Testimonies

While we are waiting on Zac (he is working diligently I promise) to write his side of The Day We Met, I thought I would post a short snipet of both of our testimonies before we got married.

I (Bekah) was born in Ketchikan , AK , but I have lived in Franklin , NC for most of my life. I grew up in a Christian family, and was saved and baptized at the age of 6. I have been going to church my whole life, but about the middle of my high school years, I started drifting away from God. I kept myself busy with sports, friends, and trying to fit in by the world’s standards, and totally neglected God and His calling for my life. I allowed sin to slowly creep into my life and I cut off my fellowship with Jesus Christ by not reading the Word of God. I quit spending time in the only book that would bring me closer to God and teach me truth. I had allowed myself to be sucked in by the world and its false advertising. I wanted to go with the crowd instead of against it, because it SEEMED easier and more fun. I had a lot of pride, and what I mean by that is I wanted to put myself and my will above Gods and I guess I just wanted to see if I could make it on my own. I continued this lifestyle of rebellion into college. I was running from God. I thought I could have more fun without Him and maybe after college I would return to my “Christian” life. My first year of college, I went all the way across the state to ECU. I tried to get involved with as many things as possible to fill up my time and what I thought would make my life content. I got involved in club soccer, racquetball club, friends, going to clubs and parties, and I was constantly changing things in my life that I thought would make me happy. After my first year at ECU I was unhappy so I decided to transfer to NCSU. God strategically placed people in my life over those years at State to get my attention. He was not going to leave me. God grabbed my attention one night through a dream. I had a dream that Jesus came back and I wasn’t ready. That whole week, I thought about my life and who I was living it for. I had made myself an idol and put myself and my own selfish desires before God. That Sunday I asked my Dad, who I deeply respect, to pray with me. I asked God to forgive me for wasting what He had given me, and invited Christ to dwell in me. Since that day I have come a long way in my walk with the Lord. Things have not been easy but I definitely have a joy that was not there before and can’t be explained by anything other than Jesus Christ.
God placed it on my heart years ago to begin praying for the man that I would one day marry. I started to believe that the Lord had a perfect plan for my life, and that He would bring someone into my life who was sold out for Him. Back in the summer of 2005 I started keeping a journal of my prayers for my husband. I believed that even before I met this man that the Lord would go before us and prepare the way, that He would honor those prayers because He knew the man that He had set apart for me. It is overwhelming to look back over those years of praying for Zac and see how the Lord has answered every prayer and every desire of my heart. When I first met Zac, I had no idea that this would be the man that God had chosen for me. In fact it went a little different than I always thought it would. For some reason I had always thought that I would know the exact moment I saw the person that they would be my husband. Well God’s ways are higher than my ways and it took about a week ;)

TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH IT IS HARD FOR ME (Zac) TO SUM UP MY LIFE STORY THUS FAR ON A SHEET OF PAPER, I GUESS I COULD BEGIN HERE I WAS AIR LIFTED TO CHARLOTTE, NC WHERE I WAS BORN 6 TO 8 WEEKS PREMATURE ONLY WEIGHING A LITTLE OVER 3 POUNDS I HAVE LIVED MOST OF MY LIFE IN SHELBY, NC, BUT DID LIVE IN CULLOWHEE, NC AND ANCHORAGE, AK FOR A PERIOD OF TIME IN MY LIFE. I WAS RAISED IN A CHRISTIAN FAMILY AND WAS BAPTIZED AROUND THE AGE OF 16, BUT DID NOT HAVE A HEART CHANGE IN FACT I DID NOT UNDERSTAND AT THAT TIME IN MY LIFE THAT IT WAS A PERSON THAT I NEEDED (JESUS) NOT A PERSONS HANDSHAKE. FROM THAT POINT ON IN MY LIFE I LIVED TRYING TO FIT IN AND BE WHAT OTHERS WANTED ME TO BE. SIN WAS MY FIRST LOVE AND CURSING WAS MY FIRST LANGUAGE ALTHOUGH I KNEW IN MY HEART WHAT WAS RIGHT AND WHAT WAS WRONG. KNOWING WHAT WAS RIGHT IN MY LIFE DOES NOT MEAN THAT I WANTED THAT IN MY LIFE, I MEAN I WANTED WHAT I WANTED OR AT LEAST WHAT I THOUGHT WOULD HELP ME, NOT HURT ME. I FILLED MY LIFE WITH FRIENDS AND HUNG OUT WITH THEM 7 DAYS A WEEK AND THANK THE LORD THAT HE SPARED THOSE RELATIONSHIPS AND PROTECTED US WHEN WE WERE NOT THINKING ON HIM. I GRADUATED FROM HIGH SCHOOL WITH NO SET PLANS FOR MY FUTURE SO I DECIDED TO GO TO COMMUNITY COLLEGE. THE SAME FRIENDS FILLING EVERY CORNER WAS WHERE I BEGAN. AFTER ONE YEAR OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE I DECIDED I MIGHT GO TO NCSU. I WAS NOT THE TYPE OF INDIVIDUAL THAT WOULD ACTUALLY GO IF I WAS ACCEPTED. I WAS ACCEPTED AND THANKS TO THE LORD, MY DAD PUSHED ME OUT OF THE NEST TO NCSU WITH NO LOOKING BACK. LITTLE DID I KNOW THAT GOD WAS SETTING ME UP FOR AN ENCOUNTER WITH HIS LOVE (JESUS CHRIST) IN THE YEARS TO COME. FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE I WAS ALONE AND MY CLOSET FRIENDS WERE NOT AROUND. IT WAS ME AND THE REAL WORLD. I SOON MADE FRIENDS AND GOT INVOLVED IN SPORTS WITH NO TIME FOR CHURCH OR JESUS IN MY LIFE. I WAS WALKING ACROSS CAMPUS ONE DAY AND RAN INTO TWO GUYS THAT BEGAN TALKING TO ME ABOUT JESUS CHRIST. THEY ASKED ME IF I WAS SAVED AND I REPLIED HONESTLY YES, BECAUSE I THOUGHT THAT MY SERVICE AND TIME IN THE CHURCH COULD SAVE ME OR EVEN THE FACT THAT I WAS RAISED IN A CHRISTIAN HOME COULD SAVE ME. I WAS FULL OF PRIDE THAT HAD BLINDED ME AND I WAS LIVING FOR MYSELF. AS TIME PASSED I LOST CONTACT WITH THE TWO FRIENDS AND BEGAN A TIME IN MY LIFE THAT WAS DARK, BUT THANKS BE TO GOD THAT HIS LIGHT IS BRIGHTER IN THE DARKNESS. ALMOST THREE YEARS HAD NOW PASSED AND I WAS AT THE PLACE WHERE GOD HAD ALLOWED THE ENEMY TO TILL THE SOIL OF MY PRIDEFUL HEART. I HAD BEEN WALKED ON AND HURT AND BEGAN TO CALL ON GOD AND PRAY IN MY ON LIFE AND PRIVATE TIME WITHOUT YET KNOWING HIM PERSONALLY UNTIL ONE DAY I WAS INVITED TO GO TO CHURCH IN RALEIGH. FOR A MONTH I WENT SITTING ON THE BACK ROW UNTIL ONE DAY I FELT COMPELLED TO GO TO THE ALTAR AND IT WAS THERE THAT JESUS MET ME AND LITERALLY REACHED DOWN THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT IN BETWEEN MY WEEPING AND WASHED ME IN HIS LOVE AND I ACCEPTED JESUS CHRIST AS MY PERSONAL SAVIOR. THAT WAS OCTOBER 2003 AND THINGS SINCE HAVE NOT BEEN EASY BUT GOD THROUGH HIS GRACE AND MERCY HAS CONTINUALLY KEPT ME AND PROTECTED ME THROUGH HIS WONDERFUL LOVE. I GRADUATED COLLEGE AT NCSU IN MAY 2005 AND GOD MOVED ME BACK TO SHELBY WHERE I SPENT A LITTLE OVER THREE YEARS GROWING IN GOD’S GRACE. IT WAS THEN WHEN GOD PLACED IT IN MY HEART TO BEGIN TO PRAY FOR MY WIFE. FOR THREE YEARS I SOUGHT GOD FOR MY WIFE TO BE NOT REALLY BELIEVING THAT HE WAS A FATHER GOD THAT COULD ANSWER MY PRAYS LET ALONE GIVE ME THE DESIRES OF MY HEART. IT IS TRULY A BLESSING TO LOOK BACK AND SEE HOW GOD WAS LISTENING AND PREPARING ME FOR BEKAH AND THE PERFECT TIMING THAT ONLY HE COULD ORCHESTRATE. I ALWAYS BELIEVED THAT WHEN I MET MY WIFE (BEKAH) TO BE THAT THE CLOUDS WOULD PART AND ALL OF HEAVEN WOULD SING BUT GOD HAD A BETTER WAY THROUGH THE SIMPLE CONFIRMATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. I THANK GOD FOR HEARING MY PRAYERS AND BRINGING ME MORE THAN I COULD HAVE EVER DESIRED, MY BEKAH.