Sabbath

By Bobby Davis

April 8, 2026

The Long Journey

When Tom Wahl was born, there were serious complications for both mother and son. “My mom was paralyzed for several months, and I was also paralyzed on my right side for some time,” he says. “The Catholic nuns at the hospital were so sure I was going to die that they quickly called in a priest to baptize me. You see, my mom was Catholic, but my father was Lutheran, and their families didn’t get along. So when I got home and my grandmother found out that I’d been baptized by a Catholic priest, she had a Lutheran pastor baptize me again, just in case! I guess I got baptized one more time, too, this time by immersion, when I joined the Assemblies of God church later on.”

Tom says that he grew up next door to his paternal grandmother, who took him to church each week. “Grandpa never went to church, and my parents didn’t either, except to the lutefisk fish dinner once a year,” he says with a grin.

“Grandma made sure I went to Confirmation classes, but honestly, I came away with only two things from that experience. First, they taught me about The Ten Commandments, and second, they made us all pray out loud. Someone had to open with prayer every week, so it got us used to praying in groups. At the time, I hated it; but it turned out to be a good thing.”

Unfortunately, Tom came away from that experience with the understanding that in order to get to Heaven, he had to keep the Ten Commandments perfectly. “But I kept breaking the commandments until I just gave up,” he says. “And once I graduated from high school, I don’t remember going to church again, except when I served in the Navy, and we had to.”

Tom married Diane, who was raised Methodist, but didn’t go to church much anymore. However, several years later, her mother was invited to an Assemblies of God church. That day, she met Christ—the One who had died for her, the Savior she had never met before.

“After that, she was relentless,” Tom says. “For years, every time you saw her, she was talking about Jesus. Not just to me or my wife, but to all of her family. And because of her, most of us started looking for Jesus, too.

Changes

Tom had grown up in a family where alcohol was always present. “I’d come home from school, and often there was nobody home,” he says. “My baby brother was still in the crib when my dad started giving him beer to drink. My mother would holler at him about it, but in the end, both my brother and my parents were alcoholics. It just wasn’t a great place to grow up.”

By 2000, Tom’s mother had developed end-stage liver disease, so Tom and Diane took over her care. “By then, we had more or less quit going to church,” he recalls. “A new pastor had come, and I didn’t get along with him very well. The church where we’d raised our children would praise God for a good half hour before the service, but for some reason, this new pastor was different. Later, we learned that he suffered from a brain tumor, and that was probably why he acted like he did.”

A New TV Station

By 2005, Tom had retired, and one day, his daughter told him there was a new TV station called 3ABN. “She told me I might like it because they talked a lot about the book of Revelation, so I started watching,” he says. “I’d go downstairs before bed, and I’d listen to David Asscherick’s Discover program. But it wasn’t one episode after another, it was always different programs, so I began taping him and hitting the pause button so I could look up the Bible texts he mentioned!”

For three or four months, Tom watched 3ABN every night. “But not once did I hear anyone mention the Sabbath!” he says. “Then one night, Jac Colón came on, and all of the sudden, he mentioned something about the seventh-day Sabbath.”

“Aha! I thought. They have something up their sleeve! But everyone seemed to know what they were talking about in Revelation, so I just chose to ignore that. I listened to Pastor Stephen Bohr. It seemed like he quoted too much Scripture—but now he’s my favorite preacher! When he mentioned Ellen G. White, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. But then I thought, What’s the difference? If he quotes another commentator, it doesn’t bother me. So why does Ellen White bother me so much?

Tom says that he had difficulty keeping up with the TV schedule changes from month to month, so he visited 3ABN’s website and ordered the entire Discover series on DVD. “It was great, because now I could pause the program and look up all the Bible texts,” he says. “Then, I began to go to the Catholic websites and read the things the popes had written. After that, I checked the Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, and a couple of books called Instructions in the Catechism of Faith and Bible Footlights that I must have gotten from my grandma. There I found questions and answers about how the Catholic Church changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. This was everything David Asscherick was talking about!”

Search for a New Church Home

With a renewed interest in spiritual things, Tom and Diane began looking for a new church. The door to one of the churches was locked, and another one had a preacher dressed in blue jeans, so they didn’t go there anymore.

“A whole year went by, and when the Bible says that God invites us, saying, ‘Come now, and let us reason together’ (Isaiah 1:18), I can relate. At the time, I was helping a friend build onto his cabin, but was it alright to work on the Sabbath? Diane and I never mentioned anything to anyone, but once I got those DVDs, we both watched them.

“One day I was in my workshop, and I don’t remember what program was on, but there was a panel discussion on 3ABN. And as I walked past it, it was like they were speaking to me! In fact, it was like God Himself was saying, We have discussed this long enough, are you going to do this or not?

“Immediately, I went upstairs, and said to my wife, ‘I don’t know about you, but I’m going to start going to church on Sabbath,” and she said, ‘That’s a good idea!’”

“When we visited a Seventh-day Adventist church for the first time, I really liked the pastor, because he was both preaching and teaching,” Tom says. “We were invited to a Bible class on the Book of Hebrews, and since my wife and I had been looking at that not too long before, we listened eagerly. We were introduced to different people, and soon joined our new church family.

Both Tom and Diane were greeters at the church, and she helped pick up things after the service. But as her health began to fail and the COVID pandemic hit, they both stayed home and faithfully watched 3ABN’s Sabbath School Panel and Worship Hour every week.

Sadly, Diane never regained her health, but even though she’s now asleep in Jesus, Tom eagerly awaits that glorious day when they will be reunited for eternity.

Sharing Truth

One of Tom’s greatest thrills has been to tell others about what he’s learned about God. His brother-in-law from South Dakota caught a virus that destroyed a good part of his heart. “We’d go to breakfast,” Tom says, “and then we’d watch the tapes I recorded of David Asscherick. He watched them at night before he went to bed, too, and eventually, he began attending his local Seventh-day Adventist church. The pastor there studied the truths of the Bible with him and they became very good friends. I’m so grateful I got to share those messages with him. He fell in love with Jesus and came to the Lord before he passed away.”

Tom has no doubt that God brought him in contact with 3ABN, and he recalls the special time he and his wife had when they attended a Summer Camp Meeting on our campus. “Pastor Doug Batchelor was there, and we enjoyed him so much,” he says. “We also got to meet Hal and Mollie Steenson, as well as Greg and Jill Morikone. It was a real blessing.”

Today, Tom’s daughter drives him to church, where he continues teaching the very Bible study class he first attended. And to make it even more special, his daughter sits in that class, too!

Yes, it was a long journey for Tom, but now he walks each day with Jesus by his side. We are grateful for how the Holy Spirit draws the attention of those who are searching for truth, bringing them in contact with 3ABN’s ministry. Please pray for those who are watching or listening for the first time today.

By Sveta

July 1, 2017November 20, 2017

How I met God

Donna Steele grew up with ten siblings at the end of the Great Depression. They were was not raised in church, and God was never mentioned in their home. “In fact, there wasn’t a Bible in the house!” she says.“But I always knew there was a God, because He came to me in dreams.” After visiting a mansion for the first time, she says her goal suddenly became to own one. “But that night, God came to me in a dream, turned over and sat down on an old bucket, and talked to me about life’s values. I was not to seek the things of this world, but to seek love to spread out to others,” she recalls. When Donna’s parents divorced, she began attending her grandmother’s Baptist church, and at the tender age of nine she answered an altar call and was baptized. After she married, she began attending her husband’s Pentecostal church. “The people were loud,” she says, “and I didn’t like it. But it was church, so I kept going.” Her journey took her through the Nazarenes, Catholicism, and even the Native American beliefs, but there was always something missing. “I look back now and I realize that although I had loved and known about God all my life, I’d never met Him,” she admits. Then, several years ago, Donna moved to southern Illinois to help her daughter Kristina, who works for 3ABN. “At that point, I wasn’t going to church, because I didn’t feel like I belonged anywhere,” she says, “but Kristina kept mentioning her co-workers at 3ABN, so I began watching. I liked listening to Shelley Quinn, and soon I fell in love with the preaching of CA Murray, David Asscherick, and Kenneth Cox. Then one day, I met Danny Shelton and suddenly we were talking about the seventh-day Sabbath. I’d been taught that it was just for the Jews, but as I continued studying what Jesus said, everything lined up! Then I knew!”

