Testimonies
How do you even start to sum up all the things we have experienced. We have tried to capture momentary snap shots. We do wish you could have accompanied us to many places God has sent us to meet with the people and watched as God worked in their lives and build His church.
During the services, it was very encouraging for us to see most if not all respond to the message that God has a destiny and a purpose for their lives (Jer. 29:11) and that in spite of the storms of life that hit us, as Christians, we can rise above the storms.
Like Peter in the gospels, we can get out of the boat of our personal circumstances and walk through the storms of difficulties to Jesus. True safety and victory is not the absence of storms or troubles, but living in the Presence of Christ. The storm, the wind and the waves did not effect Him at all. He is our refuge in the storm and with Him there is Victory in every situation.
Each time the altar call was given the people would come eagerly to the front to pray and to be prayed for. They prayed with many tears and so much anguish.
There was a darkness and a heaviness that was very oppressive at times and difficult to break through, but God is greater than the powers of darkness. When human hearts are longing for the Savior's touch, He has a way of reaching down to heal the hurts, to restore hope and to release the captives.
Because of the language barriers, it was sometimes difficult for us but with God, there are no language barriers. He knows the cry of each heart and how best to meet the need and move His children on to the next level of growth, maturity or service.
At one church, someone on the leadership team said, "That message was exactly what we needed to hear right now. Every area we have been praying about and seeking direction on, you mentioned. God has confirmed what we already felt He had indicated. Thank you so much for bringing His word."
One pastor said, "That message you spoke tonight was what I have been trying to teach the people but they are resistant. They needed to hear it from someone else too. Now they are beginning to do the works of Jesus as we have been trying to teach. Thank you for sharing what God put in your heart. It was the right message at the right time and place."
Another Pastor said, "I have been feeling for some time that as a church, we need to put away all the things we have been doing. I feel that we need to make a brand new start. Your preaching has given me new hope that we can make a new start in God and a new, much greater impact on our community."
Other churches had just relocated and were facing major challenges and great opposition. They were encouraged that God would build His church and even the gates of hell would not prevail against them.
In all these cases, we knew nothing before hand about the pastor, the church or the people – not their needs, challenges or victories. But God knew and crafted the message to meet the needs, encourage both the leadership and the congregations and challenge them to walk into the victory that Christ has already won for them.
So many testimonies its impossible to list them all. A few that stand. The greatest is the salvation of people coming to Jesus then here are a sampling of others.
Freedom from Suicide
Deliverance from bondages.
Blind eyes opened
Broken curses.
Financial victory
Ability to Hope Again
God spoke to me tonight when you asked if we would trust God to speak to us.
Family Issues
Freedom from Drugs
Now that I have brought to the light my sins I feel clean full of hope.
Your message has forever changed me thanks Pastor
“I would like to send a letter of my very deepest thanks to Roger Gamble for his unwavering efforts at restoring my soul, my mind, and my heart and being willing to help me through the very lowest point in my life. Roger found me in November. . . , filled with such incredible doubt, fear, sorrow, guilt, and depression. Without his continual ministering to me I do not know how I would have gotten to the point where I not only survived mentally and physically, but to where I actually have hope for myself, to where my spirit is renewed in our dear Lord, Jesus Christ”.
Prison Inmate
“I lived on the street since I was twelve. I did everything on my own: fighting, stealing, getting high, crying a lot of nights by myself with nobody to love or feel loved by. The Lord was never there, in my mind, to stop me from doing anything I wasn't supposed to do.
No school, no job, no family, no life; that's what I had. I came back into jail in 1995 looking at three to five years and I am a happy man for once in my life.
I have finally reached my high of all highs without the use of drugs. On September 19, 1995, through a beautiful man, R.G., I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ into my life. My life has changed so dramatically since this date that I wish to explain, not in so much detail but I have never felt as good about myself in the last fifteen years as I do today.”
Prison Inmate
This is only a few of the testimonies. We thanks God for touching so many lives over the years.
What a great and loving God we serve God gave us a deep love for the people