A Life Spent Following God

00:01 Hello, my name is Michelle holmes, and I'm 17 years old. Today is November 22nd, and I'm speaking with Billie Gentry, who is my pastor's wife. And we're just gonna jump right in and talk about her life that she spent serving the Lord. So can you tell me about when you got saved? Sure.

00:23 When I was growing up, I was in and out of church and heard the gospel many times. Was kind of confused just because I didn't see that at home. So I was hearing something at church but not hearing that at home. So I never really trusted. When I was 24 or 25, I was married. My husband was in Bible college, and we had our first child. And one night, him and a buddy were just talking about the Bible and different things, and one of them made a comment that made me stop dead in my tracks and realized that if I were to die, I would go to hell. So I immediately stopped their conversation and got my husband's attention. And we went into our bedroom and I just told him, I need to be saved. I've never actually put my trust in Jesus to save me. I've never asked him to forgive me. And so he went through the scriptures that I already knew, but this time, they were speaking right at me. And so that night is April 13, 2001. Actually 2002. I trusted Christ as my Savior and.

01:41 To serve the Lord. Did you have to give up anything, like maybe a nicer house or something like that?

01:48 I don't believe so. I believe the relationship I now have with Christ supersedes any of those things that the world can give. I don't feel like I gave up anything. I feel like he's given me so much more than I could ever imagine.

02:08 And has there ever been a time where you've regretted choosing to serve the Lord?

02:13 Not that I can think of.

02:15 Has your family always supported your decision? Have they ever been like, oh, why are you doing that? Like, why would you do that?

02:23 I don't think they've ever not supported my decision to trust Christ. Maybe some of the decisions I've made since, they may have questioned. Just because the Lord works on us all in different ways and at different times. So sometimes maybe they'll question those things, but not my salvation.

02:46 Do you have a favorite ministry experience or story that you could share?

02:59 Wow. Can we come back to that question?

03:03 Have you ever felt like giving up on serving God?

03:07 I'm sure there's been times, low moments, where it feels like things just aren't going the way I would hope and I'm sure just my earthly mind says it's a waste of time. But immediately the Holy Spirit comes in and reminds me of Scripture and reminds me of that it's him doing the working, not me. And he is always working in my favor, whether I see it or not.

03:37 And is there something that happens in the ministry that reminds you why you keep following God and serving him?

03:45 Yes. Every time someone else comes to know the Lord. When we were in Washington State, my husband pastored at a church there for 10 years. And there was a family in the church. It was a mom and three daughters, and the husband never once came to church. And every time my husband would go by to visit the ladies, he would always duck out and avoid my husband. Well, you know, every week they asked for prayer for their dad to get saved. And then probably about six years, seven years into our ministry there, they convinced him to come on an Easter morning. Sunday. Sunday morning. And during the invitation, he went forward and prayed, never spoke to anybody, and then walked out. Well, my husband went and caught him in the parking lot, and he told my husband that he prayed that prayer. He trusted Christ. And so, of course, we were super excited. And so my husband went by that week and talked to him more. And his name is Mike. And he confirmed, you know, again, that he knows something changed in him that day. And so my husband was able to start discipling him. And from his wife's testimony, she had been praying for him for a solid 27 years to get saved. And so when you see those things happen, it just reminds you what a good God we serve.

05:16 And would you mind sharing one of the trials the Lord has put you through to test your faith?

05:21 Sure. When my youngest son, Isaac, was about eight months old, he got just like a cold, like every baby does. And we went through the week, and he just kind of kept getting worse and worse. And so by Friday night, I decided I'd just take him to the ER just to make sure, because I felt like he was just so clogged up. He was having trouble breathing and whatnot. So we'll go the er and the doctor looks at him and says, I'm pretty sure he just has a virus. It's gonna have to run its course. So just keep doing what you're doing, feeding him, you know, taking care of him. And so went home. And by Sunday morning, he was even worse. So I decided I would take him back to the er, hoping for a different doctor, and got the same doctor. He basically just literally just looked at him and said, It's a virus. It's gonna have to run its course, so go home. So he said, but call your pediatrician tomorrow. So Monday morning, I got up immediately, called the pediatrician, and he had us come in. He thoroughly looked at Isaac and he's like, you know, unfortunately, I'm gonna have to agree it is a virus. But here's a few things to try. Whatever. If he's not any better by in the morning, call us again. So the next morning, I was just noticing he was just energy. He didn't have any energy at all. You know, just. He kind of stopped wanting to eat and all the things. And so I called again, very getting frustrated. And so my doctor wasn't there. So they had me see another pediatrician in the office. Well, I'm sitting there with Isaac on my lap, facing the doctor. The doctor comes in, sits on the chair, turns around and look, Takes. I mean, literally a second look at Isaac, and then just nonchalantly says, okay, here's what we're going to do. You're going to drive back over to the ER and I'm going to have a pediatrician there meet you. And I was like, ah, okay, fine. So I get in the car and I call my husband and tell him what they told me. And so I just, you know, make my way to the hospital. And when I get there, I'm carrying him in through the doors, sliding doors, and a nurse is actually standing there when they open, and she said, is this Isaac Gentry? And I said, yes. And she took him and started running. And I never had that happen before. So we go into this room in the ER that I had never seen. It's not one of the normal patient rooms. It looked like a TV show. There was five or six people already in there waiting. And they were all running around the room and, you know, talking medical talk and code this and all these things. And it was very overwhelming and scary. And about that time, my husband came in and we kind of watched him for a few minutes. And then my husband started saying, what's going on? And so finally the doctor said, you know, we're. We've got to get an IV started. We got to run some tests real quick to kind of see what's happening with him. And so three or four different people tried to get an IV started in him, and they couldn't. So the main doctor said, we're going to have to do what's called an IO, which is in procedure they do on the battlefield to get IV started. And basically what they did was drill straight into his shin bone to put the IV into the bone marrow. And they had us hold him down while they did that. They didn't give him anything. And what was scary is he never flinched. And so after that, they said, okay, now we're gonna have to do a spinal tap. And we really want y'all to go step out into the waiting room while we do that. And so when we were in the waiting room, me and my husband just sat there and looked at each other. And, you know, we were crying and scared. And he just said, you know, we show people every day how to live a life of faith. Now is when we have to decide, are we going to do what we're teaching others to do. And so we just stopped and we prayed, and we just put it all in God's hands and told him we were gonna trust him and serve him whether it turns out like we want or like, if it doesn't. So we got a call about us, we got some peace, and then went back to the room. And they had ordered a little airplane to life Flight Isaac to the nearest children's hospital in Seattle. And so it was about an hour between getting on the ambulance to take us to the airplane, back off the airplane to the hospital there. And I rode with him. And by the time we got to Seattle and got into the room, he had woke up, he was sitting up. And I mean, that was just a miracle because he was non responsive. And they said basically he was so dehydrated that his system was shutting down. And so that story just reminds me that God's got our best interests in mind. It doesn't always turn out the way we want it to, and sometimes it does. But either way, he's in control. He loves us more than anything, and he just wants our lives to serve him in return.

11:04 And so would you say that through everything that the Lord's put you through, it's still worth it to serve him?

11:10 Absolutely.

11:11 And he's helped you through everything that you faced, good and bad?

11:15 Absolutely. He's never left me.

11:17 All right, well, that's all the questions I have for you. Thank you.

11:20 Thank you.