Jerry_Belton
“In my hand was a 22 pistol with one shell in it. I closed the cylinder and spun it.”
While growing up in Alabama I felt that there was somethingthat I was missing. There was that unexplainable void that neededto be filled. I did attend church as a young man, but like so manyit was for the wrong reasons. During my pre-teen years it wasbecause my mother said to go and when mom said to jump it wasn’t aquestion of “why” but of HOW HIGH. I can remember going to churchfor a year when I was about fourteen because there was a girl Iliked going there. The only thing I remember about God is that weshould fear him, but I didn’t know why.
I also remember a time when I had the foolish thought that Icould kill myself, visit death, and come back to the living. Iwent so far as to plan out exactly how I would do it. When the timecame to actually do it I chickened out-PRAISE THE LORD-. I alsoremember playing a game of Russian Roulette. In my hand was a 22pistol with one shell in it. I closed the cylinder and spun it.Instead of placing the gun to my head I pointed into the air andpulled the trigger. Image my surprise when it went off and myrelief that it was pointed away from me.
My life then settled down to a pretty “normal” life-style. I wasn’tin the “upper crust” clique nor was I in the “nerd” clique. It wasmore of the “working class”. My stepfather owned a store, so fromthe time I was ten years old I would help open the store. Duringthe school year I was at the store from 5:30 a.m. till 9:00 p.m.with time out for school. This continued until I graduated highschool.
I went to a Jr. College to please the folks but didn’t lasttwo semesters there. There was still a void in my life thatneeded to be filled. I worked several places for a year or so andthen enrolled in a Technical College. I spent two years studying
Air Conditioning and Refrigeration. There was still somethingmissing. Within a month of graduation from the Tech school I joinedthe Air Force.
There was no way (short of the Lord) that I should have madeit into the U.S.A.F. I had had rheumatic fever when I wasyoung, I had a heart murmur, and I was forty pounds overweight. YetI was accepted. While in basic training I resumed the bad habit ofsmoking. I got to where I was smoking three packs a day. Mygrandparents lived within five miles of the Air Force base inMississippi that I took my technical training. I would usually takeadvantage of this and spend the weekends with them.. I woke upone Sunday morning without a cigarette and haven’t picked one upsince. I believe the Lord was preparing me for HIS service.
After training I was sent to Elmendorf A.F.B. in Anchorage,Alaska. The first year was spent doing my own thing. I was theninvited to church and I went. The problem was that it was a Mormonchurch. There was a Christian that worked in my shop heard aboutthis and got mad. He said that he had invited me to his churchfirst. I told him I would go to his church if I could get a homecooked meal out of it (anything to get away from the mess hall onbase). He said it was a deal so the next Sunday I was with him andhad to go because lunch was after church. The first time Iactually remember hearing the GOOD NEWS was that Sunday. I didn’trespond at that time but I did get involved with church. So muchso that when the opportunity arose to work a week in summer camp asa cook, I jumped at the chance. It was during this camp that I gavemy heart to Jesus. On Thursday night, July 4, 1974 I came to the onewho loved me and gave HIMSELF that I might partake in the glories ofheaven. I was setting on a table in the back of the roomlistening to what the preacher was saying. I said to myself “Whatwould all these people think if I went forward for salvation?” Nosooner had I thought this than the preacher said, “IF YOU CAN’T GOFORTH IN FRONT OF CHRISTIANS WHO CAN YOU GO FORTH IN FRONT OF!!” Fine, Ithought, I’ll still just wait until Sunday to get saved. Guess whatthe preacher said, “HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU ARE GOING TO BE ALIVETILL SUNDAY?” Needless to say when the invitation was given Iwas one of the first ones to the front. This makes the fourth ofJuly extra special for me—Freedom for our nation and freedom formy soul.
I got transferred in Dec. to Loring A.F.B. in Limestone,Maine. I immediately to involved in the church and became quiteactive. It was here that the Lord called me into HIS service. Iwas due to get out of the A.F. in April of 1976. I felt God’s call
to go to school for the school year of 1975. The first week ofAugust I requested an early release from active duty, and quick forschool started the first of September. By the third week of AugustI had my separation papers in my hands and was starting outprocessing. Even going from Alaska to Maine I still did not getaway from the Mormons. I had befriended a couple of Mormons wholived in the dorms. Each of them had been trying for six months toget out of service to go to college at Brigham Young in Utah butneither had succeeded. I let the flesh get the best of me and Itook my separation papers to their room and waved them under theirnoses (reminds you of I Kings 18:27…Elijah mocked them, and said,Cry aloud…)
Immediately upon separating myself from active duty withUncle Sam I enrolled in Baptist Bible College. After completingfour years there, during which time God gave me a wonderful wife andus a daughter I came to Racine, Wisconsin to serve him as Supervisorfor an ACE Christian School at Racine Baptist Temple. We were hereabout three years when I felt the urge to move on. I blamed it onthe Lord and if someone had tried to talk me out of it they wouldhave had their hands full. While in Racine God answered our prayerand gave us a healthy boy to care for HIM. To make a longstory short we made several moves over the next four yearsand did not make the right one until we came back home to Racine.I am currently working a secular job and learning to get over thebitterness I obtained during our “wandering in the wilderness”. Godis good and I’m so glad He is long-suffering. As I strive to serveHim I solicit the prayers of all who read this and pray that itmight be the means to point someone to my Saviour-JESUS CHRIST. Mylifes verse is found in the book of Ephesians chapter three versesseven and eight:
“Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given,that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ…”
JERRY BELTON