Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / October 9, 2018 | Expresso - Tammy Evarts

Transcript

October 9, 2018 | Expresso - Tammy Evarts · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good evening, ladies.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Tammy Everts, as you know.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: I come here tonight to speak to you all about the life before my life with God and my life and my journey as I've accepted God.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: First, as a child growing up here in Topeka, my childhood seemed like a normal childhood, but looking back, it wasn't as normal as I thought it was.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: My parents got divorced when I was six years old, so this would have been in the year of 1971 when the divorce rate was lower than it is today.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: I ended up going to four different grade schools and never seeming to have any childhood friends in school because of this.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: My older brother Carl and I stayed at home some of the time by ourselves and sometimes with the babysitter while my mom worked as a single mother.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Or and we also stayed with some friends once in a while.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Carl and I were close and we played a lot together.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: We picked on each other like most siblings do.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: I remember a time when he pulled my pigtails while riding our bicycles.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I was in the front on my tricycle, and he said behind me, and he said, Giddy up, horsey, giddy up.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: I also remember one day when I caught him cutting my Barbie doll's hair.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I got even by marking on his G.I.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Dose Joe's face.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: As time has passed, we aren't as close as I would like us to be.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: We live two different lifestyles, and we both have two different jobs.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: My mom remarried and had my younger brother Brian when I was 13 years old.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I got didn't really get to know my younger brother except for basically babysitting.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: This might be one reason why that I communicate better with him.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: We too are not as close as I would like it like us to be, but hopefully and with Lord's help, we can be.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: See, my brother Brian is a Catholic.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: He became a Catholic due to his girlfriend wanting him to be.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: But now she no longer wants to be in the Catholic faith, and neither does he.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: They both have started coming on their own to TBC.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of my answers that have been answered.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: My prayers that have been answered, sorry.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: As a teenager, I did start to have friends with band members in high school.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is where I started feeling accepted with society.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: During my teenage years, thoughts of the Lord were never on my mind because my parents never spoke of the Lord or took me to church.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: I had a few friends in high school that were Christians and would speak Lord's word.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: But as I just chalked it up as being nice.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: But as I got closer to my 20s, the worldly things of drinking and partying got to me.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: I ended up pregnant with my son by a man I met right out of high school.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: I was not married at this time, and the man left me after having my son, making me a single young mother.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: My son and I were close when I was raising him.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever heard of the phrase, mama's boy?
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's my son.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: I had to work two jobs to make ends meet and make a roof over to keep a roof over our heads because I got, I did not get any child support.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, the state had to look at for the husband.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know how that probably goes, some people do.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: I got married in February of 2000 when I was 35 to a man I met while working at a temporary job.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: My husband my son was 14 at the time and didn't really like the idea of a man in my life.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: As an adult in my early 40s, I had a few rough years.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: First off, I ended up getting a divorce in June of 2006 from my first husband due to his alcoholism.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: I felt like a failure when I got divorced because I hoped I could get my husband to quit drinking.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: I ended up working two jobs after my divorce to be to help pay my bills that my husband had left me.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: With community pastor Hunaru, he helped me through my divorce by getting me acquainted with divorce care.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And thanks, Jolene.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen you out here.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then so I could get off my divorce.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Second, my son moved out of the house a month later, July of 2006, making me an empty nester.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: My only true companion at this time was my pug, Harley, which made it a tad easier to deal with.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Anybody that has any four-legged creatures in their house.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Do any of you know what it's like to be an empty nester?
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I imagine we all do.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: And the final thing that happened to me in this time frame, my dad became extremely ill due to his diabetes.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: He ended up in and out of the hospital so much the last couple of years of his life that the nurses at Stormont know him by name.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: During this time, rough time is when my dad and I became close.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: He even asked me, how was church when I would go and take care of him on Sundays?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: While going through this rough time period of my life, I talked with God, but I really didn't know him.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: How I got to know God is through a dear friend, Rachel Andavazo.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Rachel.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: We both, me and her, worked at Stor at not sorry, not Stormot, at Westar Energy together, and we became great friends.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: She asked me several times before I accepted.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: First I hesitated about going, but after a while I thought, what harm will it do?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: If I go and see what church is like.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: The minute I walked into the church, I felt the Holy Spirit take away all my worries and doubts about coming to church.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: I had a fear of not being accepted by everyone.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: I started going to church on a regular basis, and during this time I accepted the Lord my Savior and decided to get baptized.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: I got baptized in August of 2007, even though I hated the idea of being baptized, as my grandson would say it, in poopy fish water.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: With the raise of hands, who else hates poopy fish water?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and at this time I'd like to read you my baptism verse.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians 13, 4 through 8.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Love is patient, love is kind, love does not envy, is not boastful, is not conceited, does not act improperly, is not selfish, is not provoked, and does not keep a record of wrongs.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Love finds no joy in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Love never ends, but as for prophecies, they will come to an end.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: As for languages, they will cease.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: As for knowledge, it will come to an end.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: After my baptism, I felt freed of all my dirty sins, and I was relieved to be out of that dirty fish water.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: My dad ended up passing in December of 2008 due to his diabetes illness.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: I had a hard time getting over his loss.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: I would go, my mom doesn't know this.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: I would go every day and cry by his grave, wishing I could dig him up and breathe the life back into him.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: To help with my grief, Hanaru encouraged me to go to grief share.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: And this seemed to help me a lot.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: I also knew that someday I would see my dad again in heaven.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: I have continued to grow in my faith, and with my faith brought a new man into my life.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: See, I met my husband that I have now through the Holy Spirit talking to me one day when I was lonely and needing someone.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: The song played at our wedding was, if anybody knows it, God gave me you by Blake Sheldon.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: And with God's love, he gave me each and every one of you here tonight to be my sister in Christ.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.