Brenda Nelson
Salvation Experience
My first time in a Church, I was 4 years old. My mother, step-father and I were living temporarily with my grandmother in Brooklyn New York. My mother did not go to church, so my grandmother asked her if she could take me. Her and I walked across town to this white steeple Christian church. On the way my grandmother introduced me to the butcher, baker and everyone she knew walking. I never felt so special and loved. When it came time to sing the hymns, and everyone picked up the hymnal book and started singing, I wanted to join them but I didn't know how to read. I said to myself "I will open the book and sing along and no one will know I can't read." I sang all my nursery rhymes as loud as I could. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall---- Little miss muffet sat on a tuffet--- Baa Baa black sheep have you any wool (ect.). My grandmother let me sing and never asked me to be quiet. I felt so good. When we left the church I said to myself (I want THAT in my life).
The month that we were living with my grandmother she also taught me the Lord's Prayer and also "Now I lay me down to sleep". She would tuck me in at night and sit on my bed and I would say my prayers. After a month we left and moved many times and out of state. I always asked my mother if we could go to church. She said no. I asked her if she would ask a neighbor that went to church, if they would take me. She said Yes and would, wherever we moved.
At age 9, my grandmother sent me a bible and I was thrilled, but I didn't understand reading the King James Version, but said to myself, "someday I will." I searched all my growing up years for a church. I went by myself as a teenager to small churches but no one ever acknowledged that I was there. It was a very lonesome feeling. I married a California man (in fact he was an Oakland Policeman) and had two children, and we were living in Castro Valley in 1974. He asked me what I wanted to do on Mother's Day and I said I want to go to Neighborhood Church, the one with the 3 crosses. We took our young children and went and I prayed that someone would greet us with a smile. Frida Post my first church friend greeted us with a big smile and welcomed us. That was it. My children grew up in the church and me and my husband were active members. He died in 2003. I invited Jesus into my heart along with my husband and children in 1974 when Pastor Bellig was Pastor. We all started immediately in a Sunday school class, and with the excellent Bible teaching at Neighborhood Church, I grew to understand the Bible my grandmother gave to me at 9. My husband and I have had a bible study in our home on Tuesday nights for 30 years, which has continued after my husband's death. The blessing from my grandmother taking me to church and letting me sing "Humpty Dumpty" has lead my whole immediate family, two children, four grandchildren, and six great-grand children to be strong Christians walking with the Lord.
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