My dad opened a business in town and my mother worked for him. We had a lady to come in every day to cook and clean and take care of us when we got home from school. You can imagine the discipline we got. Certainly not much. My parents would argue most every night, raising their voices, even to the point of fighting each other at times. My standard prayer to God every night was, �God please don�t let my mama and daddy argue and fight tonight,� but they did anyway. In the early 1950's my parents went to a tent meeting where Oral Roberts would be preaching in Greenville, N. C. It changed our household. My mother began to change her life and tried to seek God more. It didn�t do much for my dad, he would still argue. My mother started seeking God and the holy Ghost at this time. She got together with some more ladies seeking God and would have a prayer session once a week where some of the ladies received the holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues. I�m sorry to say my Dad never did have a heart for God.

I finished high school and got married. Six years later I had a daughter Cindy, and eight years later, another daughter Tracey. I lived basically like I was raised, strife, envy and arguing. I knew I needed God in my life or I was going to be just like my parents, miserable. I wanted to raise my girls different from the way I was raised. I went to different places, the Baptist one year and the Methodist the next. I couldn�t be satisfied. This went on for years. I remember crying out to God one day and saying �God, it has to be more to life than this.� One day while at the Methodist place in the fall of 1985, I found out they were going to have a Bible study of the Old Testament. I didn�t know much about the Bible, so I thought it would be good to learn. John Clark was going to teach the class. He had taught a lot at the community colleges, so I thought he must really know the bible. I went. By the first quarter, my marriage was falling apart and my husband of twenty-five years told me he wanted a divorce. I dropped out of the class and tried to make things better at home. It didn�t work and he left me and the girls. I continued to go to the Methodist place because my first cousin was the pastor there. Patsy Clark, my aunt, went there too. She had finished the Old Testament class under John Clark and told me that he had prayer meetings in his home on Monday nights. So we went and let me tell you, we never went back to the Methodist place again. That was what I had been looking for all my life. I loved those prayer meetings. Seeing the Spirit of God move on people. People praising God, raising their hand to God, laying hands on people for healing and not ashamed. It was wonderful. It was something special about those home prayer meetings. I knew I wanted what those people had, it was real. My mother had received the holy Ghost, but nothing like these people had. I was reading my Bible and understanding it better, seeking God with my whole heart, finding out God was real and could be touched. One day my husband came back and wanted to reconcile. I started praying and asking God what to do. I had found out by this time that God will answer you. Well, I was reading in I Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 18. This is what it says, �In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.� I was so happy that I had my answer. I told my husband to go, I was not interested in getting back with him now. I wanted God in my life. I knew that was the right answer, because just a few weeks before, I was reading the All Things Book that John Clark had written and I knew my life was in God�s hands and not the Devil�s, and that God was going to take care of me and my life was going to be different. That little All Things book changed my life. God brings the good and the bad into your life and you have to trust Him to work it out for you. It is wonderful to know. Knowing that leaves no room for the devil.

I hadn�t been going to the prayer meetings at John�s house very long and one night I was waiting for my ex husband�s nephew to come and move me into another apartment. It was getting late and he hadn�t come yet. I was beginning to get worried, so I called my Dad and told him that the boy didn�t show up to move me. It was almost 10 PM by this time. I heard a knock on the door and there was Sammy Puckett, Mike Clark and John Clark. They had come to move me. I couldn�t believe my eyes. I hardly knew these people except for Sammy, he was my ex-brother-in-law. It was hard for me to take in, because how I was raised you pay for everything any body does for you, and I couldn�t believe these people would do this for me. My Dad had called Sammy and asked him if he could help me move, and Sammy called John and Mike. That touched my heart more than anyone will ever know. They had everything moved in just a short time and I was sleeping in my new apartment that very night. This is when I began learning about the family of God. When God puts a family together it is wonderful. I came in with a lot of baggage and I had to be taught a lot. God has been faithful and is still teaching me.

In January of 1987 I was invited to a basketball game between Carolina and State, a game I really wanted to see, but it was on the same night as my prayer meeting. All day at work I kept thinking, I sure don�t want to miss that prayer meeting tonight, so I called my friend and canceled out on the game. I went to the prayer meeting and at the end of the meeting some people would go up for prayer, ones seeking the holy Ghost and some just wanting a touch from God. I would go up for prayer at some of the meetings too, because I was seeking the baptism of the holy Ghost. Sammy was up being prayed for and I was sitting in my chair watching and praying silently, when the Spirit of God spoke to me and said �move.� It scared me and I clutched my chair very tightly, when the Spirit said again �move Lou.� I didn�t know what I was going to do, but I moved out of my chair and stood up and laid hands on Sammy and began praying for him when all of a sudden I heard myself praying in a language I did not know. I was receiving the holy Ghost and just speaking in tongues. The other people there were shouting and praising God, it was a wonderful experience. I went back to my seat just thinking, I have the holy Ghost, I have the holy Ghost. I was so happy, I drove home that night just singing in my car and speaking in tongues. It felt so good. This started a whole new life for me as I will tell in coming testimonies. I praise God for what He has done for me.