My Testimony,

 Where to start?  Let me introduce myself.  My name is Buddy Williams.  I have been a member of The Church of God of Prophecy since 1979.  I have not always been true to God or the church.  I have lived in sin for most of that time.  When I was a teenager I got distracted by the world and turned away from God.  He called me into the ministry when I was 16y/o but I didn’t realize that was what it was at the time.  It took me a little while to figure it out.  I didn’t want any part of it either.   I was too young and full of life to let God  “slow me down “ or “hold me back from doing what I wanted to do.”  I didn’t want anyone telling me to go here or what to do.  I was my own man.  I had my own job.  I paid my own bills and I didn’t have time for God.  Time passes by and I got married to a wonderful women.  I got back into church in 1988 at the age of 25.  I had started smoking when I turned to a sinful life and I still was smoking during this time.  I had tried to quit several times but without success.  I started singing in church and got very close to Pastor Norris.  He and I were pals, friends.  We went places and did things together and watched ball games.  I have always enjoyed his company and listening to him preach.  I seen Marcus grow up into a  young man and Wanda is just as nice a lady now as she was then.  I really love that family.  I had thought, seeing I had been out of church for so long, that God would forget about that “calling stuff”.  Guess what?  He didn’t.  I fought it off for a while but couldn’t take it any longer.  I needed an excuse though.  I couldn’t just leave.  So I let a man run me off from the church and the people that I loved.  I took his constant preaching, when he was suppose to be doing something else, make me feel as if that was the way church really was and I wanted no part of it.  When I left this time, it was for good.  To ease my need to serve, yes I still had that calling stuff on me, I went to a Basic EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) class and never looked back.  I keep raising my level of care higher and higher.  Became a shift supervisor, National Registry and even instructed a little.  I am very good at my job.  I’m not boasting.  It’s the truth.  I have always gotten the highest marks on my annual evaluations and was even voted “Best of the Best” in 2001 by the citizens of Richmond Co.  I won the “Stars of life” award in 2002 and got a free trip to Washington DC to see the sites and visit with our nation leaders.  I meet several Congressman and several Senators there.  But after all this it still wasn’t enough.  I had gotten to a point in my life that I didn’t care about anyone.  Even myself and I didn’t care who knew it.  I got immune to the human condition after seeing what one human being could actually do to another human being.  People are awful is what I thought.  What it was is sin is awful and it is what caused these people to do these things.  I even got to a point where I yelled aloud, ”God, leave me alone.”  You know He did too.  He left me to sink of swim.  I sank like a rock with a lead necktie.  I messed up so bad that I was on my way to a devils hell and living alone.  The only thing that saved me was a forgiving God, a praying family and a forgiving wife.  Without all of this I may have been dead today.  They saved my life.  I fell down on my knees, here at my home, alone in the dark and begged God to forgive me.  Guess what? He did.  That was in December 16, 2005.  I then turned to my family and asked for their forgiveness.  Every one of them did too.  I love you all.  I then had to go make things right with the church.  I rededicated my life to the church.  I quit smoking on December the 24 2005 and have not picked it up since.  I relied on God for the strengthen to make it though and He provided it.  I started back singing again and then one day I was thinking if God still wanted me in the ministry and He said “Yes”.  I did not run away this time.  I have accepted His calling and I’m preparing at this time.  I do not know where He is going to send us but when He calls I will say’ “Here I am Lord, send Me” as Isaiah did in the temple.  I am saved, sanctified holy and filled with the Holy Ghost.  I’ve only got one more thing to do.  Make things right with Pastor Norris.  I know he feels that it may have been his fault that I left, but it wasn’t.  I did it to myself.  I allowed it to happen. I left the security of the flock and got caught in a trap by the devil.   Things are so much better now.  My wife and I are both saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost.  We work in the church and at youth camp.  I sing on the praise team and play a little softball.  I teach a Sunday School class for the college aged unmarried people.  I am now 43 y/o and have been serving the Lord for almost 2 years this time.  I will not go back to that lifestyle again.  I have had enough of all that and I know Rhonda has.  My biggest regret, use to be, that I never tried out to play professional baseball when I was in my early twenties, today it is different.  My biggest regret is all the time I wasted living in sin.  I could have been working and living for God for 40 years now.  There is nothing I can do about that now.  Looking back is only good for a very short time.  I have to look ahead now.  Time is short and I need to take advantage of all the things I can get my hands on.  I have a job to do and I’m way behind.   To God be all the glory and honour.  God Bless you.

Buddy Williams.