DAVIS, Okla. (BP)–While unloading a load of frozen hams at a slaughterhouse, Kelly Ogle decided somewhere along the line he had strayed off course.
Ogle, a news anchor for CBS affiliate KWTV in Oklahoma City, reflected back on his realization years ago in Arkansas City, Kan., as he and fellow Channel 9 anchor Robin Marsh addressed Falls Creek Baptist Assembly 4-M rallies (missions, morals, music and models) in August.
“I grew up in a great family, attended church on a pretty regular basis as a little kid, but started getting away from church when I was in junior high — at a time when I needed it most,” Ogle recounted.
Just before high school graduation, he was introduced to alcohol at a party.
“That night was the beginning of what would be five years of real darkness in my life,” he said.
After graduation, Ogle went to Oklahoma State University, started studying journalism and joined a fraternity where instead of “partying maybe one night a week, suddenly it was an everyday thing for me.”
He confessed his life started spiraling downward, and he began trying to get away from the responsibility of school, relationships and finances.
After his slaughterhouse realization of needing to get his life back on course, Ogle moved back to Oklahoma City where he got a job in a restaurant and met a young Christian woman whom he started to date.
Ogle reported they had a great time on their first date, and while driving around Lake Hefner, his car started acting up.
“I said, ‘What is that knocking?'” he recounted. “She said, ‘I guarantee it isn’t opportunity, buddy.'”
But, in fact, it was opportunity, Ogle said, because through this girl and her family he learned there is a lot more to life than just partying.
“She started taking me to church at Northwest Baptist Church in Oklahoma City,” Ogle said. “I went back to school, finished my degree and went to work in broadcasting.”
As Ogle continued to go to church, he said every time the pastor gave an invitation, he dug his heels in deeper and gripped the back of the pew.
“I was too proud to admit I needed Jesus Christ in my life,” he said. “Also I didn’t want to have to walk down that aisle and wonder what all those people would think about me.”
He said at the church’s Christmas pageant in 1986, God stopped whispering to him and shouted, “You know the truth, what are you going to do?”
Ogle said a prayer, the best he could, asking God to show him, although he didn’t understand everything, who he wanted him to become.
“That night God began revealing his truth to me,” Ogle said. “The next Sunday, even though I had given my life to Jesus, it was hard for me to take that first step down the aisle. But when I did, it was like Jesus himself scooped me up and carried me.”
Ogle acknowledged the last 11 years of his life have been incredible. He married the young woman who pointed him to Jesus, and they have three children, all named after towns in Oklahoma — Chandler, Sayre and Merritt.
And his talks with God have expanded.
“I’ve also questioned God, and he’s answered my questions,” Ogle said at the Davis, Okla., assembly. “And one of the most amazing things of all is I’m not afraid of death anymore.
“I’m going to miss you guys and I’m going to miss my family, but I can’t wait to see God.” Ogle speculated there may be weekly news conferences in heaven, “and I’m going to have my recorder and I’m going to be the first one there every week to ask all those questions I don’t yet understand.”
