Stories of Faith

“Being physically fit means you are ready for everything. When you are raising kids, you want to be active. If they wanted to play, I wanted to be ready to play. I love the outdoors, which means I must go out and move around in the outdoors and if I am not healthy, I won’t feel good and I’m not going to do it, so I try to be ready for everything. My spiritual health is no different. There is always something to train for and you always have to your eyes open for opportunities. I need to take care of my body, so I can serve him, not so I can look good, but be ready to serve. He is the greatest motivation on me to stay fit. I use it all for Him.”

“She just sat down and started talking to me. I started asking questions about the church and what all they do for the kids and about the programs they have. She sat there and talked to me the entire fall festival. She answered every question amazingly and I just kept getting this feeling of God telling me this is where my family and I needed to be. My oldest daughter was about to be in sixth grade, so she would be starting youth group soon and knowing Shannon was the youth pastor’s wife and how passionate she was, it truly meant so much.”

“She just sat down and started talking to me. I started asking questions about the church and what all they do for the kids and about the programs they have. She sat there and talked to me the entire fall festival. She answered every question amazingly and I just kept getting this feeling of God telling me this is where my family and I needed to be. My oldest daughter was about to be in sixth grade, so she would be starting youth group soon and knowing Shannon was the youth pastor’s wife and how passionate she was, it truly meant so much.”

“There were times during those first few years at Jenks where other jobs or full-time positions would open and every time I would pray to the Lord and get an overwhelming peace that God has me here for a reason. It just gave me peace about staying at FBC Jenks and God told me if you stay here and be faithful and serve, He will honor that. I remained faithful and served here and got to do good ministry with the students and whenever that time came, the Lord was faithful. I was able to step in as student pastor and have loved every minute of it.”

There was an older lady who lived on our street. She was a very sweet lady and she always had cool and fun treats for us kids while we were playing outside. She had a Bible study and we got involved in that. One day, it was over our salvation, and it was because of that Bible study that I was led to accept Christ as my Lord and Savior.”

“My heart’s desire, on those Sundays, was always to go back to FBC Jenks. One of my prayers was to find a church that had a multi-generational aspect to it. None of my grandparents are still living, but I had several women from the church, a couple which were old enough to be my grandparents, who were willing to spend time with me and invest in my life. I officially joined FBC Jenks November 2, 2017. It is one of the best decisions I have ever made. The way the Lord has used the church and the people in the church in my life has been so instrumental in my faith.”

“My goal is to greet every single person who comes up that sidewalk. I look at it as my job and I need to be there. We don’t miss many Sundays. We love the church. As long as I can, I am going to stand on my post. I can’t stand a real long time anymore, but as long as I can, I will be there.”

“God made me a curious person. Growing up, I was sheltered, and I really had no clue about all the ideas and other forms of religion across the globe. I asked myself, ‘do I believe what I believe because this is what my parents and Sunday school teachers have taught me, or is this actually what I believe as truth?’ I really investigated my faith.”

“I don’t think there has been a time since then that God hasn’t put someone in my life to pray for who is struggling with having a child … There hasn’t been a time since then I haven’t been praying for God to bring another child into this world.”

“When I go through something challenging, I ask God what He wants to show me and what He wants me to show other people for Him. It’s really neat to see how God has been so faithful. The opportunity to go to college, get a job, get married and become a mom … it’s like God is telling me your disability is not going to stop me from using you. It’s very humbling to look back to when I thought of myself as not worthy. He has always reminded me that I am worthy in His eyes because He made me.”

“I just remember tearing up with tears of joy. I was 17 and acutely aware of God’s presence throughout that process. More than the monetary gift was the gift to a young teen that God really IS in control and is ALWAYS with me.”

“I grew up in a church where if there were 200 people on a Sunday in a single service we were lucky. Then our church in east Tulsa was also small. Rick (Frie) sold us on this church and the community we have there. Everyone is ready to help and is willing to do whatever they can to help. It is a family. Working there now, I see it even more. I see what they do and the outreach they have. Rick is a spokesperson for God. From day one, we have felt like a part of the family.”

“I just felt this overwhelming desire to pull over onto the side of the road and my life has been different ever since,” Bart said. “God put a fire in me. He took a person that was completely turned away from Him and gave me that one opportunity to surrender and I did. I’m so thankful for that.”

“God gave me a picture of a golden staircase coming down over top of that hot tub. I didn’t see the Lord at first but I heard Stephanie’s giggle and her laugh, she had a contagious laugh. He was holding her in His right arm and she was playing with His hair and pulling on His beard. She was doing all kinds of stuff, happy just babbling like crazy, and He said Cyndy she is just fine, I have got her and I’m going to take care of her.”

“The first Christmas gift I ever received came from First Baptist Jenks,” Cheryl said. “After they left our house that night, I asked my mom why would they do that? They don’t know us. She said it’s just like we used to knock on doors, it’s just what they do. I thought to myself, I’ve knocked on doors trying to tell people who I thought God was, they knocked on doors and are meeting needs and giving gifts.”

“It was such a huge answer to prayer,” Bridget said. “The Lord brought me into a church community that I really needed. I started to rely on the Lord again and wanted to refocus on what I knew the Lord had for me. I wasn’t sure if it was going to be missions, but I knew it was going to be something international.”

“I was 51, had a great position in a great company that I had been with for 33 years, but God was telling me there was something else. We struggled with it for six months, but it just became more apparent that I was supposed to retire and go work for our church.”

“There have been plenty of days of tears from me and tears from them. There have been many days where I have doubted that I am doing the right thing. But God has continued to give me the endurance and patience to push forward. My husband is 1000% supportive. Any time I have had struggles, he is there to listen. We know this is what God has for us and we are just going to keep trusting Him.”

“The Lord was on me one day at church. I kept having this strong feeling that I needed to do something. I could feel the Lord tugging at me saying, ‘Okay, so what are you going to do?’. It was at that time I saw an old mandolin on the stage. It belonged to the pastor’s wife. Singing was a big thing in the church. I could hear the Lord telling me it was time to get busy, so I asked about the mandolin and she told me to take it.”

There were times where it was hard to pray. But there were times that is all we could do along the way. I think through prayer is where God gives you some answers and some of the little nuggets along the way to help you get through it. We are told to pray, but you have to listen. If we are constantly talking, we don’t ever have the chance to hear Him.”

“One of the most heart-wrenching times was when she (Paige) was old enough and had realized what had happened to her, she was able to understand. She made the decision to forgive the lady (neighbor). For her to do that … she knew that was the thing to do … she is a Christian, but to hear her express that, it’s hard to put into words.”