Becky_Roolf

“In the past, I had always sort of waivered about what I believed about God, if there WAS a God. I took the whole confusing lump and just left it in the back of my mind, in the “undefined” corner.”

I first got my modem about a year ago, near the end of June, 1985. I justcalled the usual BBS’s, for computers and so on. Then, I think it was inOctober or November, I started calling a BBS run by a Bible Baptist Churchin Scott Township, near Pittsburgh.

This BBS was different. It was run by a person called Pastor Bob. Now, tothe average BBSer, even the title “Pastor” has a threatening, churchy soundingring. But I stayed on the board, partly because I liked the principles statedin the log-on agreement, which all new users must agree to before they arepermitted to use the BBS. The log-on requests that the user agree to logon under his REAL name, not to use profane or obscene language, not to havewars (fighting anfd abusive language), and not to upload any software thatis not public domain. Since I had often found profanity on the other BBS’sto be offensive, this agreed with me.

While calling this board, Proteen, as it is called, I began to have “different”conversations with the other users, and with Pastor Bob. Sometime in December,we had a rather deep discussion on separation of church and state. This,along with a few other conversations, started me thinking about God.

In the past, I had always sort of waivered about what I believed about God,if there WAS a God. I took the whole confusing lump and just left it in theback of my mind, in the “undefined” corner.

By this time, I was among the most active users on the BBS, especially inthe singles section. It was through this singles section that I started typingto this guy named Chris, who was a Christian. We started a rather lengthyconversation in E-Mail (private messages between two users), in which hebegan witnessing to me. At first, I was reluctant to actively do anythingabout this, especially as I felt any kind of religion was a very personalmatter, not to be discussed with everyone! I said I din’t have time to readthe Bible, and I kept trying to shove it away, back to the “undefined’ corner.But I did admit that it was something I needed to and intended to look into,soon.

Chris wouldn’t take “no” or “later” for an answer, though, so he persistedin leaving me messages about Christ. Eventually, he showed me that I didn’tneed to read the whole Bible and to understand everything about God to havefaith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

So, after trying to read the Bible a little, and a lot of thinking and praying,I finally accepted Christ, sometime in the beginning of March.

In the months since then, I have grown tremendously in the Lord. I am stillan active user on the BBS that changed my life, although now I am often onthe opposite side of the arguments! For me, the BBS was the perfect way tocommunicate about God, since before, and even after I was saved, I was tooembarrassed to talk to talk voice or in person. So, PTL! for showing me thelight of His love, in a way that I could accept!

Becky Roolf

Pittsburgh, PA

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