Mark's Testimony
My name is Mark Smith. I was born in Blacksburg, VA and grew up most of my life in Dublin, VA - a few miles away. As a young child, I grew up in a church and had heard the gospel. My parents divorced when I was eight years old. I went to church with my mother (a Nazarene church) and with my father (the brethren in Christ church). It was at my father's church where I remember - as an eight year old little boy playing under the church pews with some cars - that I heard pastor Stewart Kelly preach on hell. Later that night, I tossed on my bed for fear of going to hell. I decided to call on the Lord Jesus Christ to save my soul (and thank God he did!).
I attended public school and was caught in the cares of the world, after having been taught that one could lose their salvation. I knew myself better than anyone else did and knew that I couldn't keep it. I lived for myself. I figured if I was going to lose my salvation, then why try? Based on that, I had an empty place within my heart. Looking back now, I know it was that broken fellowship with the Lord. I tried everything the world could offer to fill my emptiness, but got nowhere. I reached the point of suicide when I told myself I will try one more thing. If I could start my life all over, it is bound to be better - so I decided to be a foreign exchange student to Germany.
And that is about the time I met my youth pastor, Michael Stamper. The Lord used him in a mighty way to get me to look to the Lord Jesus Christ, but it was not until I went to summer camp in Marion, NC that I surrendered and gave it all on the altar. My youth pastor brought me back from camp and showed me how to lead a soul to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I went to the fair one week before departure to Germany and won three souls to Christ. I was hooked. I saw where the meaningful life was! It was in Jesus Christ! For the first time in years, I had a reason to live - to please the one that bought me with his precious blood. I then went to Germany thinking I was just going to win them by the hundreds.
Within the first month, I was told to quit passing out tracts and reading my bible or go back to the states. It was there in the small town of Ruhland, Germany that the Lord gave me a burden for Germany. I knew that they were going to hell without Jesus Christ and that there was no one to tell them. The Lord showed me in Romans 10:14 - "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?" A missionary by the name of Richard Weimer heard about me. He came, picked me up and I lived with him the rest of the time in Germany. After I returned to the states I finished high school, moved to Pensacola, FL and attended Pensacola Bible Institute under Dr. Peter S. Ruckman. And now, Lord willing with your prayers and support, head back to Germany to win souls, start local churches, and train nationals for the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for your time and consideration for the ministry to the Germans.
Kacie's Testimony
My name is Kacie Smith. I was born in Bluefield, WV and raised in Bland, VA for the first nine years of my life. There my family attended a Methodist church until I was four and quit for no real reason. So during my childhood I had only a common knowledge of God, Jesus Christ and the Bible. When I was nine, we moved to a larger town called Pulaski, VA. This was a place just full of the things of the world. The knowledge of those things played against me but by the mercy of God at the age of twelve I received Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and counted him as the only way. Then I had no discipleship and did not understand anything of what I received and with no King James Bible I quickly fell hard into the world's system. I would stay there serving myself, sin and the devil for the next four years.
My life was without hope and I had lost the knowledge of my salvation with a constant hardening of my heart. Everything was wrecked and I continued to fall until I was flat on my back ready to die just to get away from the heartache that sin had left in me. Jesus Christ became just another name to me until He sent someone by my way with his word. That man is now my husband. We met in German class in our high school. His willingness to disciple me in German gave him an open door to disciple me in the Bible, which soon led to a complete change of my clothes, friends, music, hangouts and complete lifestyle. I gave my life to the Lord Jesus Christ at a youth camp in Marion, NC.
I devoted time to reading God's word. And even though I understood very little then, He blessed and has taken me down a long road which led to marrying, attending Pensacola Bible Institute with my husband, and we are now on our way to the mission field to the German people. With all my growing in Him, I can now say without a doubt I know where I am going when I die and with a little grace I will serve him until the day I die or am raptured out. Go deserves all the glory no man could help me only His love, His patience, His chastening, His blood, and His word.