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The first 26 seconds do not have sound. Jim wasn't miked, so the sound team needed to
turn on various mics to pick him up. The captions may seem off as they don't completely capture
his entire testimony. Baptist school, until uh, i don't know the
seventh or eight grade. and then i decided to choose, i went to a UCC church then an
apostolic church so the apostolic church opened up uh, a school so I attended that school
as well. And uh, stayed there, ya know, and then later in life I got married, had a child,
got a divorce. and in my late 20's the church found out that i was gay and they asked me
to take a step back, think about what i was doing in my life and ya know, it sorta devastated
me at that point. because here i was helping in the church choir, helping with children's
church, just getting involved, like i do here in anywhere I can cuz i'm that type of person
i see a place i need to fit in, i just jump in. so, i felt like at that time everything
was just being pulled out from under me. so every time they had an alter call i felt so
needed to come up to the front and pray because the pastor told me to take time to pray, so
i was obeying my pastor, I was doing that. but then I had these people on one side of
me praying and saying ya know, let's pray for this gayness to come out of you, doing
all this stuff, ya know, ya can't pray the gay away folks. I'm sorry, I've been there,
done that (amen) so, um, I just felt like at that time i was losing control of my life.
every friday and saturday night i was going out to the bars doing things that i really
shouldn't be doing, ya know, i, i look back at that point and i'm thinking to myself wow
look at where i am today and God's kept his protective hand on me. but still, all along
this, this I'm running from God, at this point i'm starting to run from God. but God does
have a way to get your attention. one day i was praying and i said God just take me
somewhere I need to go to church, i need to be in the house of God. and a friend of mine
introduced to me MCC of Indianapolis. so i went there off and on, it wasn't like what
we have here, ya know, i'm used to a little Spirit filled church. so i went and then all
of a sudden, a friend of mine moved here and i thought, ya know, i'm just gonna pack up
and move to Columbus. They've got such a gay life. (laughter) so, so I came here and ya
know, meanwhile I'm still running from God in all this thing. so i'm sneaking, sort of
sneaking out to go to these other churches around town, i thought, oh i can slide in
they won't even recognize me, notice me all along, God was still dealing with my heart.
I had a friend come and visit from Indiana, from Lafayette actually, and he was in this
website chat room called out in Columbus and all of a sudden in a pop up it said gay affirming
Pentecostal church. God loves you just the way you are I said stop what you're doing,
(laughter) I said you're not going any further. I have to check this out, so I checked it
all out as y'all know, I attended that church until it closed. and then, uh, in the meanwhile,
we were busy with you guys here at your old house, went a couple of times to the house,
and then they got this, this little store front church down on Broad st and I said ya
know something, if i'm gonna dedicate myself to God, I'd better start getting in the water,
gotta get your feet wet. I had to get in there, i had to say, ya know, this is where You want
me, but, and I'm, I'm, I'm a funny side to this story, at this point I've already started
dating my partner. well, the religious part, the world part, it went over in my head ya
know, the church says, oh you can't be unequally yoked and as you know he's catholic (laughter)
I'm Pentecostal, so I'm thinking boy, this is, I hope this is what You want, i'm putting
out my faith and trust in you. so come to find out, ya know, as you can tell, I, I really
had gotten, had reconnected with God, but um, i wanna say one thing. if anyone, is questioning
their sexuality or the relationship with God, you're really in the right place today, at
the right time. (amen) because the Bible says our steps are numbered and guess what, that
step lead right to here. (amen) so I wanna just take the time and to tell you all thank
you for coming, but also that, ya know, if God could do that for you, do it for me, he
can do it for you. (amen) and that's the kind of God we serve (clapping, amen)