Jay

I was agnostic until 1996.  I had many convoluted ideas about creation, aliens, intelligent life on other planets, etc.etc.etc.  Michelle had been attending Faith UMC in Genoa with her friend Denise Hill (they were in the Prairie Echo's Chorus together).  Michelle kept bugging me to go to church with her but I had better things to do on Sunday morning, read the paper, drink coffee, watch TV.  Finally she dared me to go to church with her one time and if I did she would leave me alone.  So I went on Easter Sunday 1996 just to get it over with.  It was a very good experience (don't get all mushy on me here), everyone was very friendly, many people came up to me and welcomed me into their church, I was known as Michelle's Husband (I had no name).  The very next week Pastor Jan Comerford from the church came to our house for tea - quite a surprise for me.  I gave her as hard a time as I could about her Religion, sticking strongly to my agnostic beliefs but ultimately conceding to her that I did believe in a higher power but had no idea what it was. Jan was kind and controlled through-out my attack and I respected that and came away with a good feeling about our visit. She had told me to pray while I was driving - a simple prayer- "God show me who you are" - that was it!  I figured that's pretty simple so I tried that for a while, in just a short time I was attending Faith UMC on a fairly regular basis. I also started a pretty active reading period, I read " A case for Christ", "A purpose Driven Life", "God's Favorite Number", The entire "Left Behind" series, and I also did the Disciple Bible Study which was a 34 week course reading the Bible from cover to cover and filling out the study guide for a weekly 2 hour discussion

In 1999 a group of us from Faith went to an Alpha conference for 3 days in Naperville, IL.  I was then appointed as the spokesperson to go before the board to get approval to bring the Alpha program to Genoa.  I introduced and ran Alpha for 2 sessions and then took over the kitchen duties for the 3rd session ( just so I could still be part of the program)  I also became the SR. High Sunday school teacher the last year we attended Faith UMC.( I was a good example of what not to do.)  After traveling the local church circuit for a year trying to find the ultimate fit for us we landed at Genoa Foursquare (where Michelle said we should have gone 48 months earlier). I decided it was best to keep her happy and I would just fit in where ever we went.  This was quite a change from the Methodist church and I was uneasy for quite a while.  I guess going from agnostic to Methodist was easier than going from Methodist to Foursquare.  I did not like all the singing (when you hear my voice you will know why).  It seemed like a free for all not structured like the religion I was used to.  Raising Holy Hands, Speaking in Tongues, Hands on Healing, all of that was hard for me to grasp, what happened to the Doxology? the Liturgy? the Hymn book?  I was lost.  Then one day there was an all call for musicians, I had complained to Michelle on many occasions about the music and what I would do differently and here was my wife saying stop complaining and get on the worship team.  I offered my services and then never was able to make it to practice, so I continued to sit frustrated in the audience until the fateful day that Michelle got put in charge of the women's retreat and needed a drummer to complete the music team.  Ruth Fruend asked Michelle if she had a drummer yet and Michelle said no to which Ruth replied why don't you ask your husband?  She did - I played and I am still playing, but the story doesn't stop there.  Worshiping God through music has changed my life.  So much so that I got Baptized August 26, 2007.  I have been blessed in so many ways since that day and I have also been able to see Gods blessings and favor in my life looking back before that.  I am Blessed to have found a group of believers / musicians / friends that will let me play drums with them when they make music.  I am now pursuing how to pray more effectively, I am reading "PRAYER" by Dr. Myles Monroe and have just started "Kingdom Principles" by Dr. Monroe also.  I am so grateful that my wife DARED me to go to church.  Thank You Michelle, and I thank God for putting you in my life.