She began attending the Thompsonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, and says, “Everything I heard was backed up directly in the Bible, and I’ve been there from that point on.

“It’s an amazing journey, and at 75 years of age, I finally have a freedom I’ve never had. No matter what happens, I just trust God!”

By Bobby Davis

April 1, 2017April 9, 2026

The Truth Set Ellie Free!

Ellie grew up in a large Catholic family in Wisconsin. “I was number six out of seven siblings,” she says, “and life was difficult. All of us were made to attend Mass every week, and we sang in the choir, served food at weddings, and went to Catechism classes on Saturday. I loved God, and I loved singing the songs,” she continues. “It made me feel warm and fuzzy to be in church. But that’s about all I got out of it. I didn’t understand the communion thing. I just didn’t know what it meant, because I wasn’t taught well. There was never meaning in it for me, just symbolism.

“The first year I was out on my own, there was a Catholic church between my apartment and the school I was going to, so I thought, I’ll go to church. But it didn’t turn out how I expected. Instead of feeling warm and fuzzy, I realized I was in a church I didn’t know in downtown Madison—and I was almost alone in there. Then, after mass, everyone stepped out of their pew and walked home—and that made it easy not to go back.”

After many years of not going to church, a friend invited her to a Pentecostal service, and soon Ellie joined enthusiastically. “I was in 100 percent, and I went to church three times a week. But despite being happy and excited, my Pentecostal friends kept asking me if I had the Holy Ghost yet. I begged for the Holy Spirit to show Himself to me in the evidence of tongues, and I did it so often that it became old, tiresome, and even embarrassing. Why won’t the Holy Spirit come to me? I wondered. I must not be good enough, but why can’t I have the gift of tongues?”

Watch Out for Television!

Ellie says she remembers the pastor preaching once about how we should be careful about TV evangelists, and what they had to say. “He also preached that it wasn’t good to watch TV all the time, and I was becoming convicted. On the occasions where I turned it on, I knew I shouldn’t be watching it,” Ellie confesses, “but one night I flipped through the channels, and at that very second, I heard a preacher on this channel called 3ABN, so I stopped to listen. Let me see if they’re lying, I thought. But soon I realized that he agreed with everything I knew to be true.

“The next night I watched House Calls, and they were constantly referring to the Scriptures. They don’t say one word without backing it up with the Bible, I thought, so this is safe! I didn’t know if the other Pentecostals would approve, but I knew in my heart that God approved, so I didn’t tell them about it.

The more she listened, the more Ellie came to believe that she was hearing the truth. “Then one day, the Holy Spirit came to me in sudden inspiration, and told me, You Should find these people. It never occurred to me that there were Seventh-day Adventists in my city. I called around, found a church and was so excited about it. Then I realized that I had driven past it many times, and thought, Those are probably really nice people. They must be like the Amish.”

While Ellie visited the Seventh-day Adventist church, she continued attending her Pentecostal church, as well. “When I started going I had no intention of having to choose between them,” she says. “I knew I’d be an Adventist.”

Ellie was baptized as a Seventh-day Adventist, and although she was committed to her new faith, she longed for more church fellowship. “Then a friend in Watertown invited me to her church, and when I visited, I found that it was adorable, so now I come here every week, although it’s a 45 minute drive.”

Ellie loves to tell anyone who will listen about the station that introduced her to the truths of the Bible! “I’m grateful for 3ABN, but I’m also grateful for the Holy Spirit urging me to find the Seventh-day Adventist people,” she says. “If it wasn’t for Him, I would still just be watching TV.”

Watertown Seventh-day Adventist Church

We praise God for how He has brought more Bible truth into Ellie’s life, and for all she does for those around her. If you’re in the area, why not visit with her church family at the Watertown Seventh-day Adventist Church in Wisconsin, located at 500 South 5th Street. They would love to meet you!

Watertown Seventh-day Adventist Church Website

By webmaster@3abn.org

January 16, 2017April 9, 2026

My Spiritual Journey – Roberta Rice

By Bobby Davis

Roberta Rice shared a story recently that many of our viewers and listeners can relate to; and as she spoke with us, it was obvious she was overwhelmed with joy!

“I was born in Galveston, but raised in Montgomery, Texas,” she began. “And when I was a little girl, my parents moved to San Francisco, California, where my father found a job as a longshoreman, and my mother was a ‘Rosie the Riveter.’ Because they worked long hours, they decided to temporarily leave me back on the farm with my grandparents.

“My grandparents were Baptists,” she continues, “and over the years I heard many sermons on Creation. Even though they read the texts that said ‘Sabbath,’ it never occurred to me that the Bible meant Saturday, and it would be many years before I’d finally understand what God was saying!”

Roberta moved to the west coast and back several times before settling in San Pablo, California, at the age of thirteen. She began attending nearby Richmond High, but says her life changed dramatically when she got married at age 15. “I was the first person to graduate from that high school with a child,” she says, “and when my husband joined the armed forces, I moved in with my in-laws and their children, who became like my siblings.

“After three-and-a-half years in Wiesbaden, Germany, my husband returned and we moved to San Francisco, where he began working on the waterfront. Twelve years later, I began college, and then went on to get my master’s degree.

“My first marriage didn’t work out, and I raised three sons by myself. I worked as a counselor for the Educational Opportunities Program and Services at Solano College in Fairfield, California, and then taught English as a Second Language (ESL) in Oakland, where I retired. I also made sure all my boys received bachelor’s degrees, and today, my eldest son Dorsie lives in Portland, Oregon, and my youngest son Ronald lives in Chandler, Arizona. Unfortunately, I lost my middle son Phillip in a car accident when he was just 44 years old.”

Roberta expresses remorse when she thinks about how she didn’t provide her sons with religious training. “Although I was raised in church, I was baptized at the age of five, and never really felt as if it was my choice. So when I became a mother, I didn’t train them in the ways of the Lord, and today, I feel badly that my children didn’t get a good foundation—except from my son who passed away. He’d walk to the nearby Unitarian church every Sunday with his little Bible, and basically, he educated himself.

“During my second marriage, when my children were away at college, my second husband and I found a house across the street from a church. We wanted that house so badly, that I promised, Lord, if you allow us to get this house, I’ll go to church again! So after we got the house, I made good on my promise. My husband and I weren’t evenly yoked, and that marriage didn’t last. When my oldest told me he was an atheist, I understood that all this had affected him—and I still see it with my youngest, and my grandchildren.”

What She Prayed For

In 2014, Roberta had just finished retraining for medical billing and coding when she suffered three mini-strokes. “Those strokes made me ‘inbound,’” she explains, “and while convalescing, I began setting rational goals of what I could do with my life. I also prayed that God would allow me to have a true understanding of the Bible, so I could discuss it with others. You see, I hadn’t memorized Bible verses growing up, and I needed His help to recall them to support various topics.

“Three days after I prayed, I wanted some music while I wrote some letters. So I turned on Dish Network and dialed in what I thought was a music channel. Suddenly, I came across a TV station I’d never seen—3ABN, on channel 9393. I could tell it was a religious station, and thought, I don’t know if I want to watch this or not. But just then, the Holy Spirit whispered to me, Listen a little bit and see what they’re talking about.

“As I watched, I suddenly realized this was just exactly what I wanted, so I kept watching. I had no idea what 3ABN was, and I wasn’t familiar with the Seventh-day Adventist teachings; but as Ranko Stefanovic spoke about Revelation, I suddenly realized this was what I’d prayed for! Then, Terry McComb came on with Origins: The First Week in Time, speaking about the days of Creation and the seventh-day Sabbath. It made perfect sense! Now, I had the beginning, and the end—and I was excited! It seemed like somehow, every issue I had was explained on 3ABN. When the question came up, it was there for me.”

Although most of her friends weren’t receptive to these new truths, Roberta was determined. “I began taking notes, and now I’m on my third composition book!” she says. “When I talk to those who will listen, I have my Bible texts written down; but I want to get to the point where I can go without notes.”

