Hello my name is Bill Snyder. This last week I got a call from Pastor Stacy to speak to you about my testimony and I took a class last year with some guys and Pastor Stacy and that was one of the subjects we studied on was creating the testimony and so I look back at it now and I think that my testimony is really not just a single event it’s a life time process of a life under construction. I started mine as being raised as a catholic, went to twelve years going to catholic schools. When I got out I rally had a lot of good basic Christian teaching taught to me but not any kind of relationship developed. So as an adult I set out with those basic Christian guidelines and the rest of the world was the world according to Bill.

So I ventured out first thing and I chased after the money and the first house and all of the first everything’s, the new car and did pretty good at that got to the point that halfway through my career I had not only one new car in the driveway but two, new boat down at the boat moorage and a new home. Life was good according to Bill. But as time went on I went through several marriages in that process, I was working a tremendous amount, doing things that weren’t conductive to physically being healthy, or spiritually, but they did financially reward me so I kept on going at it and going at it and working a lot of hours.

Getting really tired and finally one day I came home from work I had dinner, sat down in a recliner. Fell asleep, wake up an hour later and I couldn’t ratchet the chair back to the close position. My right arm wasn’t working so I tried my right leg and my left leg to fold the chair back up and that wasn’t working. Well what had happened was I had the first of several strokes but according to Bill I would be ok. I was strong a pretty strong person when I was young and I thought it was a glitch in my body and I would go see the doctor and get it taken care of. Medical things and knowledge was not part of Bills world at that part of my life.

I didn’t want to know about it particularly I just slowed everything else down, but anyway I went to bed, woke up the next morning the same problem only this time I couldn’t get out of bed. Well I actually got out, I fell out. So took me to the hospital in the ambulance. Spent three or four days there, they got me simmered down enough to ship me to another hospital. Where I spent three weeks, where I got enough recovery I could do the rest of my recovery process outside that hospital facility.

It isn’t the possibility of having a serious illness possibly dying I guess strokes are next to heart attacks in taking peoples lives, but it was other things I learned from that process, that kind of changed my world.

Anyway I went through the process of going through all my rehabilitation and so forth. It was like a year and it was the only income for the household so I manage to not working at that point using up all of my savings and everything. So I told everything off, got rid of all my personal belongings and a friend bought a business in Walla Walla, Washington, that he called me up one day and said “Bill come work for me.” I worked for him a number of years before, good friends we were, a good work team. So I went up there. While working in Walla Walla I felt the need to find more answers to life then where I wasn’t at that point. Everything I worked so hard for is gone. Wives went, everything just kind of gone up in smoke.

Anyway so what I did, started seeking out a church to go to. I went to the Catholic Church there and it was a nice church, nice people but again it just didn’t have the fit. I felt that I didn’t have the relationship being built with God it was more around ceremony and that kind of thing. So I continued to look I eventually found a church it was called Blue Mountain Community Church which is a member of the Anderson Group like we are. At that point I joined that church and found a fellowship I really liked, wonderful Pastor, wonderful church members.

At that point started learning more about God and the Bible and so forth. Attended a class and such and eventually accepted God as sending His son Jesus to save all of us, not just me, but to die for our sins and I accepted him as my Savior. So at that point I felt a peace in my life that I didn’t have. So I continued attending there until I eventually moved back to the Seattle area but of course the first thing I do when I get here, I find a church affiliated with the Church of God Anderson, Indiana, which was this church. Pastor Stacy immediately was greeting, visiting and taking me to lunch. He continued to help me build on my relationship with God. I’ve attended several classes since I’ve been here, one great one last year with Pastor Stacy. I at this point would say that with my walk and my journey with God has brought me to a point of two kinds of peace, one that someday when I do pass, I feel that I will make it to heaven and the other, is a day to day peace that I have, even though there is still things in my life that stress you where you only can happen to a certain level and that peace from God takes over and protects me. So I’ve enjoyed my walk and hope to continue everyday of the rest of my life.

Pastor Stacy: Very nice Bill, thank you for sharing that! I know it’s hard for you because it’s so emotional and you sit down and think “why did I do that” but folks you understand don’t you, this is very real stuff. Sometimes you can’t share it without feeling the deep, deep sense of emotion because you know the tremendous change that God has made in your life. Bill nothing to apologize for, thank you for being you and for sharing your heart with us today. Very, very good, thank you.