Articles
Mike Elliott's Testimony - Finding My Way Back
Posted by Jamison Jones
First let me say that the events of my life are a testimony to God and His awesome power. The love when I needed love; the discipline when I needed discipline, and so on. That is a story for another time.
But about six years ago, my family and I found ourselves without a church to call home and, as many know, if you don’t feed the spiritual man he will starve to death… and that’s what we were doing. But as always, God had a plan and that is where I would like to start.
The phone rang. I don’t remember who it was, but they said that Jay Jones was coming to the Grand Rapids area to start a new church. My wife has heard Pastor Jones preach a couple of years earlier, and was very moved. I remember her telling me how she wished he would pastor a church in our area. This was an answer to prayer when we contacted the Joneses asking if the news was true. Shortly after, we started a Bible study in our home, which sometimes was more like church. You could feel God’s spirit move in these studies! It was not just us that came. We opened our home to any that wanted to come, and at times there was about ten that attended. The Joneses; Jay, Angela and their young daughter; would drive two hours one way for this, and then two back home. That was, and still is, one of the greatest signs of commitment I have seen for our city.
This went on for some time, but as life would have it, a roadblock was thrown up and we said that we needed a break. Looking back I wonder, “A break from what?” We continued to talk with Pastor Jones for about two years, but only attending church once in a while. Let me say this… I have had the Holy Ghost for twenty years, so I knew better. But one day in the fall of 2005, my wife Jennifer and I were driving home from up north. We looked at each other and said, “It’s time to go back to church and stop running from God.” God had answered our prayers by sending us a pastor… put him in our home… fed our souls… what more could He do? He has already done all we had asked, and more. He gave us life, and “life more abundantly!”
I believe God has plans for all of us, and sometimes the road is not always easy, but the things that my family and I went through have made our commitment to God stronger. I thank God every day for sending us the Joneses. I believe He has a plan for this church, and that this is where He wants us to be! So please remember my family in prayer, and The Pentecostals, that God would continue to bless and build this work.