Glenna Sonnier’s Testimony

Hello, my name is Glenna, I first just want to start off by saying I hope you will allow me to share my experience with God. I hope you may serve Him or allow Him in your heart. He’s an awesome God to serve.

I remember as a kid growing up I would talk and pray for Him to help my parents. They were both on hard drugs my whole life. I would beg and cry out to God but received no answer (so I thought); my Mom and Dad split up before I can even remember. They never had a good relationship. Neither side of the family liked one another, just dealt with one another. As a young girl my Mom took my siblings and I up to Des Moines, Iowa. We lived there from when I was in preschool until 5^th grade. My Mom was working for very bad people up there. Not taking good care of herself or us. But she at least did try very hard to take care of us. Throughout grade school my grandparents paid to fly me out here to Tucson for the summer. That way I could at least try to make a relationship with my father. Which made it hard at times because it was like it was being forced upon us. At that time God was trying to work through me, but I would not allow it because I was so stubborn. I’m very grateful for my grandparents; for all the time, effort and hard work they always put in to mend my relationship with my Dad. They’ve always been great role models in my life.

The first night I prayed with my church family and let God in my heart was September 12, 2010. That was one of the happiest days of my life. You just feel this anguish of pain and worries lifted off your chest and shoulders. You truly feel reborn. Right before I became a Christian, my fiancé Alex and I had just gotten sober, that February. We were addicted to mostly heroin and crack, but would pretty much do anything we could get our hands on. We, like most, have dealt with a lot of painful years as youth. The easiest way for us to not think or dwell on it was to self-medicate by numbing ourselves to the point we would not think at all anymore.

However, the good Lord knew the only way we were going to get sober, was to hit rock bottom first in order for us to realize how serious our addiction truly was. And stop being in denial about it. Nobody wants to believe they have a problem and are truly addicts. Because once an addict, always an addict. No matter how long you have been sober. Or how strong you are in your sobriety. You’re always an addict in recovery. The biggest reason I always really liked opiates/downers was because I was self-medicating for my anxiety/depression. Downers allowed me to stop all of those memories and bad worrisome thoughts and shut it down for at least the time being. But it made the thoughts worse later. The devil is always working and trying to play his tricks on you in any way he can. So I had to allow it to click that no matter what, those thoughts are always going to be there. Things (may) have happened, but that doesn’t mean they will happen again. I had to replace those feelings of wanting to do drugs to cover the pain with a different means of covering it, or calming it down. So becoming a Christian allowed me to pray and bring those thoughts and worries to God. Allowing Him to comfort and guide me. He’s always there whether you think so or not. Having a bad day or a bad week, give it to God, He will and can guide if you will allow Him to.

It’s a miraculous process to go from being drug addicts and drug dealers, who thought they’d never change, to becoming whole-hearted Christians that are now disciples of Christ, who just want to help others and share His blessings with others. We both have a strong passion for wanting to help addicts get the help needed to get clean. Alex and I tried for almost a year to find a place that could help us, finally we found the help we needed. When someone is ready to get clean, and is trying so hard to get the help, and continues hitting nothing but brick walls. That makes it very discouraging to most people. I believe there should be more resources for these young and older adults struggling with sobriety.

Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, puts you in certain places at the right time and around certain people for a reason. Whether it may be a trial or a test. Or maybe He needs your help to do His work. I’m a strong believer in everything happens for a reason. There may be times you want things to happen faster or that we may want more than what we actually have. But what we as humans fail to realize is that it’s on God’s timing not on our own. We might think it’s better for us to have it right now, but only God knows what’s truly best for us.

So please allow yourself to make that big step of faith, and do what’s so hard for most to do. Make a commitment, a commitment to follow Christ. To live a Christ based life and follow what He has planned for you. We all veer off the path that’s provided sometimes. But it’s always possible to get back on track. There are some trials you think that you will never make it through. But we will and we can. All things are possible through Christ. Jesus loves us so much that He died on the cross, not for His sins, but for ours. We are all sinners every single one of us, and we’re in need of a savior. Jesus is that savior. Make the commitment to follow Christ and listen to His plans for us!

Thank you for the time you’ve spent reading my testimony. I hope you have enjoyed listening to my story. If you have any questions or just want to talk, please feel free to get in touch with me.

