I remember vividly the day my world collapsed. Life was going from bad to worse, and I was doing my best to help it along the way. Three years of complete insobriety was interrupted by the local narcotics detective. I knew life would never be the same. It seemed like forever in my cell, the silence cutting through me. I hated silence, and anything to destroy it was “a good thing”.

My parents had just moved to Kansas, so there would be no way they could help me. I did not know at the time that they had just met a pastor who taught the word of God, and that their Bible study was praying for me. I was at the bottom, and there was no way out. The next night at a friend’s house I broke down. I wrote about how I was so lost that only God could help me, whoever that was.

On November 18^th, I officially became a convicted felon, kicking off a period of electronic monitoring and probation. As I look back, I can see the fingerprints of God as He set up my community service, AODA, and eventually my transfer to Kansas while still on probation. My parents and I had come to an agreement. I could move to Kansas if I went to Bible study with them every week.

My first Sunday in Kansas I went to Bible study. Pastor Merle Rothwell taught us about sin and salvation (a setup to be sure). After the study a guy with tattoos on his palms named Mario talked to me about the Lord. He was just a little older than me, and it was obvious he had been down the same road I had. Mario Trujillo led me to Christ in the Wilsey Bible Training Center on March 21^st, 2006 (that night).

I hungered for the word, and my life started changing. September came and I started class at Wilsey Bible Training Center. As with most new Christians, I still knew everything, but Merle and Joan gave me grace and taught me the word of God. I was transformed from being dependant on friends all the time to being alone all the time. Music was my life because I had no life, and now I can “be still” and KNOW that He is the LORD. I was hyper sensitive and hyper defensive, and I am no longer that person.

WBTC transformed me from a bottom of the barrel drug dealer into a believing, changing, hopeful Christian. The tremendous volume of scripture we covered (The entire Bible 2 times and many books 3) showed me how each book of the Bible is interconnected. Merle’s knowledge of the Old Testament explained the references in the New Testament. I also learned that Jesus is everywhere in the Old Testament (the volume of the book is about Him). I learned that the greatest power of the Holy Spirit is to change my life to reflect Christ’s. We must die to self in order to be filled with and used by Jesus. WBTC gave me a functional understanding of the Bible cover to cover, laying the foundation for my Christian walk.

The construction projects I was involved in not only taught me basic skills applicable to everyday life, they also taught me the importance of servant-hood. Faith without works is useless. Our faith is proven by our actions. (But be doers of the word, and not hearers only.) WBTC taught me how to have a functional relationship with Jesus, and was instrumental in altering the course of my life.

Jordon T. 8/20/07

My faith walk began in junior college when I was baptized at my aunt and uncle’s church.

For years, I drew away from the LORD intermittently. When I started teaching at Arkansas City Kansas in 1973, my faith grew rapidly because my pastor held special classes on books of the Bible on topics such as repentance, on church history and on introductory Greek to study the New Testament in it’s original languages. Following an additional two years at Emporia State University, I changed careers, moved to McPherson, Kansas where I joined a different church, and learned much at the Sunday School and at a weekly Bible Study.

Unfortunately I later left the Lord and became a very angry and bitter individual during the next decade.

My mother’s four-year downward spiral into paranoia and child-likeness, plus her failing eyesight from diabetes, left me questioning God and blaming Him for her suffering. By the time, dementia caused her to starve to death in August of 2000, the LORD had changed me; I no longer blamed Him and even testified at her funeral.

Six years later, my father’s cancer put him in the hospital. Again, the Lord strengthened and sustained me through his first hospitalization, his miraculous remission from death’s door, and through his final months.

By this time, I had begun attending the Wilsey Bible Training Center. There my faith was further buoyed by the spiritual truths I was learning, as well as by the prayers of the Center’s coordinators, Merle & Joan Rothwell. My nine months of study there has increased my knowledge of and my faith in God’s Word tremendously. A significant reason for this growth is Pastor Merle. He is perhaps the best minister of God’s Word that I have met. He can bring all of the Bible to life – even Job and the books of the Law. He continually emphasizes that even the Old Testament is all about Jesus by discussing types and shadows of Christ. He will create an eagerness to study Gods Word in your heart.

Sincerely, Mark E. 8/24/07