We recognize that 1986 is, if the Lord carries and allows us to live, going to bring another birthday. And the numbers don't get smaller, do they? They keep going up. We're reminded that time is passing and with time, so is the life that God has given us to live. And so it's an appropriate time for us on an occasion like this, I think, to look backward and reflect upon the goodness of God. And we want to give you an opportunity to do that publicly, especially on this last year.
We have a couple of mics up here and John and I are going to carry them around and give you an opportunity to say something if you'd like to, to the Lord's glory. Looking upon his faithfulness, his goodness, his love in your life this last year, it's also a time for us to look inward and to examine our hearts to see where we are tonight and then to set some new goals, perhaps.
The Christian life is a series of new beginnings and there's nothing like the beginning of a new year to establish a new beginning. So what is it but a time of rededication as well? Maybe there are some areas of your life tonight you want to give afresh to the Lord. But first, let's talk about the things of the past year. As you reflect upon the last 12 months, maybe the last week, would you like to share something with us, all of us, what God's done in your life?
John, why don't you grab the mic there. You may not feel that it's profound enough to share. Well, you know, that's not the case. It doesn't have to be profound. All it has to be is sincere, something God's done in your life. Perhaps you're visiting tonight and you'd like to share something. That's fine. Who'll be first? Right over here we have one. Hello. There we go. Right over here we have one. I need to stand up. Give us your name first. I've never been here before.
I'm Steve Sater and we heard about the movie tonight. The best thing, I guess, that happened this year, the Lord's been just a blessing in all areas. But my wife and I were married on March 25 of this year and I'm blessed. Great. Thank you for being here too. Yes, we're glad to have you. Does she have a word there to share? Rebuttal? I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here. And I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here.
I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here. Great. Thank you for being here too. Yes, we're glad to have you. Does she have a word there to share? Rebuttal. I'm sure she feels equally as blessed. No, no. Let's be the first year. How many of you were married in the last year? I think there are several couples here. Look at this. My goodness. Happy anniversary to all of you.
I've been married a long time ago, but I was married this year, too. He's tired tonight, folks. Who will be next? We've got one over here. You have to give him the name first. Steve Peterson. The Lord has really blessed us in many ways this year, too, but I guess the biggest blessing of the year was leading Rose and I back into ministry with Youth Investment and something we always wanted to be a part of and glad to be back with them. It isn't an easy road, is it? I just want to thank the Lord.
You need to give us your name first. Gabriel Woods. I call him Gabe. I just want to thank the Lord publicly tonight for his faithfulness and his, I'm trying to think of a proper word, consistency and taking care of me and my life no matter what the circumstances have been. This year has been a year of like a big rollercoaster ride, a lot of physical problems, but then again a lot of material blessing together. And he is just, well, the words can't describe it.
I just want to thank him publicly for what he's done and for the prayers of the people in this church. Can I ask you one specific thing? This last year the Lord provided Gabe with a van that he can use to drive himself. You've been dependent pretty much upon other people to take you, haven't you? I had a car, but I had to have help to get in and out of it. So now he's able to get himself into the van and drive where he wants to go and that's been a blessing to you, I know. We rejoice in that.
Thanks, Gabe. Inevitably there are people who say, oh, I wish I had said something. Here we go. Here we go. All right. Marge Charles from Gardner, Massachusetts. And I just looked at the next verse down here that said, through him let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name.
And I can just praise God that he is faithful and that in times of difficulty that we do not understand we can offer up sacrifices of praise and we can give thanks to him. I had this experience this year on October 18th when I found my husband dead in the bathroom. My immediate one was a panic first, but after I called the ambulance for help, the Lord just filled that bathroom and I could offer up sacrifices of praise to God and fruit of lips.
And the ambulance lady that was still on the phone, I had a cordless phone, and she just heard me just praising God and thanking God. And she said, oh, my, it must be wonderful to have such faith. And it really is. You know, when you're filled with the Spirit, when you walk in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is right there to minister to you in your time of need. Great is his faithfulness. Thank you. Amen. We have one over here. As I told you, it was starting to go.
My wife will be thankful all year. Name first. My name is Cheryl Dankers. I'm not used to that microphone. The Lord's really blessed me in several areas in my life. One is that my husband Mike and I were married about six weeks ago. That's just terrific. Another area is that I was able to witness to an attorney that I worked with that he's been dealing with alcoholism off and on for about the last six or seven years. And it came to the point where I was going to help him jump start his car.
Practically blew up my car. And so later called me that evening and we ended up being on the phone for about an hour and a half and I was able to share with him all the joy and all the blessings that God's been able to bring into my life. And I feel really blessed that God gave me that opportunity to witness. And I've also really noticed for the first time in my life I really gave up something to God to take care of for me.
And that was I was during the summer having some difficulty choosing what kind of employment options I wanted to take. And I just said, God, there's too many choices here and I don't have any answers here. You take it. And it was just a real blessing because I really gave everything to him in that area and he really led me in the direction I felt I had to go. It's been a really marvelous year. Thank you. About two more minutes we're going to let everyone testify by taking an offering.
