My Story

“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.  John 15:26

The time had come for me to share my testimony at HomeFront Church for the series entitled "My Story."  The series encompassed 5 weeks and 5 different stories from 5 different Church members.  My story would play on the 3rd week and the theme was "Choice."  The 5 themes of the series were Setting, Hero, Choice, Problem and Happy Ending.  Of the 5 stories that would be told, mine was the only one with an unresolved ending.

We filmed my video about a month out from the sermon that would take place on August 18th, 2013.  I recall driving to the Church to do the recording.  I prayed the whole way there.  I wanted the Holy Spirit to speak so that it would come out right and help others.

Pastor Josh and Phil Griffith (a member of the leadership board and the filmmaker) instructed me.  The camera began recording.  This is the final edit:



After the filming completed Phil prayed with me.  There was something in his prayer that has stuck with me.  He referred to "That day..."  It was as if he had a certainty that for my wife, there would come a day.  I often had my doubts about my wife arriving at "That day."  But, to hear Phil say it with such prayerful conviction gave me hope.

On the day My Story was to be told I brought along my Mom, Dad, sister Tanya, my Small Group (Matt & Tom), Tom's wife Shelly, Holly, Natalie, John, and of course my Church family was there.  We even had members that showed up that had been gone for several weeks.  This wasn't only my story; they had shared in the mud with me.  My Story was told 1 year to the month after my first coming to HomeFront Church.

When the video played I lost it.  It was hard to watch.  It was the first time I had seen it.  Dr. Wendy Balivet, a friend from Church that I always sit near, came over and sat next to me to give me support.  After it played there was a long silence.  It was heavy.  A few "amens" rang out that can't be heard in the video.  I knew right away that it had touched people.  I heard a ton of sniffling.  The sniffling continued for the remainder of the service.

God didn't give me this testimony to embarrass me.  He gave it to me to help others.  He gave it to me because He knew I'd be willing to share it.  I've always been an open book.

It was hard to watch.  It was a long 4 minutes.  It may have been harder on my mom than on me.  She's very angry that I have to go through this at all.

As I move closer to my baptism in the Jordan I'm beginning to wonder if the baptism will mark the beginning of something.  I'm not sure what.  It's still a ways off.  I feel like a sword being hammered and burned into shape and the baptism will be the cooling of the blade.  But before I can think about getting into the Jordan I have to get into the mud.  Next week is the Mud Run 5k.

Below is the full Church Service from August 18th, 2013: