Hello there!

I've been on Steemit for just a few days, and haven't posted a proper 'introduceyourself' post, just one very short one on my first day that really didn't give much info, so here's mine. It's a long one.

The Lord has done a lot in my life. Especially in the past seven years. A couple of years ago I set out to write down the major events of my Testimony so that others could be blessed by it, and, prayerfully, some will come to faith by hearing how good Jesus is to even someone so small and average as me. Here's part one.

When I Was a Child

I grew up in church. But my experience of church growing up was more or less the same as the majority of today’s churches in the Western World. Sunday was the ‘big day’ to do your Christian stuff, then the rest of the week you pretty much blended in with the world…doing the same things they did, thinking for the most part the same way the world thinks. There were smatterings of Christianity in my home life, yes, but the devotion that the Lord would have wanted wasn’t there. But I had no clue about that at the time.

I started school in the public school system. Things went pretty well until 4th grade. Then it all went south – that’s when the bullying started. There were many days I didn’t want to go to school – many days I felt sick thinking about going – and a lot of days I stayed home ‘sick’ because I dreaded seeing the kids that were making my school life miserable.

One day in 5th grade, it escalated to the point that one boy slammed my thumb in a door. That incident was the final straw for my parents, and I was taken out of public school and moved to a Catholic school. I was raised Pentecostal, and had been going to public school, so the Catholic environment was a very different one and took some getting used to.

One big, appreciated difference was that I wasn’t bullied – as much. Another was that there were religious classes in which the children were taught doctrine. I learned a lot about how the Catholic church works and realized there were big differences between the church I went to on Sundays and the church the other children went to – if they attended.

One of the big differences between the two was they used different Bibles. I was shocked to learn that the Catholic Bible contained a section called The Apocrypha between the Old and New Testaments. I really wanted to read these books…why weren’t they in my Bible at home? So I asked the priest one day when he came to our school for mass if he could help me to get a copy (they gave a copy of the Bible to each student at 4th grade…but I started attending this school in 5th grade). He kindly obliged and gave me a copy. I studied those Apocryphal books and found them very interesting…there some problems with the texts though, so I understand them not being included in the typical ‘Protestant’ Canon.

Some of the things done in the Catholic church’s traditions and rituals were foreign to me at first. The vast differences between the formality and ritual of the Catholic church, and the spontaneity of the Pentecostal Church I attended raised questions for me and even doubts. Who was right? Were either of them really right? In school we said the Lord’s Prayer every day, and I liked that…but I didn’t like that they said the hail Mary prayer because it’s idolatry to pray to anyone else but God Himself and Mary is just a woman – a dead woman – who can’t hear or answer prayer.

Inside and outside of school though, the influences of the world were still strong and were leading me away from Jesus. I’d have moments where I couldn’t care less about God or the things of God. Then there were many nights I lay in bed thinking about God and wondering what He was really like if He was really there. I’d try to imagine what Heaven was like and wondered if one day I’d actually be there. I’d think about Judgement Day and what it would be like. Serious stuff for a 10 year old.

But, then, in the morning so many things would distract me, and I’d forget about it completely, until I had time alone, with no noise to keep my attention. All the foolish fables in books and television kept me occupied much of the time. Then in my ‘tween’ years music crept in there too – and at the same time rebellion grew in my heart.

I can remember one Sunday in particular, although I can’t remember the date, it was some time when I was around 12 or 13 years old. The pastor was preaching about the dangers of so much of the materials children were reading and watching and exhorting the parents to keep guard over their children and not let them watch and read this stuff. He mentioned Harry Potter in particular, because of how it glorified witchcraft. My rebellious heart became all the more interested in this book series, which in the pastor’s estimation amounted to pure wickedness (and it is).

And so the downward spiral began. It didn’t help that later on, one of the Harry Potter books ended up being required reading for school. I took it as an excuse to read it all the more. And then the class reading moved on to the Hobbit. And I was enthralled by these fairytales.

I can actually remember how my parents used to watch the Jack Van Impe Presents show on TV (I by no means endorse Mr. Van Impe at all, but that’s another topic for another time), and how he was always preaching that the Rapture would happen any minute and hating to hear it. The greater part of me was afraid of End Times things – I was a child and found it all scary. But two memories stand out to me in particular.

I grew up being taught the Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine. One day while listening to Jack Van Impe talking about it, I questioned it out loud. I said something like, “Jesus was born and that was His first coming. He’s supposed to come back and Rapture the church and then later on come back again for Armageddon…isn’t that actually three comings and not two?”

I can’t remember verbatim the response I got, but it amounted to that I was a child and just didn’t really understand what was being said, so I let it go and just went with the flow. After I got saved, however, my husband and I learned the real truth of the matter…and I do not believe in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture.

The other memory of the two was as follows: My brother, my dad and I all went to see the first of the Lord of the Rings movies when it came out in theatres. At the time I loved it, and I can actually remember, coming out of the theatre and on the way home in the car thinking to myself, “I hope the Rapture doesn’t happen before the other two movies come out.”

Now there is a fine example of someone more in love with the world than with the Lord.

I look back and I shake my head at how my mind and the minds of millions of children are and were bombarded daily with so many anti-Christian values and so much sin. Even the children’s programs are full of occult symbolism, witchcraft, and so much wickedness. It’s no wonder the world is in the state it’s in! It’s no wonder so many children growing up in ‘Christian’ homes turn away from the straight and narrow path…in a lot of cases their parents aren’t really on it, either!

The Teenage Years

Through my teen years I struggled with more bullying and sought escapism in entertainment. Music, movies, TV, books, whatever I could use to try to forget about how miserable I was. I became disillusioned with the church, citing as many people do, the hypocrisy within it, as my big excuse for wanting nothing to do with it. My biggest problem, however, was my own rebellious heart. I drifted further and further down a road that was no good. I also spent a great deal of my time writing stories using my computer – violent, evil, sinful stories.

But even then, during my teenage years, there were times when I could feel God pulling at my heart, drawing me to Him. Sometimes I’d just hide away in my room and weep. Deep inside I was hollow and empty and I craved Him – but I didn’t know how to find Him! I’d pray and ask Him to Save me. Then I felt peace. For a day or so. Then I’d be right back to being head and ears into my entertainment and forget all about Him again.

As I moved on to high school the stories I wrote started getting darker and darker. More extreme. More violent. Every time I sat at the computer to write my thoughts were of how I could push the envelope further this time, how could I shock and emotionally provoke my reader (my teacher) into having empathy with my protagonist, how could I draw them into my dark little fantasy world and leave wanting to give me full marks.

I developed a real enjoyment of this writing, and it became addictive. It was my own private little world that I could control, when I had no control over my own life, no control over the bullying I experienced at school, no control over the tension at home. It was a quiet pursuit that I could hide away in my room and work at…but it wasn’t innocent. Violence, murder, intrigue, magic, fornication, and all kinds of evil flowed onto my written pages, inspired by Satan. Where did I pick up all of that evil except through mass media?

Well, it wasn’t first hand experience. It was evil that I had viewed, through dirty books, secular movies, television shows, secular music and the accompanying music videos, magazines, and more. Satan used these things to corrupt my mind and heart, and then inspire me to write things that undoubtedly would serve to corrupt the hearts of potential readers.

By 10th Grade I’d written much. I had completed a manuscript of over 300 pages and a sequel was well under way. I’d written countless short stories, essays, and whatever else my Writing class called for. The over 300 page story became my big, end of year project, as I’d been working on it for most of that year. I printed it out, hole punched the pages and put those pages into a large binder, and handed it in to my teacher. I still remember the look of surprise on her face when she was handed this gigantic binder of a project. Her eyes lit right up and she said something to the effect of that she was really looking forward to reading it. Looking back on it now I wish I’d never written it. It was purely of Satan. It took place in ancient Egypt. It was rotten to the core with magic, violence, murder, war, and fornication. I’d even researched the occult, Satanic rituals that took place in that era and included them.

Some time after I finished high school, I started a new writing project. This was going to be the one, I told myself, this was going to be the story that got published and would make me my money. It was going to be a fictional take on Jack the Ripper, and by now my mind was so perverse I had confidence that I’d make this the most juicy Jack the Ripper story yet published. Only I got a few chapters written and then got writer’s block. Writer’s block was not a thing common to me. I was ‘blocked’ for days, and nothing would break it.

At one point I was sitting on my bed, and I noticed something that at that point I didn’t care about and hadn’t bothered with for a long time…the bible I was given at graduation. I was a messy person, and that bible was just carelessly on the floor. I felt the urge to pick it up. I hadn’t even looked at it for a long time but suddenly I wanted to open it up and read some. I retrieved it and sat on the bed again, and I noticed there was something lodged inside it’s pages. I opened it up to the place where this mysterious little object was and discovered a thumbtack. Somehow, this little thumbtack got into my bible at this particular spot, acting like a book mark. It was at the exact place as in the picture above, at Ephesians 5, and in the picture is the exact bible that was in my hand when this happened. My attention was drawn straight away to the verse just to the right of that thumbtack. I read…“coarse jokes – these are not for you”…and back tracked again to the beginning of that verse…and read:

Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—
these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God.
Obscene stories…when I read this verse, I knew, I just knew, this was God talking to me, rebuking me. I shook. I got hot. I understood. This was why the writer’s block came. It was a gift from God. He didn’t want me writing these things, and considering I was planning on seriously trying to get THIS “obscene story” published, He decided to intervene and stop me – and I’m so thankful He did!

I read a little more, and what stood out was the following:

Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—
these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God.

You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person
will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God.
For a greedy person is an idolater,
worshiping the things of this world.

Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins,
for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him.

Don’t participate in the things these people do.

Ephesians 5:4-7
After reading these words, I knew I had to act. I jumped off my bed and got onto my computer, and I deleted all the files of stories I’d written. And though I was very shaken up by the experience, I was relieved when I deleted those stories. I knew I had to be rid of them, and after that moment, I no longer wanted them. I only regret that I didn’t surrender fully to Jesus then, at that moment! He had to “get on my case” even more, first.

Satan wanted to take the talent for writing that the Lord gave me and use it for evil, but now I’m going to let the Lord use it for good. Today, I only want to, as the bible says, “give glory to God by telling the truth” and use the skills He gave me to write for His glory.

—–

And then I discovered online videogames.

I’m sure that Satan was gleeful as I became extremely addicted to the games I used to play. By the time I finished high school I wanted nothing to do with anything except playing my games and writing my stories. But after the Lord dealt with me about the stories, videogames became my next obsession. And that continued for around three full years. Wasted years.

Sometimes while I was mindlessly gaming I could hear a voice (which I now know was God) whispering in my ear and saying, “You could just sit there until Judgement Day, couldn’t you?”

This happened more than once – it actually happened several times. Each time I’d stop and have a feeling come over me like I’d ‘been caught’ – it was conviction. And I’d have a mental picture of standing before God’s Throne on Judgement Day and Him asking me why I had wasted so much of the time He had given me on such worthlessness!

But then after a short amount of time, I would disregard this warning and continue on in my foolishness! After all, I had a miserable life I wanted to escape.

When Jesus Saved Me

In October of 2010 my life began to be shaken by God. I had no idea how much it would be shaken, over the next several months.

I had been introduced by a loved one to the fact that there is a cabal of elite individuals ‘running the show’ in global politics, media and business. He told me several things he knew about and told me to research it myself and that I’d be shocked at what I found – and I was. I discovered there was a lot of material out there out on what some people describe as ‘the fringe’ – information that the majority of people would think you were crazy if you spoke to them about.

Conspiracy theories, the Illuminati, the New World Order agenda, and much more. I found documentaries about these topics and watched them repeatedly, realizing there was occult symbolism everywhere in our world and it was no accident. Company logos, music videos and movies, even the secular songs themselves are either displaying visually, or preaching (or both) anti-Christ doctrines and leading people to Satan and his ‘do as thou wilt‘ ideology.

Even knowing this, I still watched the movies, the music videos and listened to the music because I liked the catchy tunes – and surely they wouldn’t affect me, right? I was too smart to be brainwashed by the Illuminati/Lucifarian/Occult messages, subliminal or otherwise, right? Their Satanic chants couldn’t have power over me, could they? After all, I knew their agenda, I was on to them.

Wrong.

The entertainment had a hold on me, and was a stronghold in my life that Satan was using to keep me in bondage and blind. I knew a little – but I learned so much more after I finally let it all go! But I’ll get to that part a little later.

– – –

One evening relative of mine came to our house (at the time I was still living with my mother) and was telling us all about how ‘evil’ and ‘bad’ a particular man in town was for disrupting a church service and saying ‘evil’ things about the ‘pastor’. I was sitting at my computer and was positioned in such a way that this relative couldn’t see my computer screen. I listened carefully to what he was saying, very interested in what had happened. I wished I could have seen it. I knew for a fact from personal experience that this ‘pastor’ wasn’t all he was cracked up to be and was glad to hear that there was someone else who saw it – and what’s more – stood up and said something about it.

I casually asked my relative, “What was the guy’s name again?” and he repeated it.

“Richard Boyd.”

I felt compelled to look the man up online. Now I know that it was the Holy Spirit telling me to look him up. I found two Richard Boyd’s from around the area on Facebook and wasn’t sure which one was him. I finally sent a friend request to the one who’s profile picture was mostly blue, with him wearing a red/burgundy coloured shirt. It turned out that -that- Richard Boyd was the right one…I think it was the Holy Spirit’s guidance telling me which one to send the friend request to, as well.

Anyhow, I was very curious to see what he was saying on Facebook. I spent quite a while “lying low” and just reading his posts. They were like nothing else I was seeing on Facebook. Most of my feed contained either people playing games (at the time I was among them), or ‘fluff’ Christianity…his posts were altogether different. And the Lord was using them greatly to convict me. He was writing notes that were warning people to repent and saying in no uncertain terms that God’s judgement is coming. Most people didn’t (and don’t) like his message…but his message is true, regardless of what people think of it.