How's that? A thanks to the Lord. That's my cue to the fellows who are going to help us out there. That means ushers get ready. This is as far as I can come so you have to come the rest of the way. Name first. My name is Allison Holeslider and I really thank the Lord that I can be here tonight because on the 21st of March this year in Africa at 430 in the afternoon my wife and I with several other missionaries from MAF were dumped in a river with no life jackets and a boat with no floatation.
The river was about three times as wide as the Mississippi over at 694. We all came up and was able to grab onto the boat and we finally got the attention of two fishermen who came to our rescue and eventually got us all to shore. My wife could not swim. She went under a couple of times, finally came up. I don't know who got her but anyway they did. I can swim but I hadn't been swimming for 20 years. And we had three children under five years old. Everybody got onto those children.
And finally our daughter went back up the river with two fishermen and got a boat down to rescue us about 930, plenty really black dark. When we got back there was a large group of natives and people from the native church there to greet us. And I just know that we never would have made it. The Lord just reached down and took us out of that river because we were helpless. John Lewis is an MAF missionary over there and he's married to our daughter Anita.
And I've read many times in missionaries where they've had miracles happen and even though this was a very bad experience, I shared a miracle with missionaries and now when I read those stories I really appreciate the stories. And I just thank the Lord that I'm here tonight because I know that he just, I'm here because he took us out of that river and I just can't thank him enough for it. Thank you for sharing that. I read that story somewhere.
It's been printed in some periodical since last March. In MAF's paper I think that's where I read it. Thank you. Yes, we'll do that now and we'll come back to another time of testimony here in a moment. My friend Sam Grant here in the front is from Canada and up there would like to say it's time to lift the offering. However, lift has a little different connotation here in the United States so if he ever says that to you, why don't be alarmed? He's not going to mug you.
But it is time for our offering and this is a real joy that we have to share together in the ministry of the Church and I know that there are some who want to take the opportunity to share tonight in particular so we'll do that right now. Would you join me please in prayer? Let's bow together. Lord, we want to thank you for sparing the lives of these folks and their loved ones and other missionaries and even some who are here in this auditorium otherwise tonight.
So wonderfully have you protected and guided us in this year and yet in some other cases you've chosen to call home faithful servants too and we bless you for that. Your plan is perfect Father and we're glad that we can relax and rest in faith knowing that you make no mistakes. Thank you for allowing us this time together tonight and for bringing us together as a family, a family of the children of God. Bless I pray our sharing in the offering this evening in Jesus' name, Amen.
My name is Don. Don? Yes, Don Sattler from Northwestern College. Sattler, S-A-T-T-L-A-R. Do you have any relatives in Michigan? No. That's my sister's name, just one. Oh, okay. Since I came to know the Lord, he's become really real to me and through my trials and joys and through a lot of prayer and as I draw close to him, he's become really, very real to me.
And during the beginning of this year, the start of this year, I'd like to see not only myself but everybody else and I don't want to, you know, say I encourage you or challenge you or whatever. I'd just like to say please draw closer to the Lord and I hope and I pray that he becomes incredibly real, more than just a friend, you know. A savior, the savior, I hope he becomes really real to everybody and he's becoming real to me and he's becoming more real, more real every day.
I just want to say let's go for it. Thanks, Don. Did you say yes or no? Okay, go ahead. I'm Mike Gessler. The other day in the mail I received a little notice from the Association for Retired Persons and I knew that a lot of things had happened this past year and as I read through that, it said that you needed to be 50 to qualify to be a member in this organization. I thought, well, I did a lot this last year but I didn't think 15 years got added on to my age.
But in any case, my wife teased me quite a bit about that and we finally threw it in the wastebasket and it's time to carry on. The thing I'm most thankful for this year is something I had struggled with for a long time and that is that in the family that I grew up in, we always drank beer with our meals and I was very used to drinking beer and thought nothing of it with a name like Gessler and a good German background. I just thought that was normal.
And I finally got to the point in my Christian walk where I decided that I needed to quit doing that and it was very difficult for me. And since May, I've been victorious and have not had alcohol beer. Fortunately, they make this non-alcohol beer and I still love the taste of beer. But I try and limit myself on that too.
But the victory over not having to have an alcoholic drink or a beer with a meal is something I had grown up with and I thought I could never overcome that, but the Lord does supply and give the power to overcome anything. Amen. Thank you, Mike. This Irishman up here was just saying, Amen, Amen. The pastor's been picking on me tonight. I don't know why. I want to thank the Lord that we were led to Minnesota and to this church.
We have really met a lot of friends, our families in Toronto and other families in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and we have just met the Montgomery's, the Slaytons. There's just an awful lot of people that we have met. It might be a big church, but if you go searching, there's other people here who want to meet you and want to have friendship with you. And here's the best pastor I've ever had, and boy, he makes me feel welcome in a church.
Applause Wow, thank you, Sam. I think it's time for the film. Should we do that, John? Fine. Like I say, you're the boss. Yes, I know. Do we need somebody on the projector for you? Okay. The film tonight is The Godmakers. It is a film that is an expose of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is a very powerful film. I talked to a friend of mine today who's... Concluding