A 2nd Chance Testimony

What school are you in South State and Jonesboro? That was about 1969 in right the middle of the Vietnam here. So I dropped out of school when I was a junior and joined the military. I was thinking I'd get my service out of the way in a hurry and ended up with 38 years in four months total service. Had a lot of interesting times in the military. Served in 17 different countries while I was in and ended up finally making caramel before I retired. So I had a good career. My mother was a devout Christian lady that my dad was kind of a, he was a farmer and he didn't necessarily abide by us working six days and taking one off. He worked just about every day of his life and I questioned him one time about why don't you go to church with us, send us two. He said, I go every Sunday. He said, I just don't know the same building you do. My wife has been going to church for a number of years and I kind of followed the way of my dad. If there was a hunting season or something going on, I'd probably be hunting instead of going to church. And then this last year, our family's gone through some trying times. I made a promise that all this could work out. Well, I was gonna go see my friend Tim Powell. I told my wife, I said, I'm gonna talk to Tim and that was probably one of the best decisions I ever made. Well, my own mother's day, my wife and I,

my one of my grandsons and my daughter-in-law were all at church and we started to end with the songs and all that and we were all standing up and praising God and having a good time. And after about the third or four song, I started seeing some bright lights and some spots. I'm getting dizzy. So I told my wife, I said, I've got to sit down. So I sit down and that was the last thing I remembered for a while. Turned out that my grandson saw me leaning over the chair in front of me and said, I was just pale as anybody he had ever seen. Scared him to death. The next thing I remember is I looked up and I heard somebody say, we've got a pulse. And I, you know, I came back alert and I remember looking up and seeing three or four faces looking down at me like what I know from what's going on here. Somewhere I've heard from two to four minutes that I didn't have a pulse. Well, practical purposes, I was dead. I got the ambulance out there, ended up taking me to Connolly Regional. And they immediately put me in an ambulance and sent me to a hard hospital in Little Rock. One thing I wanted to share and I don't know when this happened. I don't know whether it was during the seizure at the church or when I was after I was in the hospital,

but I had a dream. And in this dream, I wish I was an artist, so I could draw a picture of what I saw. But I saw, I can still sit to this day, an angel. It was over me. And I've thought about that so much that that's been what it was. That was, I think it was at the church. Well, I don't know if there are a lot of angels that happened to me, but that one, it was hovering over me, looking down on me. But after that, I had a lot of soul searching to do. I started looking back on my career and some of the things that I've been into, the chances that I had for getting seriously injured and some way getting through it, I was actually in two different helicopter emergency landings. You know, at the time, you don't think about stuff like that. But when you start considering your fight and what you believe in, you know, there's something there that did pose the direction. And that's exactly what happened when you and I had influence others in my life and people that I haven't even met yet to do the same thing. If you're in any way uncomfortable with your life, this is a way to straighten things out. Regardless of how bad things are, it will be better. And one of the things I remember and I think it was from one of the sermons is that you don't have to live a Christian life your entire life. It may be the last thing you do except for God and I would encourage everyone to do that. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at their life church and hope to spend the rest of

my days there and hope they're a long way off. My name is Bill Holmes and I'm becoming fully devoted. (soft music) (gentle music)