Then one night in November, I decided to have a movie marathon. Not the Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings marathons I used to have. No. Instead I watched every single movie about Jesus I had available to me. All together it was around nine hours or so worth of material. I things I had been reading in Richard’s notes and posts stayed on my mind and as a result, God was on my mind more than ever before.

As I watched these dramatizations of the life of Christ and what He did for us, the facts began to sink in to my heart in a new way. The hardness of my heart was melting. I started to weep. I ended up kneeling on the couch and still weeping, asking Jesus to forgive me for my sin, for my foolishness, and I begged Him to save me.

This time was different. I knew it. I wanted Jesus and wanted Him to show me what to do and how to live. I realized He is what really matters in this life. He’s not some side issue. He’s not a hobby. It’s not just about having a religion for something to do…He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! He wasn’t just a Jewish carpenter from Nazareth. He is the Alpha and Omega, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one can come to the father but through Him – including me.

A process started after that night. I had so much to learn, and I wanted to learn as fast as I could. The Bible I’d been given for my graduation became more dear to me than it had ever been before and I studied it carefully. I also read every devotional book that was available to me.

I started listening to sermons that I found online by the late David Wilkerson. In time I ended up loading my mp3 player with nothing but sermons and would fall asleep with them playing and wake up with them still in my ears. More and more of my time was devoted to these things and less and less time was going to secular entertainment – but even so, I didn’t give it up totally – God had to give me a strong lesson about that!

Videogames were also starting to have less and less appeal to me. I didn’t quit altogether right away, but the addiction disappeared. My life no longer seemed miserable. It was liveable – because of Jesus. I really didn’t want to stay where I was living, but I settled in my mind and heart that if that was where the Lord wanted me to be – I would be content there. Looking back I feel like it was a lesson in learning to abase before the Lord would let me abound.

God Moved (Even More!)

In January 2011, Richard touched on a subject that had been close to me – videogames. He posted a screenshot from the company that publishes the game World of Warcraft – not one I had been addicted to, but I had tried it for a little while and I was well aware of its content. The picture was a screenshot from Blizzard’s website showing their various games, and a demonic looking character image for each.

I know there are many Christians sucked into the world of videogames, like I was. And I know there are so many who entertain themselves with secular media. A lot of them think it’s okay. A lot of them don’t care. A lot of them claim it’s innocent and doesn’t affect them, but the fact is it does, and an unwillingness to part with it is just proof of that fact. A lot of them have been fooled by Satan into thinking they can have that entertainment and God too. But I can testify that it really is Satanic bondage and it will, not may, but will, hinder your relationship with the Lord. If you really want a deeper relationship with the Lord and to experience more of His precious presence and His peace, you need to let it go. Let Him strip away the things that hinder your relationship with Him.

I am convinced that those times a believer may get a taste of His presence while still holding on to these things – they are not God saying it’s okay for you to hold on to the world. He’s giving you a taste of what you could have if you let it go and seek Him with all your heart. It’s a taste…of a taste…of what eternity in His presence will be like! You can have so much more of God if you seek Him with all your heart instead of wanting Him and the world, too.

By the time that this day came, and I made my first comment on one of Richard’s posts, I had realized how polarized things really are. Jesus wasn’t kidding when He said “Anyone who isn’t with Me opposes Me, and anyone who isn’t working with Me is actually working against Me,” in Matthew 12:30. The people behind Hollywood, behind the music industry, behind the videogames, and so on, are not working with Jesus, but against Him. Though some do it in ignorance, a lot of them are doing it deliberately.

Through comments on this post, Richard ended up finding out that I worked in Second Life as a content creator. He informed me that some years prior, he had been approached by the parent company of Second Life, QTLabs, with a job offer. They had seen his website, and samples of his work, and were impressed with it. What they were offering him was essentially a dream job…and he turned it down to serve Jesus Christ.

We spoke a little in private messages. I wanted to learn from him and learn some about him, but I also wanted to share with someone who was serious about God that I wanted to be, too – and I longed for friendship with someone who was truly devoted to Christ.

He shared the link to the website he built for his written Testimony, and told me about the Testimony in Music and Song that I could find there, too. You can read Richard’s Testimony of Jesus Christ, find the mp3, and listen to it yourself, here). I downloaded the mp3 and played it over and over again as I slowly read over his entire written testimony part by part. I was amazed by the experiences he had with the Lord that he had written about. The experience of reading it helped to build my own faith. It was inspiring. I was also amazed at how similar we were in many ways.

