The Kingsley's

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled." Matthew 5:12

Hal and Barbara were a young couple with 3 children, two boys and a little girl
with "Shirley Temple" long blond ringlets......
she became the darling of the church, at such a young age...I think she was
about
3 or 4, she gave her testimony about the Lord, and sang hymns. I'd never
seen anyone so excited about the Lord, ever before.
Rev. Hal ran the teen youth group after that, and
he soon came to the reality that the group was really a social club. None of us
really had a serious relationship with God...in fact, just the opposite in some
cases.....so he patiently started with the basics and prayed....a lot and waited.
He got the us kids to do some community activities for the church, I remember
we helped at the annual pancake breakfast, he gave Bible studies, and listened
to us. Some of the kids came from abusive and troubled families...one of my
dear friends came to school with black eyes from her dad. some of the kids had
alcoholics at home. and yet they came to church and no one had listened before.
This in itself was startling to us...and life changing.....

We had a lot of questions....and the Spirit of God worked among us.....

There was a camping trip scheduled and we all went. We played a game..Capture
The Flag....and generally had a good time. I fell asleep in the back of one of the
trucks that a counselor had.......sometime in the night, I was woke up by the sound
of cowboy boots. My best friend,  pulled herself onto the flatbed and proceeded
to throw up. Found out some of the boys had brought Red Ripple wine to the
camp out...she was so so sick...this woke up the counselors. of course, we went home
the next morning, early, and had to face Rev. Kingsley.

I have never seen anyone so disappointed as he and his wife were.....I felt really
bad and I hadn't drank! My friend felt worse, the boys shrugged it off and the Spirit of
God worked.

One Sunday evening, he brought in some little pamplets ...remember in an earlier
post I spoke about the Four Spiritual Law? well, it showed up again..and we
read it....really read it...and one by one we started making the decision to follow Christ.
I didn't right away....part of me fought it....the part that liked the occult. There was a
real spiritual struggle going on.

 My dear friend read the pamplet and prayed to accept the Lord into her life.....I knew it and felt
this huge burden...she and I talked...she told me she couldn't be my friend anyone if I didn't
come forward too and that she was praying for me.........that really hurt....I came away
feeling burdened, and that evening, kneeled beside my bed, prayed and asked Jesus into
my life .......the burden was lifted....this wonderful awesome peace and the presence of
God filled my heart, I started to cry...YES! the search had ended and God won.

The next day, I told her, I told the Kingsley's...I told my family, I told my brother, I told everyone who would listen...Jesus is alive!

and the journey was just starting