Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Salvation Experience and Call to Ministry:

I was recently asked to give me testimony and salvation experience so I thought I would share it here as well:

I accepted Christ as my personal Lord and Savior when I was 10 years old in a revival service at First Baptist Spartanburg. I still to this day remember crying uncontrollably because it was the first time I had ever realized the depth of my sin. I knew I had to accept Christ into my heart and trust him completely or I would be eternally separated from Christ. I was baptized in May of 1990, and my parents did a great job of making this moment the biggest event of my life. I received a charm bracelet with the date of my baptism inscribed on it, and my extended family all came to see me baptized. I still vividly remember my conversion from utter darkness to light. Now, I wanted God through his son to be glorified in my life

I grew up in a very strong Bible believing church and in one of the most dynamic youth groups in the country. I was discipled and in a bible study all through junior high and high school. My senior year I became president of FCA where I taught the Bible weekly.

I went to college and joined Shandon Baptist Church as well as Kappa Delta Sorority. Also, I was active in Campus Crusade for Christ my freshman year. My sophomore year I lived on the sorority hall, where I was one of the only girls who went to church. I fell away from the Lord during this time and I was completely miserable and hopeless. I met my husband through a fraternity/sorority connection and we rededicated our lives to serving Christ and Christ alone by my senior year of college.

After college, I had no direction from the Lord on what I should do with my life. I learned patience and how to really trust God through prayer during this time. I went to One Day, a Christian conference, in Sherman, Texas the summer of 2003 with the college group from First Baptist Spartanburg. I had felt a strong call to ministry since my 10th grade year when I went on a spring break trip to Panama, Florida. However, I had not seriously thought about it. There in Texas, God distinctly called me to full time ministry, and I had no idea what needed to be my next step. My future husband was at Southwestern Theological Baptist Seminary and he was called back to Columbia, SC in the summer of 2003 to be a college/singles pastor for the summer. We visited Southeastern Theological Seminary that summer and loved the passion the school had for the Lord. By God’s grace and provision we both graduated from this wonderful seminary in the Spring of 2006. We have been here in Sumter since June of 2006 and love it here. I have always had a strong desire to stay home the first year of each of my children's lives, and I am really enjoying being home, and I love being a mom! Jackson has finally gotten into a good daycare, but that does not start till August, so we will see what the Lord has in store for us then.

3 comments:

Leah F said...

Emily-
Congrats-I had not heard that Jackson got into a good daycare! I understand that that can be a very hard decision to make AND and a hard thing to get into:-) Do you think you will look for a job in the fall?

Emily Wallace said...

Leah,

We did not think Jackson would be able to get into this daycare with only 7 other children in there because there was a one year waiting list. But, we got him in but now it looks like they have already filled all the teaching positions at the local Christian school for next year. So, we will just have to see, I might still be staying home.

C.L. said...

Emily, thank you so much for sharing. It is always encouraging to read testimonies and What a privilege it is to read about how Christ has transformed your life. God is SO good to us!