United States of America
In 1961, a five-year-old boy was ushered to the pulpit in his home church in Savannah, GA. His pastor, Rev. Forman, said, “Bucky, would you pray for us this morning?” Without response, headshake, nod, or a “Yes, sir,” I launched into a prayer like those I prayed in the backseat of our family car, or in my bed at night after Mom or Dad turned off the lights and the shadows were stark.
Simple faith. Works every time.
I’d learned to pray at church as much as at home. My mother always said God wanted to hear our prayers whether they made a whole lot of sense or not. While she was what I would call a practical Christian, most of her conversations included memories of the depression she survived with her two brothers and disabled parents. In my ears I interpreted these stories as my own way to conquer my pre-adolescent challenges. If God could provide for the poor then he could probably handle my young issues, if I was willing to tell him. I did.
Throughout my juvenile journey through the teenage years I, like my school and church teenage cohorts lost my mind. I didn’t stray too far from the farm but my college years were more of a schizo Christian freak show. Even when I began theological courses I was still more than part-time crazy. The demon behind all of this was a performance based religion. I resented a God who required perfection especially when he knew it was impossible for human-beings without a surname of Jesus Christ. Simple faith became angry faith. Never worked.
After more alcohol than the law allows I called out in desperation. God listens to desperate prayers. I couldn’t do this if it meant being by myself. The idea of Grace was just another excuse for not being perfect. Not only was I not perfect, I didn’t want to be perfect, if for no other reason than to prove God wrong along with all of his Sanctified Stiff Shirts.
A very short while after my drunken prayer I met my wife. After two weeks of dating I knew (and she knew) we would spend the rest of our lives together. My wife, who is attractive in so many ways, was and is an attractive Christian. She didn’t worry about being right, just right with her Savior. Grace filled in the gaps. While my gaps were more than plentiful, she made me realize God didn’t keep score. He only wanted my heart. Grace handles the rest.
For the last 41 years, Kathy and I have made a life of serving the Lord, sometimes in very simple ways and sometimes in the most complicated of ways, when nothing made sense except for His Call. Let me be very clear, my wife is not my Savior, but like Andrew said to Peter, “I got a guy. His name is Jesus Christ. He understands.”
Simple faith. Works every time.
Bucky Burnsed
United States of America
Here is one story of gratitude out of many gratitudes that I have in my life.
Both of my kids live out of town. This is my statement thanking God for how He has taken care of them when they left the nest, our home.
My son went to college on a baseball scholarship. He moved to Pennsylvania. I prayed that God provide a family who would love him, nurture him, and watch over him. A coach from Georgia Point University saw him and asked him to come play for his school. Jon ended up moving to GA. It was in this college that he met his wife and his new family. Today, they still love him and call him son-in-law. This Rubin family is the answer to my prayer. Thanks to the influence of this family, Jon became a college pastor, and today he serves his church in this capacity together with his family; his wife Rebecca, two children: Arlo and Luca, also baby to be, my granddaughter, in February. Praise God! So thankful God responded in a permanent way.
In 2020, my daughter, Elaine moved to Virginia. I prayed that she would find direction and a path to stability outside our home. After much prayer and supplication, God allowed her in 2021 to meet a young man, named Enrique. The minute she told me, “Mom, I met someone.” I started praying that this relationship becomes formalized then that they would get officially married. In 2022, he proposed with a formal ring and they also got married. Today they have moved to Washington state. Being that he is in the Army, they have relocated to Washington.
I am thankful to God that when my kids left our home, God took care of them. Today they are both happily married. Though they live outside of Florida where I reside, I have witnessed God’s tender care and mercy providing them with stable relationships and mapping out a plan that seemed impossible to me. All things are possible with God. If He took care of my kids, God will take care of you.
Elenor Quinones
United States of America
Just celebrated my 32nd anniversary with my wonderful husband. He was an answer to my prayers. I was married at a young age with two children over the next four years. My children’s father decided he didn’t want the responsibility, that the grass was greener on the other side of the fence, and we were divorced.
Being single for ten years with two children is tough, but the Lord always took care of us with all that we needed. A job with benefits came my way, thank you Lord. We were healthy, surrounded by faithful Christian friends, and I can now look back and see so many times the Lord was watching over us. Again, many thanks to our God.
My husband has been a wonderful father figure in our family. He is an answer to my prayers. I have learned to trust in the Lord knowing He will always provide for me.
