Eternal Life

by Tracey Harry
(Mt. Vernon Ohio)

I was brought up in a Christian home. My parents raised their children as Methodists.... To some people that doesn't say a lot, but We started out in a little church in Parkersburg WV that my Great-Grandpa Chichester was instrumental in getting started. I remember when I was 4 there was a woman in the church, her name was Pearl Brown, and Pearl had a relationship with God like none I'd ever seen before. We moved 3 hours North that Spring, but as I grew up and we visited the church "downhome" I always took a seat close to Pearl. When I was 10 I saw her get up one Sunday Morning, filled with the Holy Spirit and I didn't know what was happening to her, so I asked my Mama what was going on... When she explained, I thought to myself, "I wanna be like her." 4 year later, when I was 14, I had been searching and took my confirmation classes in Church. Studied the Methodist doctrine and all that mumbo jumbo... Whent to church with my friends, some Catholic, some Baptist, some who attended the Church of Christ and I couldn't find what I was looking for. Then one Saturday evening in 1974, my Youth leader, Mrs.Young, took us to a movie @ the Vernon Theater in Mt. Vernon Ohio. It was a Billy Graham Flick entitled, "A Time to Run". After the film was over they gave an altar call and I sat with what felt like anvils on my lap for the longest time. But when I was able to break loose from my seat, I felt like angels carried me down the aisle, because I know, my feet did not hit the floor! That was the greatest gift of all! Realizing that my Saviour, Jesus Christ had come from Heaven to make my life worth living, by giving up His own. Wow! That still amazes me to this day!