 

Glenna Sonnier

Sunday, July 15^th 2012

Raymond Bell’s Testimony

Hi, my name is Raymond Bell. Let me start by saying that all the glory and honor be to God for the changes God has made in me and my family’s life. Well, here is a small part of what God has done. I grew up in a family of drug addicts and drunks. By the time I was five years old I knew of just about every kind of drug that was on the street at the time. When I was nine my uncle gave me my first bag of weed. When I was eleven my Mom and Dad split up; at least I thought he was my real Dad, until my mom informed me that he was not. That brought rebellion against the world. At the age of thirteen I started using crystal meth and crack cocaine, acid along with alcohol. By the time I was eighteen I was in pretty bad shape. That’s when God started to work in my life but I still had not figured it out yet.

God enabled my to go to work on a commercial fishing boat for six months, and that allowed me to see life with a clear head. But then the fishing season ended and we were back in San Diego where all my friends were and in turn started using drugs again. Some friends huh? Well needless to say they are no longer my friends. After three years of fishing I was only smoking pot and drinking, actually I became an alcoholic out on the water in thirty-foot seas. You kind of get to know God a little there, well at least I did until I got back on dry land and abandoned God again. But God had not abandoned me.

I moved to Arizona in April of 1990 and I met my wife Tanya. We got together and my life was pretty much the same, drinking and drugging. The only change was I had a partner in crime. On April 29, 1997 God again brought about a change in my life for he blessed me and Tanya, my girlfriend at the time, with a son. At that time, I quite drinking and found steady employment but I was still smoking marijuana. Well, we moved across town and there I ran into this guy by the name of Tony (see Tony Hall’s Testimony). I did not like this guy at all. I thought that this guy was bad news all the way around, and one night on my way home from work my suspicions came true. I heard on the radio that my neighbor Tony Hall had been arrested for attempted car jacking. Later, I heard from his girlfriend that he was going away for fifteen years.

But about two years later Tony showed up at my door looking for his girlfriend. At first I was thinking what is this guy on? Come to find out Tony was on fire for Jesus. As time went on, Tony and I became best of friends and it is that way to this day. Then one day we were having a BBQ and Tony invited us to a Vacation Bible School at New Life Community Church of the Nazarene. We attended a few services at church but it wasn’t long before we stopped going. It wasn’t until, on August 4, 2004 when my brother-in-law hung himself, that I really realized we truly need God in our lives. We started going to church, but that’s all we were doing. God was still not the center of our lives. But then in 2005 I had the opportunity to go to a Promise Keepers convention called the Awakening. Boy, they were not lying when they said Awakening. I had never before experienced 10,000 men yelling “we love Jesus yes we do, we love Jesus how about you?” You could really feel God’s presence there. Well they had a call to the alter that day and that is when I submitted my life to Christ Jesus our King.

I have a lot more to say about how God has changed me and my family’s life. If you would like to know more about what God had done for me come to our little white church on the corner. You’ll find me and my family there and we will gladly tell you how God has changed our lives. I am not saying that it is easy following God, but I will say this, as for me and my house we choose to follow Jesus!!! Thank you for reading my testimony I hope God speaks to you through it. All Glory and honor be to God! And thank you Jesus!

Raymond Bell

Sunday, June 24^th 2012

 

Joanne Barnett’s Testimony

When I was eleven years old I became so angry and hateful. I hated everything my mom stood for and that was God. At sixteen I became a call girl; I just didn’t care anymore. Then I got married at nineteen and things went ok for a while. My husband died at age thirty-four, I was only thirty. Then I got on drugs and drinking until I almost killed myself with drugs. I asked God to help me and he gave me another chance. I got off the drugs but I was still drinking a lot. Then on August 25, 1983 I asked God to forgive me.

At that time I didn’t put up with anything, I almost killed an eleven-year-old boy, so that is why I asked for forgiveness. Sadly, I went on with my life thinking that because I had asked for forgiveness I could continue to do what I wanted; I did stop drinking at that time though. Then about three years ago I had a heart by-pass surgery and that made me stop and think that God really wants more from me. So about a year ago I gave God all of my life; that has made all the difference for me. Thank God!