A couple of Bible verses have really given her strength, lately. “The first one is 1 Corinthians 10:13, ‘No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.’ That’s the verse I rely on when I’m tempted by a donut, or a snack!” she says. “Another one is Ephesians 6:10, that says, ‘Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.’ God is helping me to remember these wonderful verses now, and that’s really a miracle, since those strokes make it hard on my memory!”

Into Action

Roberta didn’t watch 3ABN for long before she took action. “A week later, I called 3ABN to see if there was a Seventh-day Adventist church here in Mesa, Arizona,” she says. “They gave my name to the Mesa Palms Seventh-day Adventist Church, and soon Arlene Beck and Sharon Higginbotham called to ask if I’d like to have someone study the Bible with me. I agreed, and began taking the Amazing Facts lessons. I learned so much, and my knowledge of the Bible became far better than I’d ever had. When Pastor Darnall came to see me, that was quite impressive, so I told him I wanted to join the church!”

Roberta Rice and Pastor Terry Darnall — Pastor Terry Darnall was delighted when Roberta decided to be baptized and joined his church.

Pastor Terry Darnall was delighted. “Roberta joined our Mesa Palms Seventh-day Adventist Church after studying with two of our church members, Michael Battle and Carol Crider,” he says. “We set May 28 of this year as her baptismal date, and when she came out of the water, she was smiling from ear to ear!

Now she has many new brothers and sisters in Christ who care for and nurture her. Roberta is a wonderful addition to our church family, and tells everyone she meets—both friends and relatives—how happy she is to be a Seventh-day Adventist. We praise the Lord for her, and the blessing she is to our church!”

Roberta says she’s grateful for the friends who studied with her, and for Janice Ketchum and Leona Kuhn, who’ve made sure she gets to church each week.

After her baptism, she felt impressed to get more involved. “I’d say to myself, I don’t know what my gifts are—until I watched Jill Morikone on 3ABN. Then I thought, Yes, I can hand out those little gospel tracts when I go to my doctor’s appointments!

“A few weeks ago, my pastor asked, ‘Who all knows they’re going to Heaven?’ and I didn’t raise my hand, because I wasn’t sure. Then, just this week, I heard Shelley Quinn talking about God’s grace, and justification and sanctification became so much clearer!

“Now I know that I can be secure about my salvation—because I’m a work in progress. I’ll still make mistakes. But if I stay with Jesus Christ and acknowledge my sins, I’ll become more and more like Him. I am His temple, and His Spirit lives in me. That’s wonderful to know, and it brings me peace.

“I wasted so much time,” Roberta continues, “and then I felt useless because I couldn’t quote Scripture from memory. But as I listen to 3ABN, I realize we’ve all been given a gift. Even though I’m ‘inbound,’ I know I must evangelize, and God will give me a clearer approach. He’s already instilled in me that it doesn’t matter how much I know about Scripture; He’ll put words in my mouth when the time comes!

“Right now, I’m focusing on my neighbor. We pray together at least three times a week over the phone, and she says that when I pray with her, it’s very comforting!

“I also pray for my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren who live in different states, since I can’t directly participate in their lives. However, I’m blessed that my oldest son now says he believes in God. I almost dropped the phone when he said that! He went from being an atheist to a believer, and now he says, ‘My God has blessed me over and over again, and I know now through my experience, whereas before, I was leaning on my reasoning.’ I pray for all my descendants, that they will come to know Jesus Christ and will be covered with His blood.”

Mesa Palms Seventh-day Adventist Church

Mesa Palms Seventh-day Adventist Church Website

By Bobby Davis

November 1, 2016April 9, 2026

The Second Time Around – John & Ann Roach

By Bobby Davis

If ever a couple could say they’ve watched the Lord at work in their lives, it would be John and Ann Roach, from Beaverton, Oregon. They share their amazing story in hopes that others may see that God never gives up!

Born in Houston, Texas, John grew up helping his father, who managed one of the top flower shops in that city. “I loved spending time with him,” he says, “and although his schedule was very hectic on weekends, we attended the First Methodist church when I was growing up. That’s where I first heard about the Sabbath,” he says. “It was in my father’s Sunday School class, which he sometimes let me attend— if I promised to be quiet. Anyway, I heard them say that Saturday was the real Sabbath, so after church, I asked the pastor why we worshiped on Sunday. He said, ‘The Jewish Sabbath is on Saturday, but the Christian Sabbath is on Sunday,’ and I was too young to question that, so I accepted it.”

Tragedy

At the age of 15, John lost his father, who had suffered a tremendous emotional and financial loss and was deeply depressed. “Most days, Dad would get up and sit on the back steps with a cup of coffee; but that day, Mom found him in the garage after he took his life with rope she had bought to make jump ropes for her Sunday School class. I didn’t know a lot about the Scriptures, and when I asked older Christians about my dad’s death, they told me that suicide was the ultimate sin, and that he’d burn in hell forever! Right there I decided I didn’t want to serve God.”

Ann says that her childhood was not nearly as eventful. “My family attended the Presbyterian church that my grandfather helped build,” she says, “and we were good kids, so I always believed I’d go to Heaven.”

John had become a successful salesman for a large ribbon and floral supplies company, and when he relocated in Beaverton and met Ann, the couple hit it off. She was attending Oregon State University, so they would date each summer; but after her junior year, John didn’t see or hear from her, so he called her up. Soon their relationship developed, and they were married.

The Search Begins

John & Ann Roach — Ann and John shortly after he moved to Beaverton, Oregon, as a salesman for a ribbon and floral supplies company.

John and Ann traveled together for five years, and then they decided to have a baby. However, just before she delivered, Ann landed in the ER, since her unborn baby was showing signs of distress. “I began begging God to save my child,” John says, “and I promised that if He did, I’d go back to church and try to raise her right! Five minutes later, a kind nurse named Sarah came in with reassuring words that calmed Ann, and after checking the monitoring equipment, she exclaimed, ‘I don’t know what happened, but everything is okay with your baby, now!’”

That experience marked the beginning of John’s commitment to find out more about the Lord, and soon they began looking for a church home.

Help Along the Way

A new deck for their home led John to a man named Rodger, who said he could do the job, but wouldn’t work on Saturdays because that’s when he went to church.

John pointed out that his theology must be wrong, but Rodger didn’t argue. Instead, he gave him a Bible, a Strong’s Concordance, and showed him how to use them.

After studying about the Sabbath for several months, John decided to find a Seventh-day Adventist church while on a trip to Boise, Idaho. “I figured that if I didn’t like it, nobody would know, so I prayed, Lord, as far as I can tell, Saturday worship is what You want, but I just need a nudge—and I got it! The sermon that day was, ‘The Sabbath—Holy Day or Holiday?’”

That afternoon, he met Marvin Moore, editor for the Signs of the Times magazine. They studied the Bible for four hours, and another six the next day! Finally, Marvin said, “John, what I’ve shared with you in two days usually takes me 24 lessons!”

However, John had one very important question left. “I asked Marvin, ‘What is your church’s view on suicide?’

“‘Well, John,’ he answered, ‘you can die from a bad liver, from a bad heart, and from bad lungs. So it stands to reason that someone who takes their life might die of a sick brain. The question is, if one is given a perfect brain and a new body, will they serve God throughout eternity? Only Jesus knows that.’ His response gave me great peace, and that night I gave my heart to the Lord.”

Losses

Although John embraced these new truths, he would soon face several severe trials in quick succession. First, his mother became ill with cancer, and in an effort to help, he brought her to his home for about a month. “While she was here, I gave her a Revelation series on tape,” he says, “and before she left, she told me, ‘I’ve learned more about the Bible from those tapes than I have my entire life! Now I know why you’re going to this church, and what you’re doing is right!’ She died shortly after, but the last three weeks of her life she kept God’s Sabbath.”

Six months later, Ann filed for divorce, after hearing from people she trusted that the Seventh-day Adventist Church was a cult, and that her children wouldn’t grow up to be normal because they’d miss out on high school social events, like Friday night football games, and proms.

Although this was a devastating blow, another problem soon came up with work. Right after his baptism, he was told that he would have to work three Saturdays a year. John explained why he could no longer work on Sabbaths, but soon received a letter saying that if he did not show up that weekend, they would take that as his resignation.

