Changed Lives

The Lord impressed on my heart His desire for me to serve as a missionary in Africa during a missionary presentation in 1998. I honestly tried to resist Him for almost a year! I never thought the Lord would be able to use me.

I was raised in a poor farming family here in Central New York. There was no known Christian influence in my family of life during those years, and yet the Lord sustained me through various trials including physical abuse and then abandonment by my father when I was nine. I struggled with severe depression and anger throughout my younger years.

As a high schooler I began to have an interest in spiritual things. Although I had no real concept of God or the truths of the Bible, I was convicted that I was a sinner on my way to Hell. My search for truth intensified in 1991 when my mother was killed in a car accident on Christmas Eve. In the tenth grade I was thrust into living on my own as well as full-time employment at a grocery store here in Cortland. I had profound emptiness and hopelessness in my life that increased as I continued to seek truth in the wrong places. Finding nothing that satisfied my soul, I was considering taking my own life when I turned to a Christian radio station one sleepless night. It was after some weeks of listening to that station, and the witness of a friend at work that I received Christ by faith in 1993. I was discipled and baptized here at Bible Baptist Church. It is my home and sending church today.

I have received many lessons in God's sovereignty and personal care since that time, including surviving an advanced skin cancer and serving for 8 months as a missionary to South Africa, where I hope one day to return permanently. Where once I was hopeless and filled with pain, anger, and doubts, I now have peace and joy through my Lord Jesus Christ. I am just one small example of God's power to change lives.

More Changed Lives
Norm & Sally Knapp

Check back again for additional examples of God's changing power on this web site.

Church members and friends: Interested in sharing a brief testimony here of God's changing work in your life? Please contact the Internet Committee.