It was a report from Russian aviators that God used to help me see His truth!
My parents raised us to be faithful in our church attendance. After high school, I finished three years of nursing school and left my parents, three sisters, a brother, and the farm home to join the Army Nurse Corps. I considered myself a Christian, but my spiritual foundation was shaky. I did not know God as a person and I had no idea He wanted to have a relationship with me. To me, God was in my imagination; I could not have begun to describe Him. Separation from home and family, thrust me into a life I was not ready for.
In my family, I was known as “the bashful one” for good reason. I was very fearful of social situations. About six months after basic training, the army sent me to Okinawa for an eighteen month assignment. This was my first Christmas away from my family; I was lost and out of my comfort zone. Early in the military, I learned the clubs were where we went to be with others. I learned alcohol would make my shyness disappear. I came to depend on it to be socially comfortable.
After completing my Okinawa assignment I transferred to an army hospital seven hundred miles from home. I went home for Christmas and enjoyed a few visits from family members. My father had died suddenly while I was in Okinawa and I still could make no sense of life. I knew alcohol was not the answer, and I made the decision to leave it alone. I had nothing to give me hope. I worked nights, slept days, and brooded in my loneliness.
At the age of 27, I watched a Billy Graham TV Crusade, where he invited everyone to pray with him, who wanted to know they would go to heaven when they die. I felt drawn to know for sure about eternity, and I prayed with him. I confessed that I, myself, am a sinner and in need of God’s forgiveness. I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ and asked Him to come into my life, forgive my sins, and make my life what He wanted it to be. This is the promise I have, 1 John 5:13 “These things I have written to you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God.”
After praying, I began to read scripture, starting in Genesis. I read alongside in Halley’s Bible Handbook, a book gifted to me a few years earlier by my baptismal sponsor, a woman, who I believed, had prayed for me. As I read of Noah’s voyage in the Ark, I found in Genesis 8:4 where “the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat”. The handbook gave further information that “Russian aviators, just prior to the Bolshevik Revolution (1917) claimed to have seen the hulk of a giant ship, high up in the inaccessible glacier fastnesses of Mt Ararat”. The atheistic Bolsheviks then came into power and these reports were never made public.
I read more on the present day findings of the Ark and became convinced Noah’s flood was an actual historical event. This totally changed my view of God. The report of the hull of a very large boat on a mountain in Ararat was evidence to me that Noah’s Ark story was true, and if that were so, then the Bible must be true. That meant there was a God and He interacted with people.
God led me to a strong Bible teaching church, and my spiritual life grew. His Word filled my emptiness. The fear and uncertainty of the future turned into confidence that I belonged to God, that He loved me and had a purpose for me here, and a place for me in eternity with Him later. God sent friends to me and began to teach me how to be a friend. I was now in my early thirties, and God had given me contentment as a single person. Later, He brought Carroll, a kind and godly man of wisdom, into my life. Carroll later became my husband. It has been a joy for us to grow together in our Christian faith.
As a Christian, I have gone through dry periods of not reading God’s Word, followed by disappointment that God was far away from me. God has showed me that He is in His Word. To be near Him, I must go to His Word. John 1:1 says ”…. and the Word was with God, and the Word was God……” Jesus Christ is The Word of God and He speaks to us today through the Bible. My spiritual life grows exactly in proportion to the time I spend in God’s Word. It is as simple as that! George Muller, a man known for dependence on God said, “Great has been the blessing from consecutive, diligent, daily study. I look upon it as a lost day when I have not had a good time over the Word of God.” I now strive everyday to have a good time in God’s Word.
I say with the Psalmist, “I run in the path of your commands, for You have set my heart free!” (119:32) God has a special way of opening the eyes of every person. For me it was a piece of a big boat on top of a mountain. God draws us because He loves us and desires to have fellowship with us. We don’t have to be anything special–He loves and died for everyone of those He has created. I challenge you to surrender your life to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and know the confidence that He is preparing a place for you in His heavenly kingdom. You will never regret it!