He was fired in February, supposedly for not doing his job, but by divine providence, he found a religious liberty leader who helped him file a claim with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). God intervened in a marvelous way when he was handed some mail that contained a crucial piece of evidence he needed to eventually win his case—a company printout showing that his sales had actually increased by 42 percent over the past year. His case dragged on for 18 months, and during that time, John felt increasingly ill. Finally diagnosed with fibromyalgia, he was forced to file for disability and struggled to survive. He could do little for Ann and his children at that time, but after winning his EEOC case, he began helping them with much-needed home repairs and other necessities. Through his persistent and kind efforts and thoughtfulness, his relationship with Ann began to change.

“I prayed that the Lord would restore my relationship for Ann for 26 years,” he says. “Then, I began asking Him to put someone in her path to lead her to Christ, and an understanding of this message, but I never thought He might choose me!”

Accidents

In 2010, John and Ann stopped for a pedestrian in a crosswalk, and were hit from behind by a car traveling 55 mph! “We were both hurt,” Ann says, “but he had diabetes, and had stents put in after a heart attack. So when they asked if I needed an ambulance, I said, ‘Yes—for John!’ As they rolled him away, I blurted out, ‘I love you!’ Then thought, Okay. It’s out there now! That was the beginning of our new relationship.”

Badly injured, John needed special care, so Ann asked if he’d like to stay in the extra bedroom. He agreed, and asked if he could install a satellite dish in his room to pick up the Adventist channels, since she already had Dish Network. One day, she came across 3ABN, and being somewhat familiar with our programming, she began watching Pastor Doug Batchelor. “Doug was easy to understand, and I soon began to look forward to his programs, as well as the vegetarian cooking shows,” she says. “Later, I was talking with John about being a Presbyterian, and he said, ‘Ann, you don’t know it yet, but you’re an Adventist. You’re keeping the Sabbath, and even your eating habits have changed!’ The more I thought about it, the more I knew he was right.”

They were getting along well, and enjoying Sabbaths and Bible study together, but John says that something happened to hurry things along. “As we crossed the street to a restaurant one day, a car hit me, and on the way down, I prayed a short prayer, Lord, please don’t let this car run over me! When I opened my eyes, the car wheel was six inches from my head!”

He spent time in the hospital, and then at a skilled care facility before coming home again, but Ann says, “This accident helped us realize that life can be changed in the blinking of an eye, and that we didn’t want to spend any more time apart. John’s love of Christ, and his kindness to me is how I came to know Jesus.”

John & Ann Baptism — John and Ann were re-married and baptized in the Beaverton Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The Second Time Around

On June 4, 2016, this beautiful couple was remarried during the Sabbath worship service, with their grown daughters, Sarah and Stephanie, by their side. Following their vows, they stepped into the baptismal tank, where Ann was baptized by Pastor Rodney Payne II, of the Beaverton Seventh-day Adventist Church, and John was re-baptized by Pastor Ray Ammon—who baptized him the first time in 1988.

Their testimony makes it clear that despite our difficulties, God delights in putting things together even better the second time around!

Beaverton Seventh-day Adventist Church

Beaverton Seventh-day Adventist Church Website

By Bobby Davis

October 2, 2016April 9, 2026

Getting There – Deb Pomplun

By Bobby Davis

Deb Pomplun smiles as she recalls how the Lord led her to the Seventh-day Adventist faith. “It was as if He kept having to give me a new sign every step of the way,” she says. “I’m sure He must have thought, Okay, she’s not looking for Me, so we’ll have to get her attention!”

As we spoke, I was impressed with her candor and her humor; but most of all, I was impressed by her strong desire to follow Jesus.

Early Memories

“My dad didn’t do church,” Deb begins. “He was too intellectual. In his view, it was nice if children learned about God, but he believed that when he died, he just wouldn’t be here anymore. He also believed that church attendance was a cultural thing for elderly people, and that the more enlightened ones didn’t need it.

“My Mom was raised Lutheran by her very elderly parents from Denmark, so I attended church with her early on. Later, we attended a Congregational church, but by the time I was in junior high, neither of us went regularly. In college, I’d gotten all up in my brain and married a man who was raised as a Catholic (but also didn’t attend). And since I’d been noticing hypocrisy from an early age, it wasn’t hard to stay way from church.”

Her distaste for “churchy” things showed up in other places, too. “I got something else from my family,” she says, “and that was alcoholism. Eventually, it drove me to a recovery program, but I remember noticing how the word God kept popping up in their literature; and when they passed the basket to cover their expenses, I thought, Aha! They’re taking up an offering!”

But despite her reservations, it wasn’t a church-run program; and because she was ready to try anything to stop drinking, it worked. “However, my husband wanted nothing to do with my recovery,” she says, “so things got very difficult, and eventually he became my ex-husband. You know, God uses things to get us where He wants us to be. He knew I’d become an alcoholic and that I’d eventually look for help and come in contact with that God word. When I got comfortable with that, I didn’t take it any further, so He introduced me to someone in recovery who helped as a musician in a mostly African American Baptist church. I went to watch him play once, and that’s how God broke the ice and got me back through the church doors.”

Kids

After college, Deb became a grade school teacher, working with children who had real problems. “One day, someone said to me, ‘You need to take some of these kids home with you,’ and I started considering it. When my first foster child moved in, I was told to keep things as close to her religious and cultural practices as possible, and since she was Native American, that was interesting! However, she’d been raised for a time in an evangelical church, so we began church-shopping, and finally landed in that Baptist church I’d visited. She loved all the movement and the activity—and the fact that she’d need more dresses!”

Deb’s second foster child was African American, so her church seemed a good fit, as well. “Conflicts at my job drove me closer to Jesus,” she says, “and the pastor was a wonderful teacher, so I got a lot of comfort there.

When Deb decided to try to adopt her first foster daughter, she ran into a lot of problems. The little girl’s birth mother died from an overdose of heroin and her father gave up his rights, but all that just made things worse. “She was just crazy!” Deb says, “and the state of Wisconsin was afraid to get involved. To make matters worse, her adoption social worker got married and changed jobs, so another social worker had to get involved. Some thought a Native American family should adopt her, and ultimately, the Tribal Council had to decide. Finally, I was at wit’s end. God, I prayed, if You want me to adopt her, please let me know. I can’t go on like this. The next morning, the phone rang, and they told me the Council had approved the adoption! There’s no doubt in my mind; it was the power of prayer, and my honest desire to do God’s will that made the difference.”

God TV

About this time, Deb moved from a small town to Madison, Wisconsin, so her daughter could go to a private school. “Then, one of the mothers at church introduced us to the Veggie Tales series, and we bought every new DVD that came out. That’s how I really learned about Bible characters like David, Daniel, and Esther! We learned all the songs and sang along,” Deb says, “and I remember thinking, Wow. These stories aren’t just parables with poetic license! The Bible came alive, and as I learned more, I began wondering if the pastor was using biblical passages the way God intended.

“Right about then, I think God must have thought, You know, she’s watching all these TV stations, so let’s narrow down her choices, and soon all the TV stations began converting to digital, and my channel selection dwindled. The last one we had was 3ABN—and my kids called it ‘God TV!’

“The first thing I noticed was that although each 3ABN presenter had a different style, they all had the same truth! I simply loved David Asscherick. I mean, he’s the perfect ADHD poster child—so fired up and talking so fast! I kept wondering, Why didn’t anyone ever tell me these things?

“I finally heard the real Ten Commandments, instead of the shorthand version, and the fourth commandment made so much sense. I wanted to take a leap of faith and keep the Sabbath, but I was scared, so God must have thought, Okay, it’s time for the big guns. Bring in Juanita Edge!”

Buying Blinds

Juanita is the wife of Mike Edge, president of the Wisconsin Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, and one day she came into JCPenney, where Deb works, to buy some blinds. “I helped her with her order, but told her she could get a sizable discount during our one-day sale on Saturday. But instead of jumping on it, she said, ‘Oh no, I couldn’t break the Sabbath.’