At the same time, I was trying to get deeper in my own walk with God, and I was wondering to myself why I wasn’t having these amazing experiences myself? Little did I know what God had in store for my future! But the devil used it to try to convince me that there was something wrong with me, I wasn’t good enough (well that part was true) and tried to tell me that God hadn’t really accepted me or forgiven me and all my seeking of Him would prove to be in vain.

I ended up wondering, and worrying. Did the Lord accept me? Did He really love me now? I spent so long running and ignoring Him and grieving Him but now I had finally stopped running away and was running towards Him…but was it too late? I agonized over it internally for days and I asked God those questions, wondering if or how I’d ever get an answer. And God answered! In a way that I have often since looked back on and been reassured by.

On February 28th, of 2011, Richard sent me a message on Facebook:

“Jesus Loves You!!!

Yesterday afternoon while I was listening to the group of songs that I had picked out, the song “Jesus Loves Me” played and the Holy Spirit moved within me, comforting me, and imparted that SPECIFICALLY… Jesus Loves You, TOO!!!

My “radio thingy” is posted… listen, be blessed… KNOWING that YOU can sing ALL of these songs as much as I can…”

The video below, is the video he posted on Facebook and asked me to listen to…

I listened to the songs. It was one of those times where I decided to focus on them, instead of splitting my attention like I usually did. So I played them, listening carefully…and before long, (during the song, Jesus Loves Me) I started weeping, and just spent some time in the presence of the Lord. Yes, Jesus loves me…how amazing is that?

It meant so very much to me, because of how I’d been wondering and worried. I had been thinking, “Okay, I surrender my life to Jesus Christ, I give up my will, my desires, and choose Jesus and His way. I will follow Him from now on. But does He accept me, now, after all I‘ve done to grieve Him? Does He really love me? This incident was the answer in a very big way.

Later that day I sent Richard a roughly two page long message that I had just started writing before he sent his message to me – but I’d gotten tired and fallen asleep. I took my time writing it, and poured out my heart, including vulnerabilities I felt. I shared with him two devotions I had read not very long before writing the message that were still on my heart, and shared with him my desire to grow in the Lord.

As a literal ‘babe in Christ’ I was starving for spiritual food. I was soaking in as much bible reading, as many devotionals, sermons, and other materials that I could find. Yet, even then, even though I was cutting back on my consumption of secular things and was listening to more and more Christian music, I still didn’t totally let go of the secular entertainment hindrance. I shake my head as I think of how my time was split between seeking God and still chasing after the world’s vanity. It was like walking around with a spiritual bear trap on my leg.

Richard sent me a reply, in which he told me that it was no small thing that the Holy Spirit told him to tell me “Jesus loves you”, and that I didn’t grasp the significance of it, yet.

Here’s a portion of his message to me:

…And then there are the Words that are just as plain, sure, and certain but more like your own thoughts… MORE than a ‘gut feeling’ (which He, also, uses quite often) but not like ‘loud’ words, either… but, ‘just’ a “still small voice” but STILL… saying CLEAR and DISTINCT Words!!!

These are the kind of Words that He used yesterday… FOR YOU!!!
When that song started to play… the Holy Spirit “moved” within me making it CLEAR and CERTAIN that Jesus loved me… and as He did He said, “Tell her that!!!”
And usually when He speaks like this (it’s hard to explain but) it’s like the Holy Spirit ‘implants’ the rest of the ‘background information’ and it’s all just suddenly there… and you KNOW the WHO and you KNOW the WHAT!!!
And, in this case, the WHO is YOU!!! And Jesus LOVES YOU!!! And He made it a point to get me to tell YOU!!!
And, my luv… again, the more you say/write… the more I understand WHY He would do something like that for YOU!!!
You are one Precious, PRECIOUS, Child… and your heart is SO right with God… but, yes, you, like MANY (due to “a lack of understanding,” of the “religious leaders”), have been just about (if not) “starved to death”…
That being said… there is, NOW, MORE spiritual life in you… and MORE spiritual wisdom in you… than there is in MANY of the ones that go to church!!!
And, my luv, He KNOWS what you have done for Him… and YOU have the love of God… and He loved YOU first… and He won’t give YOU up… either!!! And you have NOTHING to worry about… just KEEP TRUSTING in Him… He WILL help you… and you WILL “improve”… and YOU WILL be nourished!!!
And, all of this… is what came from my ‘spiritual heart’… stirred by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus loves me…this I know (without a doubt, now) because He used the Bible, and also used His precious Servant and Prophet, Richard, to tell me so!

