telephone pole,
the engine coming up to the front floor boards, and my wife hitting her face on the dashboard. This was to become our second challenge to life. The challenge of our faith in God in his power to heal, and the prayers to God for the gift of forgiveness towards the teen· agers that had caused us bodily harm :md a night of horror.
The third challenge (fJf life came on the night of February 27,1988. The night my wife and I came face to face with ow God. Then again it involved a drunken driver, just barely out of Iris teens. This time the damage was more severe, and it was within this third challenge that we became more aware of the realities oftime, and how it is so precious to us all. The months and now years of healing that has followed not only'the healing of our bodies, but the faith healing of our hearts and souls. Now we face another challenge. A challenge that we both share with our God. The sickness of cancer and our faith in God to heal this disruptive force within the body.
Throughout all these challenges of life, I alone have walked away unharmed in body. My wife you might say is the one who now suffers the pain that lies within my soul for the bodily pain that she has had to bare. She has become my challenge to life. For it has always been my belief, that when you are married in witness of God's love and faith, that two lives become one. To those youth who may be reading this, never lose sight of the love God and your parents have for you, and always return that love as it has been given to you. Live your life in devotion to God and use the gifts he has given you for the bettermeflt of others. The congregation
rhave been given a powerful gift of God, that is the gift
of these youthfUl lives. We must establish these gifts through God's Word unto salvation through Jesus Christ shed blood, there by fulfilling the Word of God that all may hear the Word of God. Also that as people come to Christ they may become strengthened by faith to be able to handle the challenges of life that face them each day.