“I knew what she meant because of what I’d learned on 3ABN, but I was amazed she was so matter-of-fact about choosing to obey God over saving money. I couldn’t help thinking, Maybe it doesn’t have to be a huge war to follow my heart and do the right thing. So I told my manager that I’d been watching a Seventh-day Adventist channel, put in a schedule change, and got my Saturdays off! However, the assistant manager asked me about it, so I had to tell him about my beliefs. He said, ‘Oh, that’s fine,’ and I haven’t had to work a Saturday since. Later, I thought about how I’d tried to just sneak in Sabbaths off, but God wanted me to share my faith.”

One day, a flier arrived for an evangelistic series at the Madison Community Seventh-day Adventist church, and since it was just a half-mile away, Deb decided to investigate. Pastor Abraham Swamidass was happy to meet her. “She told me her story, and how she’d been watching 3ABN,” he says, “and then she began attending our evangelistic series with Pastor James Fox. She came faithfully, and we began studying the Bible. And after the series was over, she was baptized, along with three others.”

Deb says that day was very special. “All my kids were there. Even my 18-year-old showed up to support me; and it was all the more special because Juanita and Mike were there, too.”

Juanita remembers, “As I watched Deb be baptized, I felt humbled to realize what an impact we unknowingly have on others. Now that I know Deb better, I’m continually amazed by her compassion and acts of kindness for her family and community. I pray I can be as self-sacrificing as my dear friend Deb.”

Pastor Swamidass is thrilled to have her in his congregation. “She’s very cheerful, and we’re happy to have her in our church,” he says. “She’s a deaconess, and is also very passionate about doing community outreach through vegetarian cooking classes,” he adds. “In fact, she’s always eager to get involved in anything I ask of her. She’s an inspiration to us all.”

A Changed Life

“I just have to laugh at how God does things,” Debbie says. “For many, coming to the Lord seems like a one-step thing. But for me, it was different. I’m always taking one step forward, and one step sideways!

Madison Community Seventh-day Adventist Church

Madison Community Seventh-day Adventist Church Website

By Bobby Davis

September 1, 2016April 9, 2026

God’s Gentle Hand – Charley & Susie Haisch

By Bobby Davis

Charley and Susie Haisch live in Polo, a small town of about 2,500 about an hour southwest of Rockford, in northern Illinois. Raised in rural settings, they are grateful for loving parents and the solid values they gave them. They’re also grateful for the good careers they enjoyed—Charley as a pharmacist, and Susie as owner of a beauty salon.

Raised in Methodist homes, they never questioned what they’d been taught, and probably believed they’d never attend church anywhere else. “My Dad was pretty strict on church attendance,” Charley says, “and unless we were really ill, you would definitely find us in church every Sunday! But when I went away to college, I only attended church periodically—pretty much when I felt guilty.”

“I was raised Methodist, too,” Susie says, “but my family wasn’t quite as strict. So when we got older and didn’t want to go to church, nobody forced us.”

After they married, the couple would visit Charley’s parents in South Dakota. “Susie and I would go to church with them—as a courtesy,” he says, “but it was never because we wanted to go. Sadly, all that time, I never got to know Jesus. And if there’s one thing I would change about my life, that would be it. I was 59 years old before I gave my heart to Christ, and while we pray for Jesus to come soon, I thank Him for tarrying. Had He not done that, I wouldn’t be here. I’d be lost forever.”

Psychics

Their successful careers kept Charley and Susie very busy. But here’s where their journey gets rather interesting. “I guess you might say that we were searching for something, but we didn’t realize it,” Charley says, “and somehow or other, Susie became very interested in psychics. She was especially impressed by Sylvia Brown, a famous psychic who made the rounds of all the television shows.”

“Sylvia was a world-renowned psychic,” Susie explains, “and I probably read 30 of her books before I found out the truth about all that. When she showed up on the Montel Williams Show, I made sure we didn’t miss it!”

“There were other psychics, too,” Charley adds, “and although all this was 180 degrees in the wrong direction, when Sylvia Brown talked about Mother God and Father God, we started praying to one for one thing, and then praying to the other for something else. One of Susie’s friends had a psychic come down two or three times to talk to our horses, and she told us things that only the horses and we would know!

“She also talked to our other pets,” Susie adds, “and although that’s really out there, when you don’t know where all this information is coming from, it’s pretty convincing. Satan knows things, and I feel sorry for psychics because they’re so lost. They’re seeing demons, and they don’t even know it.”

Charley points out, “Years ago people would laugh if anyone talked about psychics, but people believe in them today!” He pauses for a moment, then adds, “There’s too much going on in the world, and between cell phones, computers, the Internet, TV, and everything else, people don’t take time to sit down and read their Bibles. That’s Satan’s plan—to occupy our minds.”

A Turning Point

Although Charley and Susie were walking down a wrong path, their heavenly Father never gave up on them, and slowly, He used their interest in spiritual things to lead Susie to Christian television.

“She started watching The 700 Club, and that led us to buying a Sky Angel satellite dish for Christian and family-friendly channels,” Charley explains. “We also watched Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) a lot.”

Susie quickly adds, “I guess we just melded all the psychics and Christian teachings together. Honestly, I think a lot of people do that, because you can twist anything to make it fit if you don’t know your Bible—and we didn’t!”

A program called Through the Bible with Les Feldick helped get them into the Scriptures. “Les would sit down and go through the Bible, and although some of his teachings were wrong, we really learned a lot about the Scriptures,” Charley says. “I didn’t even know God was leading me, but He was. He kept changing the angle just a bit until He got us over to the right message! We found ourselves watching psychics less and less, and eventually we threw all those books out.”

“What’s That?”

The first time Susie heard about Seventh-day Adventists was when her dermatologist mentioned that his neighbors were of that faith. She remembers asking him, “What’s that?” and he said “Oh, they think that Saturday is the Sabbath,” which she thought was odd. Meanwhile, their Sky Angel receiver began to fail, so Charley ordered a new system from Dish Network—complete with a DVR to record programs. “They installed two dishes so we could get both the Sky Angel and Dish channels,” he says, “and that’s when Susie discovered 3ABN!”

Susie, Doug, and Charley — Susie and Charley met Pastor Doug Batchelor (center) at 3ABN Camp Meeting in 2014. His program caught Susie’s attention early on.

One day, as she flipped through the program guide, she came across a channel she didn’t know. What’s that? she wondered, as she tuned it in. “I thought it was very different, but what they said made sense. Then Pastor Doug Batchelor began to preach, and suddenly things started to fit together. By the time Charley came home, I said, ‘You gotta watch this guy!’”

“We watched 3ABN a lot,” he recalls. “We watched before I went to work; we watched when I came home. It was phenomenal, and we were hungry for truth! My favorite Bible text is Romans 5:8, ‘But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’ He set us up, and He gently brought us around.”

Baptism and the Sabbath

As Susie watched 3ABN one day, one thought kept crowding in. “I didn’t say it to Charley, but as we watched I kept thinking, I think I’m an Adventist! Then suddenly, he looked at me and said, ‘I think I could be an Adventist!’”

With that realization, they both decided to be baptized; but one big obstacle remained. “We both worked every weekend, and I knew my boss had trouble getting pharmacists to work on Saturdays. I didn’t know what to do, so finally, I sent an e-mail to Pastor John Lomacang, and a half-hour later, he called! We talked, and I can’t tell you how that eased my mind. The next day, I sent my boss an e-mail laying out my situation, and asking for Saturdays off. It happened to be April 1, though, so naturally, I got an e-mail back asking if this was an April Fool’s joke!

“It was a struggle for a while, because although he cut me way back, my boss still had me working one or two Saturday’s a month. When I did, I decided to give all my wages to the Lord because I didn’t feel good about keeping it.

“We were so eager to be baptized that I called 3ABN and was transferred to Pastor Jim Gilley, their president at the time. I’m happy to say that the Lord worked it all out, and Pastor Lomacang baptized us during 3ABN’s Spring Camp Meeting! He also wrote a letter to my boss, and I never worked another Saturday again.

“It chokes me up when I think of all the ways God led us to know Jesus. When we were baptized, we were just baby Christians. But praise God for the Sanctification process and that we’ve never quit learning. Each day we get stronger in our faith.”

Mom

But there’s more to this story! Susie’s parents had become disillusioned with church back in the 1960s and hadn’t attended much. But after she began attending the Seventh-day Adventist Church, she asked her mom, Betty Stoner, if she’d like to go with her. “She lit up, and said, ‘Yes, I’d like to go!’” Susie says with a smile.

