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Last updated 18 Jan 2006
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My Testimony
By Dale Cox,
Hi, For those who don't know me, my name is Dale Cox.
I am originally from Missouri.
My dad was an alcoholic and a very abusive man,
not a very good father or role model.
As a child I went to church with neighbors a few times,
and enjoyed Sunday school and singing in church.
I really enjoyed church but I never made any kind of a commitment.
By the age of thirteen I regularly drank, and smoked.
I no longer attended church.
As I got older, life was a big party.
I was doing all kinds of drugs, stealing and getting into trouble.
After I graduated high school. I was still getting into a lot of trouble,
staying out and partying all night.
So my parents sent me to live with my grandmother.
My grandmother had only one rule for me.
I had to go to church every Sunday morning and Wednesday night.
I didn't really mind because I remembered all the fun
I had in church as a child.
It was the summer of 82',
I really liked the people and enjoyed going,
but this time I began to learn about Jesus,
and about heaven, hell, sin and peace.
Then one Saturday night, while watching Jimmy Swaggard on TV.
My Grandmother asked me point blank if I had ever given my life to Jesus.
I told her no, and we talked for a little and that night I gave my live to Jesus Christ.
Later I went for a long walk with a man from the church, who had befriended me.
He gave me my very first bible.
It was a pocket size new testament.
He put my name and new birth date in it.
And he helped me understand what it meant to be reborn.
I don't know what ever happened to this man
because that summer I joined the military and I never saw him again.
But I can't wait till I see him again in heaven
and thank him for his small gift to me so many years ago
that brought me so much comfort the 20 plus years I carried it while I was in the military.
Working with the AWANAS is still very new to me.
I was the youth director at Beverly Hills Baptist church in Oklahoma,
and for 5 years in a row I did what some men would call crazy.
I took the youth to a week long camp in the middle of summer
to a cabin in the mountains for what is called Falls Creek.
Being in charge of 30- 50 teenagers for a week is a very daunting task.
But I tell you the truth, I loved every minute, and I got as much out of it as the youth.
Since I gave my life to Christ things have not been perfect,
and God knows I've done my share of back sliding, and rededicating.
But I know, that I know, that I know. That I am a born again Christian.
Who will one day be with my savior in heaven.
And it is due in part to the men Jesus put in my life,
who made it fun to go to church,
the men who befriended a troubled drug addict like me and explained
that there was more to life then party's.
And if God can use me in the some small way,
to touch a young person's life, I will go.