Jessica's Testimony

I was raised in an Assembly of God church. My family were all Christians and I had an excellent childhood. My grandfather traveled frequently to other countries on business trips and was always trying to carry Bibles into different countries. It was his example that started an interest in missions.

Over the years as problems began to arise in our church, my family moved to a different church. A few years after that we moved from Asheville to Hendersonville and again found a new church.

My sister and I had attended a Christian school in Asheville until I was in the 5th grade then my parents home schooled us until we finished high school.

Even though I had been raised in church I never really thought about what it meant to serve the Lord or accept salvation. I had been to Sunday school my whole life but I still had never really studied my Bible or put forth an effort to pray and learn about God.

I was 15 years old when my parents got divorced and it was then that my whole life changed. I got involved with the wrong crowd and really began to throw my life away. I had gotten out of church and was starting to get into some trouble. But the Lord wasn’t about to give up on me.

I got a job as a waitress and met a young man by the name of Robert Murray. I didn’t like him at all because he always invited me to church, but over the years we became pretty good friends and finally, one day I went to church with him.

By this time my sister and I had started going to another Baptist church in our area and God was really starting to work in my life. I began to clean up my life and enrolled in our local community college. I started studying my Bible and I enjoyed attending church. I began to learn about what it truly means to be saved and to give your life totally to Christ.

Robert and I began dating around this time and we wanted to find a church that we could really become involved in. We both wanted a new start and we felt God leading us to Anchor Baptist Church.

It was at Anchor that I began questioning my spiritual condition. I could not remember a time when I had actually surrendered my life to God and asked him to save me. I remembered as a teenager telling people no when they asked me if I would go to heaven. And this bothered me now. I thought I was “ok”, but I began to understand that my great childhood wouldn’t be enough for me. I needed to make my own decision about who God was to me.

So one night after church, Robert was driving me home, and I began asking him questions. He pulled over and told me that just because I thought I was saved wasn’t good enough, I needed to have assurance. So right there on the side of the road we prayed and I wholeheartedly surrendered my life fully to the Lord Jesus Christ. I chose that night to give up my own desires and to follow my Savior wherever He would lead me. And since then He has given me new desires and dreams.

One year later, Robert and I were married by our pastor Dr. Randy Barton at the Anchor Baptist Church. And we vowed to dedicate our lives and our marriage to the Lords service. I have never looked back! I love my Jesus more and more every day!