Love closes the back door

Families who united with the Adventist church share how they accepted the Message and what prompted them to become active, growing and contributing members.

By the AEA staff.

Our marriage ceremony was preformed in the baptistry! I had been going to a Christian Fellowship church and Barbie had previously been an Adventist, hut had fallen away. We were living together, and many times Barbie and I had argued about Saturday being the Sabbath. I could see the texts, but it just wasn't clear. Then we got a brochure in the mail with a large King Tut that caught my attention. We started attending Dan Bentzinger's lectures and enjoyed it so much we kept coming every night. When Dan talked about the Sabbath, it suddenly became very clear to me. I knew I must follow Jesus' example. Barbie and I were convicted that we should follow Jesus in all areas or our lives, and that it was wrong for us to be living together. We committed our lives to each other and the Lord by a wedding and baptism preformed at the same time. The church decorated the baptistry with flowers and candles. After Dan presented the lecture that evening, the church surprised us with a wedding reception. Every Sabbath people would come up to us and greet us by name. Families started inviting us to their homes. There were different meals and social outings like hikes that really made us feel a part of the church family. Barbie had wanted to move our membership to another nearby Adventist church after our baptism because the services there were more contemporary. But after all the love displayed by our new church family, I told her, "I'm not moving my membership from here! This is my family!" She agreed. Now, after giving Bible studies and seeing two baptized as a result, I want to help expand God's kingdom as much as I can. I'm now in training with a conference program doing Bible work and soon will be a Bible worker for my conference in this program. Recently we moved our membership to the church where Barbie and I are doing Bible work but last week we went back to our home church for a visit. There was the baptistry with all of its memories. There was our church family with hugs of welcome. I leaned over to Barbie and said, "It's great to be back home!"

--Stan and Barbie Silva, Baptized Feb. 13, 1994

"We heard about Richard Halvorsen's crusade in the mail and on TV. We were very strong Baptists. I (Doris) took my little boys to Sunday School and church faithfully, and raised them in the large Baptist church where all my family and friends were. I had been a member of that church for 37 years when we started attending Richard Haivorsen's meetings. It was a big step for us to leave the Baptist church and join this small Adventist church. My niece is the secretary for the pastor at the Baptist church but all of our relatives have given us respect for our convictions. One thing that made the transition easier for us was all of the love and caring we felt from our new Adventist family. One couple called and said We want to take you out to eat.' Different ones would give us a hug and say We're glad to have you here.' We really enjoyed the dinners each Sabbath when the visitors and new members were always invited to stay by. Everyone has been so warm and friendly. When my sister died last week, I called our Adventist pastor to go down to the funeral home with us. My sister was a member of the Baptist church longer than I, and there were hundreds of people from my former congregation at her funeral. Yet, I was so grateful that my new Adventist pastor was with me, along with the Baptist pastor and all my friends and relatives from my former congregation. We're thankful God gave us the courage to change denominations when we saw the truth. The loving and caring really helped draw us in."

--Kenneth & Doris Leird, Profession of Faith, Oct. 1, 1994

"We had been searching for Bible truth in a number of Protestant churches and were reading through the Book of Revelation for the first time together. As we made our way through, we had no idea what most of the book was saying; in fact Denise was starting to have nightmares about weird and wild beasts'! We got discouraged, but God had a plan in His perfect timing! Denise's mom had been studying here and there with some Adventists she knew. When she found out that we were attempting to read Revelation she exclaimed that she knew the right people to help us understand. A pamphlet arrived in the mail inviting us to a prophecy seminar at the local Seventh-day Adventist Academy about that same time. We decided to go and check it out and never missed a night! We had decided before all this that the Bible would be our guide. During Leo Schreven's seminar we were convicted and were baptized shortly after. Denise's parents were baptized with us. After all of the excitement of the seminar and baptism was over, we were accepted by the Seventh-day Adventist church with open arms. Never before had we felt more comfortable and loved by a church. The hospitality of the members was outstanding! We were invited to Sabbath dinners/afternoons almost every week for the first couple of months. This helped us to get to know the members and feel truly a part of the family of God. A Sabbath morning class designed for the newly baptized helped us continue to settle into the Bible truth. Now God has called me to share. I am a theology student and will be going through Dan Bentzinger's field school of evangelism. I am excited about doing evangelism as a profession after I finish my education!"

--Shawn and Denise Brummond, Baptized Dec. 10, 1993

"We got a circular in the mail advertising Lyle Alhrecht's meetings, and went almost every night. We sat there like a sponge, soaking up everything! It was captivating, fascinating, and convicting. When we heard about the Sabbath we thought, How are we going to do this?' Jim had recently started his own busi ness doing replacement windows, and almost all of his estimates were on Friday evenings and Saturdays. We made the big decision to be baptized and follow the Bible. We left our Baptist church of 1,500 members where we were active, to join a much smaller Adventist church. What happened was remarkable! There were consistent requests to work on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays! That was two years ago. Last year was the best financial year for our new business! We have such peace within ourselves, because we now belong to a church that is striving to follow the Bible. I (Diana) come from a Catholic background, and the pastor has been wonderful taking it step by step, inch by inch and breaking it down. He has continued to study Revelation and Daniel, and more people are coming into the church. When we were first baptized different members would invite us to their homes. Being new, this meant a. lot. We now think of our Adventist church as a family. They've put us to work greeting, teaching in vacation Bible schools, and Jim on the Junior Academy hoard. When Richard Halvorsen came last year to hold meetings, we were delighted to be his head greeters each night. When other families made the decision to step out in faith and keep the Sabbath, we wanted to be there with a hug or a word of encouragement. We are so happy that we became Seventh-day Adventists! We are thrilled that we have been able to bring four new people to this message through baptism, and we are still studying with more!"

--Jim and Diana Venable, Baptized Feb. 14, 1993 


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By the AEA staff.

June 1995

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