I just received the following testimony from a church completing their semester of FAITH strategy. The FAITH training begins each week with testimonies of how God has worked in the participant's life between each FAITH training week. On this particular training day, late into the spring semester, the participants were asked if they had any testimonies from the week. Mary spoke up and said she would like to share something that happened on Friday evening.
She was having a quiet night at home when the phone rang and she heard her daughter's voice say, "Mom! Can we talk for a moment?" What was unusual about this call was that the mom had not heard from her daughter since Christmas Eve following her daughter's selfish outrage at the family Christmas gathering. Her outburst put such a damper on the gathering that the family very quietly began to leave the home, going their separate ways.
Let's go back to the phone call! The mom said to her daughter, "Sarah, yes, we can talk, but I want to tell you what you really need." Sarah, apparently desperate for help, said to her mom, "What is it that I need?" Mary replied, "You need Jesus in your life!" Sarah replied, "How do I get this Jesus into my life?" Mary responded, "I can tell you with one word and that one word is FAITH."
Mary then took her daughter through the FAITH presentation and at the end of the presentation Sarah said, "Mom, that's exactly what I want in my life." Mary continued by leading Sarah in the sinner's prayer and the prayer of commitment.
Mary told the other participants that if she were not in that training she would have had no idea how to lead her daughter to Jesus. She said she believed that was is the very reason for her being in FAITH ministry.
The FAITH training continued following her testimony and a FAITH team, at Mary's encouragement, went to see Sarah and her husband that very day. The team got to the door and found it was as if Sarah and her husband had been waiting all day for the team. They immediately welcomed the team into their home and they all began sharing together.
The FAITH team leader began asking Sarah about her decision. She told them that she had prayed over the phone with her mother and how important it was to her life. The team leader then asked Sarah's husband about his own relationship with Jesus. The husband shared how he came to know Jesus as his Savior and Lord but had not been living the Christian life. Tears were flowing from the husband as well as his wife as he said, "I want to live the Christian life because I don't like what I have become or have led my family to become."
After additional conversation, the team leader led the husband in a prayer of recommitment. The team enrolled the couple and their young son in Sunday School and encouraged the family to make their decisions public.
The following Sunday, Sarah and her husband were in church. As the invitation was given in the worship service, Sarah's husband led them down the aisle to make their decisions public. She has been baptized and now the family is in Sunday School and church each week.
Mary said she could not have been happier than to see her daughter, son-in-law, and their child in church.
In the final session of their spring semester the teams were celebrating how God had worked in their lives. Mary said, "I cannot imagine not doing FAITH for as long as I am able!" She has now recruited two learners and will be serving as a team leader in the next semester of FAITH training.
