When I was around four or five years old, I was told by an authoritative figure that if I broke one of the ten commandments one time that I would go to hell. I realized that I had broken more than one of them, and some of them more than once. Then within two months of hearing this, my family of seven, of which I was the youngest, went to our city’s museum of art. As we walked through and saw all the pictures hanging at various heights on the walls, I came to a picture that was at my eye level (I was the shortest of our group), which was an artist’s rendition of hell. I cannot tell you what that did to me. That picture of my possible end stuck in my mind for a long time.
By the end of my freshman year in college, I was still wrestling mentally about whether there was a God or there wasn’t. It couldn’t be both. If there was no God, then all there was in life was a miserable existence for about seventy-two years, then a hole in the ground. I then said to myself, “Well, why postpone the inevitable? Why not just bypass all the crap and just get right to it?” After briefly considering that, I said to myself that maybe there is a God. If there is a God, then He had to be smarter than me, and He would have to make Himself, along with His will for my life, known to me. I couldn’t figure it out by or for myself. I needed His help if He did exist.
The summer after my freshman year didn’t get any better. I was still unsure about God and my future. Then I visited my sister and her family for one week before I went back to college. She and her husband witnessed to me and led me into speaking in tongues the night before I was to go back home and then back to college. Saturday morning, my brother-in-law left to go to a fellowship coordinator meeting for the state. An hour later, I left to go back home. Sunday, I went back to college.
On Monday, I went to the Student Union to buy my books, and on the way back to my dorm room, I stopped at a tent that had booths from different churches and religions. I knew about The Way Ministry because of my sister, and I had been to ministry events like the Rock of Ages, so I went through that tent to see if the ministry had a booth set up there. Well, I walked the length of that tent and nothing. I knew I could call Headquarters or The Way in my state to find out about a local fellowship, but I wanted God to prove to me that The Way International was where I needed to go. I was definitely seeking a sign from God.
I got back to my dorm room and there was a note on my door to call this individual. I didn’t know them, but I called them and said, “Hi, I had a note on my door to call you. Why do you want me to call you?”
He answered, “I heard you want to go to fellowship.” I couldn’t believe it, because not even my mom knew I wanted to. I asked him how he knew. He told me he was from the same city my sister lived in and that he heard about the meeting for all the fellowship coordinators in the state, which was in the same city. He wasn’t a fellowship coordinator, but he wanted to be one, so he decided to go to this meeting without being invited, and he “just happened” to sit next to my brother-in-law!
Well, I was at fellowship that night! When they talked to me about taking the Foundational Class, they showed me a green card. On the back of this card were listed several benefits of the class. I went through that list, which included health and prosperity, but the one benefit that caught my attention and the only one I really wanted was, “Makes life meaningful.” If this class could do that, then my prayers were answered.
When I sat through that class, it was an audio class with flip charts. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time! I learned that I was born again of God’s spirit and that I would spend eternity with God, His Son Jesus Christ, and all other believers. I was not going to burn for eternity in hell! What joy that brought to my heart!
I can only speculate concerning what I would have done had I not gotten involved with The Way International. I honestly believe that I would not be alive today if it were not for the ministry of Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille, which taught me how to rightly divide God’s Word and how to practically apply God’s Word in my life. I am not going to hell—I am going to “ever be with the Lord.”