“Mom had always played the piano, but she’d never played church music. So it was a whole new experience when she was asked to be our church pianist! She loved our church so much that a year and a half later, at the age of 88, she wanted to be baptized. Since she was petrified of putting her face in the water, we could tell how serious she was about it!

Betty Stoner's Baptism — Susie’s mother, Betty Stoner, overcame her overwhelming fear of water and was baptized by Pastor Don Lewis (left) at age 88! Charlie was honored to be there to reassure her.

“It was a beautiful baptism, and today, at 93, she’s with us in church every Sabbath. Our church family loves her, and they love her music, too.”

If you visit the Sauk Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church, chances are you’ll meet Susie at the door, since she’s a greeter. You’re sure to meet Charley, who is an elder and a Sabbath School teacher, and you’ll enjoy Betty’s piano playing, too!

Today the Haisch family is grateful for God’s gentle hand that led them into truth, and for a church family that’s eager to share the love of Jesus with everyone they meet. Thank you for your prayers and support that make stories like this possible!

Sauk Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church

Sauk Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church Website

By Bobby Davis

August 1, 2016April 9, 2026

Touchdown—Just Two Miles Away – Mike and Kris Cavaness

By Bobby Davis

Over the years, we’ve published scores of the most amazing stories of how the Lord brought people of all descriptions in contact with Three Angels Broadcasting Network—stories of satellite dishes stuck on 3ABN, radio broadcasts picked up hundreds of miles away, and TVs that would pick up nothing else. But this story happened close to home— practically in our backyard!

Mike Cavaness was raised in Akin, Illinois, just a few miles away. “My family owned property here in Franklin County, and I bought part of their farm,” he says. “I’ve always been very content in southern Illinois, and honestly, I’ve never aspired to live anywhere else.”

His wife Kris agrees. “My family moved from Oklahoma to McLeansboro when I was in grade school, and although I could live anywhere, I want to be where Mike is, so I love it here, too. Mike and I met one summer, and we began dating. But I was working in Springfield, four hours away, and Mike was attending Bailey Technical Schools in St. Louis, Missouri. So we drove back home on weekends to go out on Saturday nights.

“Two years later, we married, and Mike became the youngest transportation manager his boat factory had ever hired. He was blessed with successful careers in the auto parts and tire businesses, and I worked for the state’s Rehabilitation Services until we decided to start a family. Then I stayed home to be a full-time mom, and I believe that’s God’s greatest job! Today we have two grown daughters, Erin and Joanie; a fine son-in-law, Steve; and a wonderful boy and girl set of twin grandchildren who are now seventeen!”

When their children were older, the couple decided to buy an old gas station in Thompsonville, and while Mike worked on car and tire repairs, Kris washed car windows and pumped gas. Eventually they tore the old station down and built a new one, and some years later, they sold the business, and both of them worked other jobs until they retired.

Beliefs

Mike says his mother tried to raise him as a Catholic, “But my dad was a Baptist that didn’t go to church, so that didn’t last long. From then on, we didn’t have any church affiliation,” he says. “But when I was 16, a terrible motorcycle accident changed my life .My leg was crushed, so I had multiple surgeries and was in the hospital for nearly six months. During that time, a Baptist preacher came by to visit me once, and although I didn’t know him, he prayed with me, and then gave me his little white Bible with a zipper, and encouraged me to give my heart to the Lord and be saved. I was desperate for change, so I did, but I never knew what else to do—until I met Kris.”

“Mike told me he prayed for three things in that hospital,” Kris recalls. “He prayed to be able to walk normally someday. He prayed to be able to farm again. And he asked God for someone to share his life with.” She pauses for a moment and then laughs. “He never farmed again, but two out of three isn’t bad!”

The influence Kris had on Mike was profound. They both began attending the 10-Mile Baptist Church, and soon he was baptized in Miller Pond.

“I thank God every day for a mother who took me to church every Sunday,” Kris says. “Because of her, I was saved when I was thirteen, and I remained in church ever since.”

Their commitment to the Lord continued throughout their marriage. Mike drove the church bus and was a trustee for many years, while Kris taught Sunday School and Vacation Bible School, ran sound for the Passion play, and did whatever needed to be done at church.

Questions

When it came to doctrines, Kris says she always trusted the man behind the pulpit. “If he said that God had called him to preach, then who was I to question it?” she explains.

However, Mike wasn’t so trusting. “Sometimes I’d question things, but I didn’t push it,” he admits. “I didn’t want to argue, so basically we left those things alone.”

It’s important to note that Mike and Kris were there when Danny Shelton first felt impressed to build a television station that would reach the world. As fellow Christians, they were supportive, and over the years, when some townspeople would criticize 3ABN, they always stayed out of those conversations. “We knew Danny and did business with him at our gas station. We even shared construction equipment while they were building the first studio.”

The Cavaness family was happy in their church and their work, and 3ABN continued to grow into a worldwide television network, adding a radio network in 2000. But while Mike and Kris were aware of our television ministry, it was 2006 before Kris heard 3ABN Radio for the first time.

“You know those moments when something big happens and we remember exactly where we were?” Kris asks. “We all remember when President Kennedy was assassinated, or when the space shuttle exploded. Well, that’s how I felt when I found 3ABN Radio. They were talking about the role of the papacy in the end times, and I drove into a parking lot to listen. I’d never heard such things, and I was absolutely stunned! Can this be true? I wondered.

“I filed it all away, and kept listening to 3ABN nearly every day. When I changed jobs, my schedule changed, and suddenly I was hearing Joe Crews and Amazing Facts. I still remember the highway I was on when he spoke about the body and spirit, and how we’re not immortal souls! He said that wood and nails can be made into a box, but when you take it apart, it’s not a box anymore. Then he explained what the Bible says happens when we die. On our way to church that Sunday, I told Mike about it. It made sense to us, and it was exciting. But when he tried mentioning it at church, no one seemed to know how to handle it.”

Cornbread

One day, as Kris watched the Travel Channel, she learned about a Cornbread Festival in South Pittsburgh, Tennessee, not far from Chattanooga. “It was coming up, and since it was right up our alley, we decided to go. That Sunday, when we’d normally be in church, we sat in our motel searching for a church service on TV, and we found something from Amazing Facts. There was this man, talking to children, and for a good half-hour, we sat there glued to our TV without saying a word. When it was over, we looked at each other and said, ‘Who is this guy?’ From that point on, I kept looking through the Dish Network program guide for any mention of Amazing Facts or Doug Batchelor.”

A Sign

Kris kept listening to 3ABN Radio, and suddenly she began hearing a lot about the Sabbath. “That topic upset me every time,” she admits. “My heart was for God, but I wanted it not to be true because it went against everything I’d been taught. So every time they mentioned the Sabbath, I’d turn off the radio! It kept happening, though, so one day I prayed, ‘Lord, if it matters what day we worship on, then let me know! Just give me a sign, please.’”

She didn’t have to wait long. “We were driving through Thompsonville, past 3ABN’s Worship Center, and there, on the marquee, it said, ‘3ABN’s 2014 Spring Camp Meeting with Pastor Doug Batchelor.”’

Mike and Kris immediately took several days off work to attend. “We had no idea what to expect,” she admits, “but as we sat down, we saw people we knew and had done business with all around us. Then Danny Shelton spotted us, and called us up on stage!”

Mike and Kris Cavaness with Danny Shelton — Mike and Kris attended their very first 3ABN Camp Meeting in 2014. “We had no idea what to expect,” she admits, “but as we sat down, we saw people we knew and had done business with all around us. Then Danny Shelton spotted us, and called us up on stage!”

Mike remembers that moment well. “We shared what we had been learning, and then I said, ‘You know, this gospel is going out to the whole world, but we’re finally getting it right here—just two miles away!’”

Kris continues, “We’d heard about these truths, but we didn’t know what to do with them, so we just put them away. When you’re walking in dogma, it’s hard to consider anything else; but now our eyes were being opened to new truth. We’d had a business on Main Street for many years, but now we were around people who could explain it to us. When we understood the significance of the Sabbath, everything else fell into place.