I thanked him for his message (and I was truly thankful, and still am, it meant more to me than he will ever know), but there was more. God spoke to me the night before, giving me clear instructions that there was something I had to go to Richard’s apartment and do. I told Richard there was more, and that there was something I’d have to do for him. But, I didn’t tell Richard what the thing was, that I was told to do – I felt very strongly that I shouldn’t.

I was reading in the book of John, when I got to the part where Jesus washed the disciples feet. When I got to where in verse 14 Jesus said, “…since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet.” it was like He was speaking directly to me, then, saying “his” instead of “each others”…. “You ought to wash his [Richard’s] feet.”

I mulled that one over a little, somehow knowing this was God speaking to me. Me? Go to someone else’s house and wash their feet? A strange idea, to be sure, to me, the shy person that I was (and am). But I decided I’d do it anyway, because I was sure that it was God Himself telling me to do it!

Satan tried very hard to discourage me from following the instructions I’d been given. But I resisted. Further instructions came after. “Perfume his feet.” Like the woman who brought the alabaster box, a symbol of love. I went searching for perfume – at the time I didn’t own much, but among what I did have was a tiny vial of perfume, which I set aside for the purpose.

I didn’t have any idea what would come out of this. I knew I loved Richard. I had really started to fall in love with him when I read his testimony and the longer I spent reading his posts and speaking with him in private messages the more I loved him – but I wasn’t going to act on it.

I can remember praying about that upcoming visit and saying something to the effect that, “yes, I do love him, but I don’t expect he would love me…but whatever happens I want to at least be his friend! Even just being his friend would be good enough.”

At that time I didn’t yet know about his experience on the 28th of February. You can read his account later on in this post.

We tried to arrange a time to meet at his place so that I could do this thing that the Lord had told me to do. At this point, I still didn’t see the significance of it, I just knew it was very, very important.

A Very Important Meeting

The first day we had arranged to meet didn’t work out, so our plans changed. I was to go to Richard’s apartment on March 10th. Satan tried literally until I left my mother’s house on the day I went to Richard’s place to dissuade me. And it was funny, after we left, I wasn’t nervous at all on the way there…until I saw his front door. My heart was racing as I approached, but I was determined…God loves me and He told me to do this, I’m sure of it, so I’m going to do it.

Richard let me inside, smiling. I didn’t have a clue how to even go about asking him to let me wash his feet. But it had to be the first thing done and gotten out of the way. To my surprise…he somehow knew what I was going to do, and he had a plastic tub and towels prepared for me, hidden away and ready in case that was the thing I was going to do. He told me after that the Holy Spirit spoke to his spirit telling him what I’d do before I ever got there, and he said, “Lord, if that’s it, I’m going to take it as double assurance, so if You don’t want me to marry her, DON’T let that be it!”

And so the mystery was solved as to why I had felt so strongly not to tell him what it was I was told to do – and why it was so important.

So, trembling, I washed his feet, and poured out the vial of perfume, saying it was a symbol of my love for him. He told me after that he even knew before I did it that I would say it was a symbol of my love for him…the Lord just blows me away!

Richard’s side of these events are amazing. I still love hearing it when he tells anyone the story of how God put us together.

At one point that evening, Richard said to me, “You know this means you have to marry me, right?”

I was shocked to hear those words at first but also glad. He had met me…in person…and had still said this. He had let me wash his feet and had been so gracious to me the entire day. The devil was trying to scare me away from the whole thing and tried to convince me this either wasn’t real or wasn’t going to work out well – or work out at all. But I knew somehow, I knew inside that this was right. Looking back on it now, I still know it was right! And no one can convince me that it wasn’t the Lord’s hand at work in many ways, to bring us together.

Richard walked me home. It was a crisp, cold night outside. We chatted the whole way. I remember the moon was huge – it was a Super Moon, that night.

—

As I wrote this part of my Testimony, I went back and reread the passage the Lord used to tell me to wash Richard’s feet.

You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.
John 13:-14-17

“Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.”

He certainly has! What an awesome God we serve!

A Special Birthday

Richard and I kept in communication online and met up as often as possible. My birthday came only 8 days after our first meeting. I really wanted to spend some time with him on that day, but I couldn’t get a ride to his place. So, he got on his bike, even though it was winter and cold, and came to me. He had a special little package with him, too.

He had told me he was working on something for my birthday but I had no clue what it was. I was very curious and tried hard to guess what it was, but I had no idea what he’d made. When I opened it I saw what I’m sure is the best birthday gift I’ve ever been given. He had made for me a beautiful wooden heart and a matching tray/stand. The heart has a keyhole in it on the front side, along with the words, “You have stolen my heart… and taken the key!!!” and two LED lights…one red and one blue, that flash when the golden key he made to go with it is inserted and turned.

