Glenda's Testimony: Confidence in Christ Alone  
 

It's a wonderful thing to think about how God is inviting us into a relationship with Him and how we personally respond, accepting this free invitation.  Some people even know the date it happened and can celebrate their spiritual re-birth day!  That's so exciting.  I am one of those that does not know the specific date but it is a joyous memory all the same. 

Childhood:  Born the last of six children and growing up in Minneapolis, I remember being dropped off for Sunday School by my parents.  Special times mom taught me about God, she helped me learn the Lord's Prayer and she showed me that cute hand trick, "Here's the church, here's the steeple..."  Dad would tuck me back in bed when he'd find me up at night and he'd say, "Jesus is with you".  I didn't really know what that meant but I had a great interest in God and more questions than I could find the words for.

A neighbor family invited me to Faith Free Lutheran Church when I was in 2nd grade.  I am glad dad and mom let me go with them.  I could not understand why it felt like I wasn't allowed to ask my Sunday School teacher at our church questions.  When I was in Sunday School with my neighbor friend, the Sunday School teacher, Mable Carlson, before I could even have a chance to ask any questions, was answering my questions left and right!  She didn't waste any time and she explained to me what it meant to know Christ, invite Jesus to be my Savior and get to know God better.  She had my full attention when she pointed out how wonderful God's Word is, the Bible.  She encouraged me to get a Bible and read it as much as I could as I was learning to read.  Then it was so amazing...she said, "Do you have any questions?"  I smiled real big inside!   I asked my parents for a Bible and they gave me a nice small red leather bond KJV Bible with my name on the cover.  I was nine years old and it was Valentine's day!  It was the greatest love letter I have received on Valentine's day ever!  The Bible is God's wonderful love letter to each and every one of us.

In a simple prayer, I asked Jesus to be the Lord and Savior of my life and invited Him to be my very best friend!  He faithfully helped me grow in Him, reveal more about Himself through His Word, the Holy Spirit teaching and counseling as I looked into favorite portions of Scripture like the Gospels and the Epistles.  Those small books in the New Testament that are easy for a little girl to read!  I could also say, "I read the whole book!" 

I grew up going to Fatih.  I remember everything from the first Pastor (Pastor Dennis O'Neil) that I looked up at and was encouraged in Christ by with a huge smile on his face when he'd look down at me on that little red Sunday School chair, to when I was mentored in being a Sunday School teacher myself with Mrs. Kathi Rokke.  The Sunday School song that most impacted me while I sat on that chair as a little girl, too, was "Happiness Is the Lord".  The message of the gospel spoke right to my heart through this song and it was a favortie.

Teen/Adult:  There were many things I had to consider in my walk with Christ.  Becoming a teenager and witnessing many opportunities to choose the ways of the world, temptation was not easy to resist.  I am thankful to have known Christ at such a young age and for the strength God gave me to avoid choices I would have regretted.  I am not perfect by any means and I like my dad's favoirte verse too.  "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  Phillipians 4:13

After graduating High School, I attended the Association Free Lutheran Bible School.  I wouldn't say I was an outgoing student but I was so very eager to make the most of this time in God's Word.  "Don't take my word for it", the professors would say, "dig into His Word and discover for yourself His light and truth revealed to us."  I am thankful for the tools gained and the learning through assignments that helped me have a strong foundation for my life in the study of His Word. I'd love to go back for two more years!  At Bible school, I sought the Lord about how to work through my insecurities and I began to grow in my understanding of what confidence in Christ really means.  Through various employment, visiting churches, and attending another college, I was able to be a light for Jesus at work and school, growing in that confindence in Christ and applying it.  

Passion for Christ:  Needless to say, due to my experience as a child and how I came to know Christ, I have had a big heart for Children's Ministries.  And finding out that 2,286 people groups have no portion of God's Word in their own language drew me to be involved anyway that I can support translation work knowing what a treasure I have owning a Bible in my own language and how it has changed my life from my childhood to this day.  Also having worked with special needs children for a little while and seeing their eyes brighten as they learn to read better, what joy to think of children and adults learning to read and be able to read God's Word in their own language! 

Marriage:  Steve and I met at Alexandria Technical College, in Alexandria, MN.  Waiting to meet a Christian man and possible life partner, I noticed someone walk by me on this secular campus carrying a binder that had "Christ for the Nations" written on it.  A few months later, two Christian instructors on campus were suggesting there was a nice Christian student on campus I might like to meet.  I figured out it was the same person I noticed months earlier and have been losing weight and sleep over it because I didn't have the nerve to introduce myself!  Now I knew I needed to introduce myself because one of these instructors was well known for embarrassing his students out of fun and he said he'd introduce us next time he saw us both in the hall!  I didn't want him to introduce us!  Lord knew I needed the nerve to introduce myself.  I finally did and now you know the rest of the story!  Date, asked Dad for my hand, popped question, engagement ring, wedding bells, first kiss!  (Even though the pastor didn't believe us!)  Beleive me, there were many times I wished Steve would have kissed me while we were dating.  He was determined to preserve this to honor the Lord and I have admired that about him to this day!  I could have grabbed him like Freckles grabbed Jerry Lewis in the movies and planted one on him, but I am glad I also resisted and honored Steve's example in Christ and our commitment to purity.  It is worth the wait!  Steve's mother blessed me when she revealed to me that she had been praying for me for several years as she trusted the Lord for someone that loved the Lord to be Steve's wife.  She also prayed that God would protect me.  Wow, to think of these prayers of my mother and my mother-in-law-to-be as I was growing up!  When we seek the Lord in our life choices and daily living, we are not disappointed!

Missions:  As a couple and as a family, we were strongly impacted in leadership ministry and for missions through the Marshall Evangelical Free Church of Marshall, MN.  Short-term mission trips to the Kentucky Mountains and the Dominican Republic won my heart for missions forever.  This church body is a strong support and example of equipping, nurturing, encouraging, and sending those willing to go.  We continue our local church involvement at our home church, Christ the King Free Lutheran Church of Pipestone, MN, also a sending church committed to local and world missions. 

God is faithful:  God has continued to be faithful as I seek Him through good times: birth of our children, establishing a home, growing in ministry in our local church and community, and growing stronger in marriage.  God has continued to be faithful as I seek Him through the hard times: bed rest with each pregnancy from week 11 on, postpartum depression, loss of Steve's mother, facing job-loss as a family, and learning to deal with personal conflicts in a God honoring way.  I believe this journey is where personal strength because of God's healing power gave birth to a steadfast confidence in Christ alone.