Yesterday we celebrated the life of one of our members, Orville Devereaux. Below is a part of his testimony, as written by himself.

“I was raised on a farm near Elsie, Michigan and Mother took us kids to Sunday school and church. When I was a teenager, I joined the church. I enlisted in the Marine Corps during WWII and went to church every chance I got while in the Marines. After the war, I married Virginia and we started going to a church in a different area of Michigan. One Sunday, I told the preacher I would like to get my membership changed over to his church. He asked me if I was a Christian. I said, “What do you mean, am I a Christian?” I told him I had gone to church pretty regularly all my life, had joined a church as a teenager, and had a membership card to prove it. He asked me if I had ever asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins and I said I had never done that. He said, “Orville, you can join every church in America and still go to hell.” He told me I needed to repent of my sins, confess them to Jesus, ask Him for forgiveness and He would forgive me. That’s a promise in the Bible, 1 John 1:9 and Romans 10:9 and 10. That is the very first time I realized I was lost, and it was a terrible feeling to know if I died, I would be lost forever. Soon after that, I knelt down and asked Jesus to forgive me, and needless to say, there came great joy and peace in my heart. That was November, 1953. There was a great change in my life after that. The Lord helped me to overcome some bad habits I had not been able to overcome before. And He is still my helper from day to day.”

What a great example of a Christian witness in life AND death.