Sandy Lincoln
United States of America
I had to overcome a lot in my life. Trauma after trauma, yet the Lord rebuilt me every time. Each time I faced a new trauma, I told myself that it would be the hardest thing I would ever have to go through. I walked through things like infidelity, teen pregnancy, rape, and emotional and mental abuse. These were seriously hard situations to experience, but God always saw me through them.
July 28, 2022 was supposed to be another ordinary day but it turned out to be anything but that. 30 minutes after talking to my husband, he died in the blink of an eye. He was gone! How would I get through? I was lost. The kids no longer had a father, I no longer had a spouse, and our home no longer had him.
My God knew this would happen, and He had a plan. He reminded me of so many promises through the two women he sent. Through them, I had remained encouraged and supported. Getting squared away with finances and how to navigate the different systems became manageable.
He provided me with the strength to keep going day after day. He gave me reasons to keep smiling in the ability to laugh loudly. Because of Him I have been able to keep going.
United States of America
Jesus loves me, this I know For the Bible tells me so
I vividly recall the circle of little wooden chairs in a small vestibule behind the sanctuary at Montgomery Presbyterian Church. I was between three and four years old. In the tiny vestibule we sang “Jesus Loves Me’ knew that my mother loved me. I knew that my Aunt Geraldine loved me as well. When I was six years old, a piano was moved into the sitting room of our house. On Thursdays my mother would drive my father to work then come back home in order to drive me to piano lessons12 miles away. I have no doubt that my Aunt Geraldine paid for the piano and probably the lessons. My aunt also bought me new winter coats and a watch with tiny diamonds. All because they loved me!
My mother was a sweet child of God. The Wilder family legacy was one of faith and gentle spirit. The Mob family from whence came my father carried forward a legacy of anger, alcoholism, and unrelenting bitterness. This legacy was manifested in a generational cycle of physical and emotional abuse among the five Mobley s (My father was the oldest) and alcoholism caged in co-dependence on the part of the one Mobley daughter. The two youngest boys clung to their mother and were emotionally and mentally disturbed throughout their lives.
I learned later that children raised in an abusive household will respond in different ways. Most common is normalization of the abuse. Thus continues a multigenerational cycle of abuse or co-dependence. Less common is a fierce will to not repeat nor tolerate the behavior. I experienced this in dating years, when any show of anger would drive me away. I escaped the noisy environment at home by retreating into books. My favorites were “Heidi” and “Anne of Green Gables”. Was it coincidence that they chronicled life as an orphan? Along the way I became an excellent student, the pride of my parents and family. I was the only child of seven to graduate from high school, the only Mobley to graduate college.
At the age of 15, God placed a young man in my life. He sat in the back of tenth grade French class. I hadn’t noticed him, but he tells me now that my legs drew his attention from the back of the class. I always sat in front. Well, God would use more than a French class to accomplish his purpose. A month or so later, I was walking along the deserted beach on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina. My father loved Daufuskie, a remote barrier island where he could escape the noise and stresses of an industrial power terminal where he worked swing- shift. On Daufuskie he could also drink, dance and party with his island friends. Not a recipe for long life. He succumbed to a major heart attack at age fifty-six, but not before I came to understand him and through forgiveness, love him.
Back to the young man. As I was walking the beach, this fellow was standing at the water’s edge balancing a slalom ski. Chuck and his family frequented the Daufuskie beach for picnics, swimming and water-skiing. What a coincidence! He recognized me from French class and I nodded and smiled. Thus began a 58-year romance with our 53nd wedding anniversary approaching soon.
God’s blessings have been beyond measure. Beginning with the immeasurable love and devotion of my husband. A story punctuated by the birth (not an easy one) of our precious son. These blessings have culminated with an amazing daughter-in-law and three incredible grandsons.
The story doesn’t end here. Through a series of “coincidences” I have met and worked together with a cousin from Louisiana (remember the Mobley daughter) to develop a genealogy and gather family history. Genealogical research reveals the tragic experiences that have formed the Mobley Legacy. The reuniting of the Mobleys was begun in 2003 with the first annual Mobley Cousins Reunion. Those whom God has rescued through faith in Jesus Christ have led other cousins to leave the hurt and unforgiveness behind them, to be washed away like footprints from the Daufuskie sands.
Jesus loves you!