Joanne Barnett

Sunday, June 17^th 2012

A Neophyte Blogging

I suppose I should be clear… I am not a neophyte when it comes to being a Christian, indeed, I do not honestly remember a personal BC (before Christ). But this whole blogging thing is absolutely new to me and I find myself in a bit of a quandary. There is so much that has been said and is being said in this ether-world that I must ask myself, “Why?” Why, should I add to the profusion of mostly meaningless verbiage that floods the internet?

I suppose that I could humor my own ego and say that it is because what I have to say is not meaningless, but that is most likely untrue. So “why” is still an issue… the only truly meaningful reason that I could give for continuing this attempt is that God might want to say something through me. This is not to say that I have some sort of direct access to God that others do not; I do not. Rather, it is to say that my humble attempts to communicate God’s gracious revelation of Himself through Jesus Christ to me in my journey may help someone else in their life journey.

Having come to this conclusion, I must now deal with yet another problem. There is so much that could be said, that truly ought to be said, that a completely opposite set of questions now arise. Where does one start? Once begun how does one “get off the stage” as General Waverly asked Captain Wallace in “White Christmas?” I am reminded of my very first preaching experience ever, in which I truly attempted to get from Genesis to Revelation in one sermon. My apologies once again to those who had to endure that debacle.

In an effort to keep this first attempt simple and uncomplicated (so that I am more likely to have a second go and even more importantly so that you the reader might want to visit again) I will begin with this most basic of statements:

God loves you! God loves you as you are where you are! He loves you more than you could ever know and in a way you will never understand.

Having just come through the Lenten season to arrive at Easter, it is only natural to focus on the cross as a demonstration of God’s Love.

Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His love for us in this, while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Jesus died willingly on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, so that we might have eternal life through him. Jesus said, “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3) Eternal life is not about length of days as much as it is about a relationship with God the Father. A relationship made possible by Jesus Christ, God the Son. A relationship made practical through the indwelling presence of God, the Holy Spirit.

It is hard to imagine a love greater than that of one who is willing to die in my or your place, especially when we are the ones who truly deserved to die. Again, God loves you! 

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him should not die but have everlasting life (relationship with God). For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” (John3:16-17) It really is that simple, God loves us and has willingly paid the penalty for our sin. I have accepted the invitation to enter into an eternal relationship with God the Father, through Jesus his son. That decision has changed the direction and destination of my entire life and has profoundly impacted the course of my life journey.

How about you? Do you know how much God loves you? Have you accepted His gracious offer of an eternal relationship? If not, why not accept today?

Tony Hall’s Testimony

Hello, My name is Tony Hall. Please permit me to tell you briefly about what God has done in my life. I want to give Him glory, to honor Him for the monumental change His love has brought to my life.

My parents were bikers. Cursing, drinking, leather wearing, smoking, gun toting, just don’t care… bikers. My dad was very Marlin Brando – ‘Leader of the Pack.’ I was raised with a cynical contempt for authority, and a general disregard for the law. Drinking, drugging, and grown men brawling were regular occurrences. I even experienced a full-on gunfight between my parents and former biker associates at the ripe old age of nine.

I rejected my parents racism and life-style fairly early on, and determined to have a better future. I was loved and encouraged at home (especially by my mom) to do well at school, so that is what I focused on and in time I became an accomplished student athlete.

Upon graduation I volunteered to serve in the United States Marine Corps, during the first gulf war, however, I was sabotaged by my own disrespect for authority and alcohol abuse. I went AWOL and it appeared my over-achieving days were ended. So I turned to drugs and crime. I stole, mugged, robbed, sold drugs, etc. etc. etc. to support my own fallen lifestyle.

A turning point came when the gal I was seeing informed me she was pregnant. It wasn’t long and I was a dad. A drunken, drugged, criminal dad who couldn’t keep up his selfish lifestyle and keep the bills paid working at Jiffy Lube; thus my plan to rob banks was born.

I recruited my younger brother as my get-away driver. I thought we had a fool-proof plan… turns out I was the fool! We got busted trying to boost the get-away car. Thank God he had a different plan! And they locked me up.