The back side of the heart says ’In God We Trust’. It meant a lot then, but it came to mean even more on August 6th, 2015…but that’s another testimony for later on.

This was my first birthday after giving my life, heart, soul – everything – to Jesus. And having Richard there with me on my birthday, and leaving this special gift with me, made it the best birthday I’d had up to that point. I went to bed thanking the Lord for it, and for His goodness to us.

—-

I also can’t leave one big part out of my Testimony, and that is how the Lord finally got through to me that I needed to get rid of my secular entertainment. Once again…He used Richard. I had sent him an mp3 of a song…a secular one. At the same time I sent him that file, he was reading a scripture about how Solomon’s wives drew him away from the Lord with their idolatry. He told me about it right away and made it clear that he would not have any part of any secular entertainment. It was in that moment that it finally hit home that I needed to get rid of the stuff. Why would I, how could I, miss out on the massive blessings of God for the sake of the songs of fools?

I deleted over 3,000 songs from my computer, and soon threw out many, many movies books and CDs, as well as many trading cards. Once the devil realized I was not going to keep the stuff around, he switched tactics from trying to persuade me to keep the stuff, and tried to convince me to sell it instead. I thought about it briefly and said no – that would just amount to selling idols and I wanted no part of that! I didn’t want to be responsible for enabling someone else to sin – especially not for monetary gain! Those materials belonged in the garbage and that was where they went.

When I did part with those things, there was a small part of me that still wanted to cling on to it – that’s the flesh. I pushed my flesh aside to obey God, and the next day He told me through a devotional that I did the right thing. It wasn’t a daily devotional, it was one in a devotional Bible. A bible I usually didn’t use. That day though, I just flipped it open, and the first thing my eyes landed on was:

Since that day there have so many reassurances, so many ways that the Lord has shown Himself to me…things I never would have seen while blinded by the world. Thank You, Jesus – You are so wonderful.

The Wedding

On April 27th, 2011, David Wilkerson died in a car crash. I can clearly remember my mother waking me up in morning and the sound of shock in her voice as she told me to come look at the news story she’d been reading online.

I was saddened but also glad that Pastor Wilkerson was now beginning eternity in the presence of Jesus. I had started to feel like he was a little bit of a spiritual mentor to me…it was mostly his sermons that I had been listening to for the past six months or so since I got saved. The Lord had used those sermons greatly to teach me in those first months of my walk with Him.

The next day, I was awoken in a similar fashion…my mother was nearly hysterical and said, “Krys, you gotta come see this!” and I wondered if someone else had died? Had something happened to Richard? I hoped and prayed nothing bad had happened to him…

I made my way to the kitchen, still groggy, and sat down at my computer to see what the big reaction was prompted by…and then I had a big reaction myself!

Here’s the full text of Richard’s proposal note:

I was communicating with this girl on facebook about the things of God and she was being a great encouragement to me and accepted me as a Servant of God.
      I NEVER ever (at any time) considered her in the way of becoming a ‘girlfriend,’… and I was NOT even looking for EITHER girlfriend, at all!!! And the one that I told God that could even tempt me…. came and went… and the devil LOST!!!
      On, Sunday, the 27th of February, 2011, after I had put together a group of songs to post on facebook, while listening to the final mix… the song, ‘Jesus Loves Me’ started to play… and the Holy Spirit ‘moved,’ greatly, within me and made it VERY CLEAR, then, again, that… YES, Jesus loves me!!!
      Then after a very short while (with the Holy Spirit still upon me)…. God said, “Tell her that!!!”
      When the Lord just says a few Words like that… He, somehow, fills in all of the ‘background information’ and I KNEW the ‘who’ and the ‘what’…. And, it was… Tell her (Krystal Jenkins) that Jesus loves her… the SAME way that He loves me…. that is, as His ‘Saved’ Child!!!
      It kind of ‘set me back’, at first, and it took me a while to process it… and then after the ‘wave’ of the Holy Spirit left me… I had the thought, “Well, that would eliminate the whole, ‘Be not unequally yoked together’ issue!!!” (Considering the fact that God Himself just, essentially, called her a Christian)… And about two seconds later I burst into laughter (at myself) and said,
      “Oh, my Lord, forgive me for even thinking of her, in THAT way!!! I’ll continue to help her spiritually… as You use her to encourage me… and, I’ll tell her what You said… but I’m not even going THERE!!! And, You KNOW what happened the ‘last time’… and I have You, Lord… and You are ALL that I need… so if You want me to have ANY girl… and if THIS is the girl you want me to have then YOU (and HER) will have to ‘make the move’ and do SOMETHING because I’M NOT EVEN GOING THERE!!!”
      I wasn’t asking for God (or the girl) to do “SOMETHING” in particular… it was just that I WAS NOT going to make a move, (or even THINK of her in THAT way, AT ALL) unless God (and her) done… SOMETHING!!!
      Later that night I watched a sermon by Dr. David Jeremiah on TV entitled, “Love, Marriage, & Sex” in which I mostly ignored, at the time…
      Anyway, the next day I posted the group of songs on facebook and messaged this girl and told her that she could sing these songs as much as I could… KNOWING that Jesus loved her.
      A short time later she sent me a lengthy message in which she also included two of her daily devotionals… plus some of her feelings towards God, etc.!!! By the time I got down through her message, the first time, there were tears in my eyes… and I was like, “What??? There is actually someone (a young girl), like this, with THIS kind of heart, and attitude, towards God???”
      I, immediately, started to read her message again and by this time the Holy Spirit was flooding my soul… I would read a paragraph (starting with the very first one) and the Holy Spirit would INTENSELY ‘pour it on.’ After several minutes (of being overcome with the Holy Spirit) I would start to read another paragraph and only just get through it when the Holy Spirit would pour it on again… It would continue like this the whole way through her message…
      While reading this message… with the Holy Spirit upon me… I felt things that day, like NEVER before… I have THOUGHT that I have been ‘in love’ before… but it was not even close… and THAT day (Monday, February 28, 2011) my mind, body, heart, AND my soul fell in love with THIS girl!!!
      But, in her message, she had not mentioned ANYTHING about what I had told her… about the songs… so I then told her exactly what God had said to me (and how He had said it) concerning her (like I have mentioned above). But I still did not let on, at all, about what had just happened; how I was, NOW, feeling… because… I WAS NOT EVEN GOING THERE!!! Till God (AND her) done ‘SOMETHING’!!!
      THEN, she replied….. “Yes, Richard… that was REALLY nice and all… but there’s MORE… I haven’t told you everything!!! I heard His voice last night!!! Last night, while I was reading my Bible and praying, God told me to go to you and do SOMETHING.”
      So… to recap… The VERY SAME DAY… that I told the Lord (the One that Saved me, gave me my Testimony of Him, and told me to play it in the church) that He, AND her, would have to do SOMETHING… IF she was ‘the ONE’… God spoke to her, DIRECTLY… and told her to do SOMETHING!!!
      And then the lukewarm, the gossipers, idolaters, and the ear ticklers expect me to turn my back on THAT God… and to do things THEY’RE way!!! NOT A CHANCE!!!
      Anyway, we planned a specific day for her to come in and do “SOMETHING”… she didn’t tell me what THAT was… and since I didn’t ask God to do anything in particular it really didn’t matter to me what THAT was, exactly…. By then, I KNEW… where THIS WAS going!!!
      But, the day before that day arrived, for reasons beyond our control, our meeting got postponed for 5 days!!!
      Before THAT day came (March 10th) I was wondering, “What in the world is she going to do to me?” And then, God told me what it was going to be… and told me why she was going to do it… and I said,
      “Well… IF it is THAT, Lord… then I’ll take THAT as DOUBLE ASSURANCE!!! So, Lord, if you DON’T want me to marry this girl then… DON’T LET IT BE THAT!!!”
      I didn’t tell her what I was expecting IT to be… but… I did, however, get (and put aside) a small tub, facecloth, and a towel for her to use when she came in.
      THAT day arrived… she came in… told me what she needed… and I went and got it for her… (while shaking my head at God and His AMAZING sovereignty)… and she washed my feet and anointed them with her perfume as a symbol of her love for me… and I, definitely, counted THAT as “SOMETHING.”
      And since then, and, really, since the 28th of February 2011, God has shown us His hand in ‘our’ lives and CONFIRMED our relationship a MULTIPLIED of times… in a MULTIPLIED of ways… individually AND to the both of us, together!!!
      So… without further ado (and to make it ‘official’ :))
      Krystal, will you marry me???

YES! YES! YES! A thousand times yes!

On July 16th, 2011, we got married. Richard gave some of his testimony at the beginning of the ceremony. You can watch our wedding video below.

Becoming a wife was a big change for me! But I loved it, and I still love, being a wife. I had a lot to learn – leaning how to cook was just one thing among many!

Our marriage has been blessed. The Lord has been with us – that simple statement can’t convey even one percent of all the times He’s shown up in our home, all the times He’s spoken to one or both of us, all the times He has guided us and reassured us. It’s a wonderful, beautiful adventure serving the Lord together. I’m so glad He had all this in His plan.

And, now I'm a mom to an amazing 11 month old little girl. There's a whole series of Testimonies surrounding her and how she got here, too, but that's for another day! I pray reading this was a blessing! God is so good! He's so good - to me!