“Jesus said, ‘If you love Me, keep My commandments.’ How wonderful to know we are now finally keeping His fourth commandment in our Christian walk. Our family members and friends know we love the Lord, and that we’re happy in our newfound understanding of truth.”

Trust

Mike and Kris attended the Thompsonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, and became very involved in 3ABN’s ministry. “When Danny called me up on that stage, I told everyone that if I ever quit my job, I’d volunteer full time,” Kris says, “Little did I know that my office would be shut down soon after. But God had His reasons, and Mike and I got to retire at the same time.”

True to her word, Kris volunteers at our Call Center, and also works with our church’s Vacation Bible School. Meanwhile, Mike began working part time at 3ABN, but longed to maybe get back into the trucking business.

“I found out quickly that’s not what God wanted me to do!” he says with a laugh, “and so far, all the other doors are closed. But God is sovereign, and He faithfully takes care of us, according to His will.”

“And speaking of faithfulness, we’ve tithed since we first got married,” Kris adds. “I told Mike, ‘You do what you have to do, but I’ll tithe what I make.’ And when he tried it, someone came by and bought an old tractor that had been for sale for a long time. It was like God was saying, ‘Trust me, and I’ll take care of you.’”

Mike and Kris joined the Thompsonville Seventh-day Adventist Church by Profession of Faith, and are a wonderful addition to their new church family. God has wonderful plans for their lives, and we can’t wait to see them unfold!

Thompsonville Seventh-day Adventist Church

Thompsonville Seventh-day Adventist Church Website

By Bobby Davis

May 1, 2016April 9, 2026

Searching for God – Tracy and Mary Clayton

By Bobby Davis

Tracy Clayton’s story of how Jesus found and saved him touched our hearts. “For most of my youth and adulthood, my journey led me through a maze of dark, shadowy valleys and foggy mind-altering canyons in a lifestyle dominated by alcoholism and drugs,” he says. “But I am alive in Christ today, and I am a grateful and productive member of my church and community.”

A Troubled Beginning

Things weren’t easy for Tracy in the beginning. “I was born in southern California, and as part of a dysfunctional family, I moved so many times during my childhood that I was barely able to complete a year in any school until I was 14,” he says. “My dad dropped out of the picture when I was still a baby, so I lived with my mom and my older brother. Then Mom had three more children with another man, who also left.

“After all that, I moved back with my dad. He was a janitor for a school, and we’d help him clean classrooms every day. He also had us doing gardening work, mowing yards and all that. It seemed like we were constantly working when we were kids.”

But there were other problems, too. “In my early teens, we all got into marijuana. Soon I was drinking alcoholically and was also a heavy methamphetamine user. I remember feeling desperate, but I didn’t know where to look for help.

“Although we went to church occasionally, I couldn’t tell you what denomination it was. Dad would read the Bible to us on Sundays, and I remember praying to God and believing in Jesus. But none of us really knew who He was.”

In spite of this, Tracy says the Holy Spirit was trying to reach him. “One evening, as I walked along a lonely road in the desert where we lived, I asked God to forgive me for the sins I continued to commit. All of a sudden, I heard the Holy Spirit say, Stop sinning!

“Later in my life, I found myself asking God for a soul mate to share my life with, and the Holy Spirit answered, Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. So I know God heard me, and was trying to reach me through any means possible.”

Failures

As he began the tenth grade, Tracy asked his dad for permission to take a GED test and go into the military. “He said it was fine, and to his surprise, I got my GED and went into the National Guard. I stayed in there for twelve years, and worked on tanks at Ft. Erwin National Training Center. But we only got an average of three days off a month, and I lived 50 miles away; so I was always going and could never relax. Meth quickly became my drug of choice, and when my superiors finally asked me if I had a problem, I admitted it to them.

“At first, they tried to help me, but I kept messing up, so they got me out of their system, and I started doing handyman work.”

A failed marriage, a failed relationship, and three children later, Tracy ended up in a remote area of Northern California.

“I felt a great need to get clean,” he says, “and since this was a new place, I didn’t know where to get drugs. Desperate for work, I began washing dishes in a local café in return for one free meal a day. And that’s where I met Mary. She was the cook who was responsible for giving me that meal. She understood me and loved me, and eventually became my wife.”

Finding Truth

But something was still missing, and there was an insistent yearning for God deep inside. “When I’d get home from work, I would channel surf, looking for truth,” he says. “I know God was urging me to do that, and one day, I came across 3ABN on Dish Network. I didn’t know what 3ABN was, but I knew that what they said matched Scripture. They backed every single message with Bible texts, and after a while, I realized that this was absolute truth.

“I only watched the sermons,” he says, “but for the first time in my life, I saw Jesus more clearly and developed an understanding of how my life should reflect His character. Then, one day, I got a card in the mail asking if I wanted to know what the Mark of the Beast was. I checked the yes box, mailed it back, and in a few days an Adventist woman came to my house and offered to give me Bible studies.

“We studied together, and she helped me understand the Scriptures a lot better. All my questions were answered, and God’s Word came together like a fine weave of spiritual threads—perfectly interlocking with one another. I could finally see God’s love so clearly!”

Cleaning Up the Temple

Tracy says, “As I was watched 3ABN one day, a text came up on the screen that said our body was the temple of the Holy Spirit, and that we should take care of it, and keep it clean. What an awakening! I had never heard a preacher tell me that.

“I started with the meth, then I quit smoking those two packs of cigarettes a day, and finally, I quit drinking alcohol. For me it was one thing at a time, as the Lord took away my desire for those things. My habits changed, and before I knew it, the Lord had taken away all the desire.”

Keeping the Sabbath Holy

When he completed his Bible studies, the lady who studied with him invited him to visit her church. “I’d been going to church on Sundays, but when I asked my pastor why we didn’t keep the Sabbath, he told me it didn’t matter, as long as we kept one day holy. I gave him all the Scriptures in support of keeping the Sabbath, but he would not budge. Suddenly, I had a decision to make, and I walked out of that church for the last time. It was really clear to me: either we follow what God says, or we follow what man says.

“I visited the Sutter Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church, but sat in the back row, because I worked at the grocery store deli on Saturdays and was still in my uniform. (I also figured I could make a quick getaway, in case things got crazy!)

“It was a wonderful service, and when the pastor invited the congregation to come to the Garden of Prayer, I felt a great desire to join those who were kneeling at the front of the church. It was a beautiful experience I will never forget, and I felt so comfortable that I wanted to come back every Sabbath.”

Tracy asked his boss for Saturdays off, but was denied because it was the store’s busiest day. “Then the pastor helped me write a letter explaining my conviction to keep the Sabbath, and my boss finally agreed, but warned me that I would be cut back to part-time. That was okay, though, because I believed that if it was God’s will, then it would only be a blessing.”

And what a blessing it turned out to be! Tracy received new job training and landed a position in food service at the Sutter Amador Hospital—with wonderful pay and benefits, and all his Sabbaths off!

“As I look back, I believe God put me where He could shape my character and build my faith,” Tracy says. “It also gave me the opportunity to share what I learned on 3ABN with my friends and co-workers.”

Mary

When Tracy met his wife Mary at the café, she was already attending church. But when he began worshiping in the Seventh-day Adventist church, she wasn’t very interested. Tracy’s pastor urged him to get baptized, but he kept holding off, hoping Mary would be baptized with him.

“She eventually came to church with me,” he says, “and then she accepted and believed the truths she learned there. I’m happy to say that we were baptized together in 2005 and have been there ever since! We have a wonderful church family here that we’re happy to be a part of. We both have positions in our church, and we’re committed to see it grow.”

Pastor Daniel Yim is enthusiastic. “The Sutter Hill Adventist Church has been blessed by the dedication and love that Tracy and Mary bring to our church family,” he says. “They are both fully committed and dedicated to the message and work of our church, and they serve with their hearts and hands, letting those around them know how much Jesus is Savior and Lord. Not only are they a light to our church family, but also to the community they live and work in. They bring their neighbors to church and care for the well-being of those around them by taking them food baskets. Both Tracy and Mary are sincere Christians, reflecting the love of Christ in their daily lives, and it is an honor and privilege to serve with them here at Sutter Hill!”

