(John 3:16)

It is with heartfelt gratitude and thanksgiving to the Lord that I am able to tell you this story of my conversion.

I was born of Christian parents and was taught the truth of salvation from my earliest years. I can remember asking my mother questions about how to be saved at the young age of three and one—half or four years.  At the age of eight years, I was seriously troubled for the first time. I knew by then that according to the Scriptures, I was a sinner and that unless I was saved I would be in hell if I died. It was at bedtime that I called for my mother to come. She visited with me for a while, and then sent me to talk with my father. I crawled up on his lap while he quoted verses from the Bible. I thought about it the next day as well.

The realization that I needed to be saved never really left me. I certainly wanted to be in heaven when I died, and I didn’t want to he left behind when the Lord returned for His own. Then at the age of fourteen, I got a letter in the mail from a girlfriend. What a shock! I wasn’t prepared for the news of her salvation. It was about the same time that two preachers came for gospel meetings in our hometown. There were several of us girls that chummed around together. As we talked about the upcoming meetings and began to complain about going every night, I chimed in and said, ‘What about me’? The preachers are staying with us.”

I suddenly realized that what the Scriptures said was true. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: Who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9) I wondered if my heart was becoming hard to these important matters. Two weeks after the meetings started, one of the preachers mentioned in passing that there was not another thing that needed to be fulfilled before the second return of Christ. Suddenly, it seemed of the utmost importance that I settle the matter of my soul’s salvation now! I went to the car crying. When we got home, my parents asked if I would like to visit with the preachers. After they showed me many Scriptures, I went to bed but I couldn’t sleep. I lay there thinking, “Geneva, you’ll just have to go to hell.” As I was thinking, I tried to remember one more verse that I learned while I was young. “For God so loved the WORLD.” That is as far as I got. God so loved Geneva! He gave his Son to die on the cross for me. I was part of the world. Christ had died for me and I realized I was saved!

You too can know as I do that your sins are forgiven through the death of Christ on the cross.

For additional information or personal discussion, contact:

Geneva Collins

3828 Memory Lane

Waterloo, IA 50701-9351

or email

mail@bdcministries.faithweb.com