A couple months down the line I got a disclosure of evidence against me from the prosecutor’s office. It included my brother’s taped confession. I was crushed. That was probably my lowest point in life. It got me to look at my life and ask the hard question, how did it all come to this? Then for the first time, I could see the hurt I had caused others. I had left my lady with three little boys (she had two from a previous relationship) alone on the street. Maybe this was my lowest point… I’m not sure. What I do know is the pain was crippling and I didn’t know where to turn. Then at this critical point in my life I got a new cell mate…

He was a Christian. He read his Bible every day. He was simply different. Despite being on the way to prison (like me) he had obvious joy and real peace. That got me reading the Bible. Then one day, weighed down by it all, I cried out to a God I hoped existed. There, in the only privacy available, the shower, I told God that if He wanted the mess I had made of my life, He could have it. I meant it, and He took me up on the offer. I have never been the same since. It was like the weight of the world lifted up off my shoulders! I wasn’t alone anymore. The first of many, many miracles I personally experienced. Like proposing to the mother of my child through bullet-proof glass and hearing her say yes!

Of course, the world didn’t suddenly become all rosy after giving my life to Christ and I still faced the consequences of my actions. I was tried, convicted, and sentenced for conspiracy to commit armed robbery, possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited possessor, and misconduct involving body armor. I was given a substantially aggravated sentence of fifteen years in prison. That was a rough day in the courtroom. I have never seen three more miserable women than my mom, my sister, and my by-then wife (yes, that’s right, she married me in the county jail looking at what we thought would be at least ten years in prison. Tell me that’s not love!). Off to prison I went, a barely baptized new believer not knowing what to expect, but at least knowing that I had Jesus to go with me and I wasn’t letting go of Him!

They sent me to the Wilmot complex here in Tucson, which helped cement my marriage because we went from one-hour, no contact visits to eight-hour contact visits, but it wasn’t to last. A mere three months after arriving there they shipped me out to the Yuma prison complex where it was much more difficult to see my wife. During the next ten months we saw each other in person only once. The honeymoon was over and reality started setting in. She had been writing me every day, a steady stream of letters. As time passed the letters slowed to once a week, then once a month, and finally none at all. Our once-a-week phone calls began as upbeat moments, just good to hear each other’s voices. They turned into heartbreaking arguments. Toward the end of my ten months in Yuma I could see the writing on the wall, and I had a genuine conversation with God about it. I begged God with all my heart and soul to at least let Becky and I remain friends for the sake of the children. I acknowledged that He had given me this family and if He wanted to take it back that I would still continue to follow Him. No turning back. In my memory it seems like only a week later I got a letter from my public defender appeals lawyer that we had won a new trial and that they were bringing me back to Tucson for it! I celebrated with a joy that was truly unspeakable and full of glory! I read that letter out loud to everyone I knew!

I was flown back to Tucson in a small twin-engine aircraft along with one other inmate. Once there my bond was raised from the original amount of $7,500 to $50,000 by the same judge who sentenced me to fifteen years in prison. He sure didn’t want to see me hit the streets and I really can’t say that I blame him either! I knew I wasn’t the same man that I had been but how could he know that?! I resigned myself to a retrial with similar conclusions. God had different things in mind once again… four days before Christmas 2001 my mom cashed out a long-term annuity, put up her farm, and bonded me out of the Pima County Jail. Once again I was walking on air! No one met me in the parking lot so I caught the first city bust that came by over to Raymond and Tanya Bell’s apartment. They had been our neighbors at the time I was arrested, and they are our dear friends to this day. They could both see the difference Jesus made in me right away (see Raymond Bell’s testimony). My wife Becky and my mom caught up with me there and took me home.

When we pulled up to the apartments where my wife and kids had moved to while I was locked up, I immediately noticed a little church right across the street named New Life Community. I was in that church for their Christmas service, and have been there ever since. The Pastor and his wife welcomed us with open arms even after they came for a visit and I explained who I had been, where I had just come from, and what we were likely to be facing from the courts. They treated us with love, respect and dignity, which wasn’t exactly what I was accustomed to receiving from the Department of Corrections! I know it to have been God’s hand that directed my wife to those apartments, without a doubt. I am thankful beyond words for Pastor Curt and Heather and the church they lead.

For the next three years the wheels of justice turned slowly, I was blessed to be increasingly involved in ministry at our church, and my wife and I had two more children. A girl and a boy, for a grand total of five kids! In fact, my daughter’s birthday is on the day before I was originally supposed to be retried. God had different plans again! That trial date was vacated because my case was going all the way to the Supreme Court, and they wanted to get a ruling to be sure they didn’t waste a second trial on me. On the day before the world wanted to give me a criminal trial, God gave me a daughter instead. Halleluiah!