Tracy concludes, “I know where I came from, who I was, and where God’s hand has led me. I hear His voice telling me, I will never forsake you, and I know He embraces me with His love and holds my hand as I walk in His guidance and grace. My wife and I feel His love like a river of blessings flowing over us, and our desire is to share this incredible love with others.

“Always turn to Jesus. If you don’t know Him, get to know Him! Your life will change, and you’ll be happy you did. We can’t see the end from the beginning, but once we get down the road, we see the changes—and they’re amazing!”

Sutter Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church

Sutter Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church Website

By Bobby Davis

April 1, 2016April 9, 2026

The Truth He Longed For – José Garcia

José Garcia was raised in Fresnillo, Zacatecas—a central Mexican city famous for it’s silver mines and pilgrims who visit the famous Santo Niño de Atocha statue of the Virgin Mary with her baby that was brought over from Spain. However, young José never cared much for church. “We didn’t go very often,” he says. “In fact, my mother basically had to drag me to church. I went through the first three Sacraments expected of me—Baptism, First Communion, and Confirmation, and my mother hoped I would become a priest someday. But since I knew they never married, I wanted no part of that.

“When I came to the States to finish my schooling, I began feeling a need for God. So I went to Mass every Sunday for several months, but each week, I hated it more and more. One day, I stared at myself in a mirror and thought, You are such a hypocrite! You can’t wait to get out of Mass. In fact, you think the best part of Mass is when the priest gives everyone the parting blessing! After that, I quit going to church altogether for several years.”

No Greater Love

When he was 20, José was invited by a friend to attend a Bible study at a Pentecostal church. “We got started, and one of the ladies said something that really shocked me,” he recalls. “She said that God had told her something, and that she had said this or that back to Him. Can she really talk to God like that? I wondered. Then she began speaking in ‘tongues,’ but when I tried, nothing would come out.

“I decided that was not for me, but before I left, that lady gave me a beautiful book called No Greater Love, with a red rose on the cover.” He pauses for a moment, struggling to hold back the tears. “It still chokes me up, because after several months, I picked up the book and began to read, only to discover that it was a New Testament! I read the gospel books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John three times in as many months, and discovered that the story of Christmas was in the Bible. I never knew that!”

José says he experienced a level of peace, confidence, and love he’d never felt before as he read his Bible. He also sensed new power flowing into his life. “I didn’t realize that it came from reading the Bible,” he says, “but when I stopped reading, it went away. I went through a dry time for the next seven years, always searching for what I had lost.

Channel 40

José had been working for a pizza store, and on the first day he was promoted to general manager, he met Yolanda and fell in love. A year later, his district manager told him of an opening in Midland, Texas, and soon he moved to this new location.

“I’d barely gotten settled, and hadn’t had a chance to open a local bank account,” he says. “So when the cable man came to set up, I asked him if he took cash. ‘No, I’m sorry, but I have to have a check,’ he said. So I told him I’d call them back another time. I could still get four or five local channels, and since I hardly had time to watch TV, that was okay for awhile.

“Several years went by, and in 1999 my father passed away. At the time, I thought I was successful, but I was really a mess,” he recalls, “and with the loss of my father, I began wondering if I’d ever see him again. What is life all about, anyway? I wondered. Life is just a rat race—work, sleep, eat, work. When I die, is that it?

“I really began searching for meaning, so any time I saw someone talking about Jesus on television, I’d stop and listen. Some of them talked about prophecy, too, and that fascinated me.

As José turned on his TV, the first words he heard were from Pastor Lyle Albrecht as he talked about the Sabbath.

“One night, I decided to see if there were any other channels available, and suddenly I found K40FJ channel 40, a 3ABN downlink station in Midland. Lo and behold, the first words I heard got my attention—Lyle Albrecht was talking about the Sabbath! I remembered that when I was 20 years old, I’d read that Jesus’ custom was to teach in the synagogues on the Sabbath. At that time, I thought, I wonder why Jesus went there on the Sabbath? And if He did, why don’t we?

“Since I had no one to ask, I shrugged those questions off, but when I heard the Sabbath mentioned on TV, I was fascinated. I watched 3ABN more and more; in fact, I’d stay up until three or four in the morning, knowing that I had to go to work the next day. I simply couldn’t shut it off, because after Lyle, Doug Batchelor or Mark Finley would come on, and I just had to watch!

“What they said about prophecy was so different than what I’d heard before that I became confused. It got so bad that eventually I stopped watching altogether,” he admits, “but the Holy Spirit kept urging me to watch 3ABN, so I finally got back to it. This time, everything seemed to make sense, but I looked up every Bible text they mentioned to make sure it was absolutely true!”

Seventh-day Adventist

About a year later, José says he heard something he’d never heard before. “Someone mentioned the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and I thought, What? There’s a church that teaches all this? I looked it up in the Yellow Pages and found the Midland church right here in town, so I called them one Sabbath, only to find out that their service had already begun. I didn’t go that day, but I drove there the following week. The services started at 9:30 a.m., but when I got there at 9:15, there were no cars, so I figured they weren’t having services that day. The next week I came by and saw the cars. However, I just drove by slowly. I just couldn’t seem to go in.

“Finally I got up the courage to go in on the following Sabbath, and I’ll never forget how I felt.” Again, José is overcome with emotion, and pauses to compose himself. “I was greeted by the most wonderful people who made me feel so welcome,” he says. “Right away, I felt like I was home. Every fiber of my being longed for this fellowship, and I knew that God had led me there. In fact, I felt like I’d been a part of their group ever since I began watching 3ABN, because everything they talked about, I’d heard on 3ABN before. I’d already made changes in my diet and lifestyle, and when I heard them speak about tithes and offerings, I smiled. I’d been sending my tithe to 3ABN, since I had no church at the time.”

Although José had no trouble accepting a new day of worship, he says he struggled with the idea of not working on Sabbath. “I was working nearly every day, but I was being convicted about the Sabbath,” he admits. “So I decided I’d put whatever I earned on Saturdays into the offering plate. That went on for a while, but one day, as I was figuring up how much I’d put in for the Sabbath I’d worked, I heard God speaking to me, José, do you think I need your money more than your obedience?

“I was startled, and I knew that came from the Lord! So from then on, I made a decision to never work on the Sabbath again! That was an important moment in my life, because I realize now that I’d begun to justify my behavior!”

Purpose in Life

José and Yolanda were baptized on the same day and have been active members ever since.

Garcia Family — A Pathfinder family! José and Yolanda with their daughters (left to right) Laura, Bianca, and Rebecca.

“Our lives today are centered around our church community,” he says, “with many church activities throughout the week that culminate on Sabbath. I can’t imagine living any other way. Today, I have purpose in my life. I come to Jesus, and then I go for Jesus. I want to bring as many people as I can to Him.

“In the past, I upset some people because I didn’t know how to witness for Him. But I’ve learned that in order to witness effectively, the Holy Spirit must be present. He’s the One who convicts, and if He’s not present, then the Lord has not prepared them, yet. We must be careful of what we say, and how we say things.

“The next principle is to teach people by telling them stories and by asking them questions. That’s what Jesus did, and I’ve been blessed to learn this and share it with my fellow church members.”

Actively Involved

Pastor Abner Razon beams as he speaks of the Garcia family. “José and his wife Yolanda are very involved in church life,” he says. José is a church elder and often gives Bible studies and seminars on how to witness for Christ effectively. He’s involved in prison ministry, teaches Sabbath School, and even preaches from time to time. His wife Yolanda is the director of our Pathfinders and Adventurers Clubs, and his three daughters are very active, too.

Pastor Abner Razón and José Garcia — Pastor Abner Razon (left) says that José and his family are a blessing to their church and their community.

“In addition to all this, our church and the Texico Conference sponsor satellite dishes with 3ABN for each of our new members—and José volunteers to install them. The Garcia family is truly a blessing to our church and our community.”

The Truth He Longed For

As he concluded, José had one more thing to say. “You know, at the time, I believe that the only 3ABN station around was right here in Midland, Texas. And there is no doubt in my mind that this was the reason the Lord made sure I moved here. It wasn’t for a job. It was so I could finally find the truth I longed for!”

Midland Seventh-day Adventist Church

Midland Seventh-day Adventist Church Website