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A Personal Testimony
My name is Kay Weld and I am a 33 year old woman with a wonderful family and a wonderful church family. Growing up I wasn’t always in church as I am now. My father and mother divorced when I was 1 year old. My father was in my life but not in the way that a father should have been and my mother started living with a man when I was 3. He helped raise us and really played the roll of a father until I was about 9 years old. At this time he started to do things that were inappropriate. He would tell me that there was no God and that someone wrote the Bible only to make money. My mother finally left the man when I was 10 years old and we lived on our own. We moved into an old house where we lived alone, just my 3 brothers and my mom until this house caught on fire and we lost everything that we had in just a few minutes. These things all had devastating effects on my 1st decade of life and as I think back I realize it is sad that I didn’t know God and never uttered a prayer in behalf of myself or my family during these events.
As I grew older I would visit with my father every weekend. He lived near a family I come to know and they had 5 girls. I became the best of friends with a girl my age named Tammy. We were inseparable for around 2 years. Her family started to take me to church with them on Sunday. It is through them that I began to know God but still I didn’t know him as my Savior. In June of 1984 my friend and I walked to the store across the road from where she lived. I remember looking back after I had crossed the road to tell her to stay. It was then that my best friend’s life was ended right before my eyes. She had stepped out in front of a car and was hurled up in the air and landed at my feet. She never knew what happened. It was at this point that I decided that I didn’t want to know God and that maybe my step father had been right all along. Still I never lifted a prayer to heaven.
When I was 15 years old I got married and had a baby. No one expected the marriage to last but I was happy. We moved into our own little home and I was proud. Then we moved to Alabama where I had my second child in 1990. My father had never seen his second grandchild and in 1991 he had made plans to come visit us and see her. I remember talking to him on a Friday evening about the final plans for the trip and I remember he told me he would be there on Monday evening. He never made the trip. Sunday evening I received a phone call from my oldest brother and he told me that my dad was dead. I was told that my father committed suicide. Once again I was very angry with God. This news devastated me and shortly afterwards I had a nervous breakdown. I was upset with my father for breaking his promise to visit. I was upset with God for allowing another event such as this into my life. I was upset for myself for not seeing my father in a long while and not being able to say goodbye. Once again I never lifted a prayer.
In 1994 we were expecting our 3rd child and life seemed back to normal. My husband had taken a job back in Georgia and life was getting normal for us. In August of 1994 just shortly after the birth of our 3rd daughter I lost my father in law. We didn’t always see things eye to eye and his relationship to my husband and his mother was rocky to say the least but I knew he loved us and his grandchildren. I knew that my children had received a bigger loss than myself because they wouldn’t have him in their life. This seemed like another pit in the road dug just for me and not a prayer was lifted. In 1997 the birth of my 4th child brought into the world the long awaited baby boy. He would never know his Papa Weld.
In 1998 we bought a farm and this seemed like the answer to happiness. Things were going well for my family again. Not long after we had moved into the new property a lady down the road from us stopped by to visit. She had saw the kids playing in the yard and wanted to know if she could take them to church with her. We said yes and sent the 3 girls. The baby was still very young and for awhile he didn’t go. The girls came home telling us how much fun they had and they were always ready to go back. Mrs. Marilyn Hines was always there and what few times she couldn’t pick them up Mr. and Mrs. David and Karen Keene did. I thought it strange that people who didn’t know us from a hill of beans took time and interest in our kids. I was happy that my kids were getting to know Jesus in a way that I never did at their age and I suppose I was hoping that maybe he would be kinder to them than he had to me. I was still mad. It was here at this house during the New Years Eve 1999 that my husband and I threw a party to see in the new millennia. All I remember of that night was my children crying because I was drunk and being as sick as a dog. I wasn’t a drinker so it didn’t take much. I remember what could have been some of my very 1st prayers and that was to get me through the night and I would be in His house. Not something I am proud of but the truth just the same.
We went to church a few times and then on January the 19th I lost my mother in law. Again I was mad and felt like it was a personal blow against me and my family. She loved her grandchildren very much and the world was worsened by her passing. She taught me how to cook (a fact I know that Billy is proud of) and we spent allot of time cooking together when she was in better health and I was going to miss her greatly. I was still mad at God.
We began going to church pretty often during the year and I began to understand a little more about God’s intentions for us here on earth. I felt strong in my faith for the 1st time and I had been saved and baptized. Over the next few years I became active in my church and things were going good. Maybe too good because it was about this time that I probably let my guard down some and the devil worked his magic. I left my marriage of 15 years and was gone for 2 weeks. It was during this time that God showed me how much my husband and my church family meant to me. God would not allow them to give up on me. I want to thank my husband and my pastor Sidney Clay for that. They showed me that all I had to do to get past the events that had plagued me for so long and the things I felt guilt over was to ask God. I did just that and many prayers were lifted for me and by me at this time.
On Feb 5th of 2005 in front of our blood family and in my church with our church family as witnesses we renewed our vows on the eve of our 16th wedding anniversary.Through my church and my church family I came to know that things happen in life that we cannot control. God told us that they would as he cast Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. He was working in the events of my life but not in the negative way that I thought. He brought me to church. He made sure the seed was planted. He gave me a mother who loved and protected me. He gave me a father that showed me lots of love from a distance. He watched over me and kept me through all those trials even though I was turning my back. He developed me into the person and continues to develop me into the person he wanted me to be. The difference is that now I face him and bow and say lead me. I have seen many of my own church members pass since I have been here. Every one of them was sad but I know that they were saved and they are with him. I want to thank my church family with all my heart for the love and kindness they have shown to us. They have been the light unto our path and truly shown us the way.
We are all so proud to be apart of the Ideal Baptist Church Family.
A Child of God
Kay Weld
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