Well the wheels of justice turn slowly in our society but they do indeed turn. We received a letter one day from the prosecutor’s office. Three years after being bailed out of prison I was informed that a retrial date had been scheduled and was coming up in a few months. That was another bad day I’ll not soon forget, but what happened next was really amazing. Our church rallied around us and that same public defender appeals lawyer went to bat for me and got me a plea-bargain. The prosecution wouldn’t drop any of the charges, but they were willing to cap the sentence at the presumptive term of nine and a quarter years. I gave a testimony to our church family and asked for letters on my behalf to the judge (the same judge who had given me fifteen years the first time around). Twenty-four people wrote to the judge letters about the character and commitment of the man God had made of me over those past three years. Several of those letters can still bring me to tears today. I walked into that courtroom facing the prospect of returning to prison for another seven years on top of the two already served, and thinking of my young family it was one of the hardest things I have ever done. My heart ached with the thought that they would shortly have to see me carted off to prison again.

As I entered the courtroom I saw one of the original arresting police officers there as a witness for the prosecution. I walked straight up to him, looked him in the eye, shook his hand, and thanked him for his professionalism that saved my life that day five years before. Needless to say, he was incredibly surprised and I’ll never forget what he said about me to the judge during the trial later that day. From the stand he said, “well, I don’t really believe in all this religious stuff, but its obviously worked for this guy.” The Pastor, the Youth Pastor and one of our church’s board members all took the stand that day as character witnesses on my behalf. Finally it was the judge’s turn and I was worried sick that the sentence would be seven more years in prison, but God had a different plan yet again! The Judge opened by proclaiming this to be one of the most peculiar cases he had ever seen before, including a mistrial and delays in the retrial process. But then he said that is was clear to him that I had been rehabilitated… redeemed (a claim made by the public defender) is beyond the scope of this court. Then he made this amazing statement, “If it were up to me, I would send Mr. Hall home, but the charges presented carry a state mandated minimum sentence of four and a half years.” This statement made by the same judge that had given me the substantially aggravated sentence of fifteen years in the first trial! Five years later he saw such a difference in me that he gave me the least amount of prison time that he legally could and even stated that he would have let me go free if he could have.

Nevertheless, back to prison I went for another two years, leaving my wife to take care of five small children by herself. There was a big difference this time around though… our church family. I believe God chooses to work in the world through His people most of the time and that is exactly what happened when I went back prison. Our church, perhaps sixty to seventy people on any given Sunday, paid the utilities and rent for my wife and children the entire twenty-two months that I was being held in Prison. It started with a member of our church board and his wife, Bill and Sherry Curry, who had fallen in love with my family and I. They demonstrated their love by helping to pay the bills for my family and then a short time later the church as a whole came alongside us and took up that expression of love in practice. Such practical love and generosity makes me cry tears of gratitude and joy. Here again is God’s kingdom on full display. Such love! It changes a man.

While I was serving my sentence Bill Curry often brought my family to visit me in Yuma and Florence. My wife and I managed to maintain our connection with phone calls and correspondence. In fact, one day I received the joyous news in one of her letters that Becky had given her heart to Jesus too! The sacrificial love being poured out on us by the people at church helped lead her to the Savior. Of course, we are far from perfect and we still have many flaws that God is working on but we’re on the right path now and that makes all the difference. In His time we will be who God wants us to be, when and where He wants us to be.

Sadly, for the sake of space and readability I must draw my testimony to a close. There are many, many, many more miraculous details that I have had to leave out, but if you ever come to our little church of great big love, be sure to introduce yourself to my wife and I. We will be delighted to meet you and can tell you more about all the ways God has intervened in our life. Indeed, He continues to do so. It is no coincidence that I’m writing this on the fifth anniversary of my release from prison! But truly I was freed long, long ago in a shower stall inside the Pima County Jail. I have a joy the world didn’t give me, and one the world is powerless to take from me. It is the joy of knowing Christ, my Savior and best friend. I hope my story encourages you to investigate Him, who He is, His claim on your heart, life, loyalty, and love. He has these things of mine and I have never been happier or more complete. Of course, life is not always easy but God didn’t say it would be easy… only that He would walk with me all the way. I hope you will let Him walk with you.

Raymond Anthony “Tony” Hall
Sunday, January 15^th 2012