Volunteer Testimony: FBC Hurst (July 2011)

After the death of my parents, people kept saying, "God is going to do something so big and so amazing out of such a terrible thing." When people would say that, I would get angry, hateful, and even more angry at God. How in the world would something good come out of my world being shattered at such a young age? 

I was 18 and had only been home from a mission trip to Russia for six days when all this happened. I questioned everything that I had ever known about God. I couldn't stand to listen to worship music or even touch my bible. I was infuriated by the idea of this God that would do this to me and my sisters. 

Time passed and my heart was softened. I was able to listen to worship music and hold those words close to my heart to help pull me through the hard times. But in the back of my mind, I still doubted the fact that God was going to do something amazing from the death of my parents. 

When the opportunity of going to Africa presented itself, I was excited but nervous at the same time. I couldn't help but question, "Ok, when I come back from Africa, who's going to pass away this time?" It was a stupid fear and no one really understood that anxiety I had about going. Thankfully I was able to push past that fear and go and do God's work. 

I rode with Mark one of the days that we went out to the villages. Its a long drive, so we constantly talked about every topic under the sun. The topic of tattoos came up and I decided to share the story behind mine. It says "Heal the wound" on my back (short for "Heal the wound but leave the scar to remind me of how wonderful You are"). 

We arrived at the village and one group went out to story. They came back all excited to tell us about Dou Dou, a man that had accepted Christ! On the way back to the guest house, we had to wait for the ferry and while waiting, Caroline had told me that Mark talked about my testimony when he was talking to Dou Dou about possibly never seeing his son again (Dou Dou and his son got into a fight and his son ran off). Dou Dou hasn’t seen him since and Mark was able to say, “We have a girl on the team who lost both of her parents in a car wreck and she still loves the Lord. You may never get your son back but, with Christ, we have this peace with us that’s unexplainable!” 

My eyes instantly filled up with tears. It was amazing to me that my testimony had been used in leading Dou Dou to Christ. God was able to use Mark to share my testimony with this man who had only heard about Christ a few times and to me, THAT right there was what people meant two years ago when they said God IS going to do something amazing through this tragedy.

Alicia Brandon