Dear Ben,
I enjoyed our brief fellowship last Friday at John and Betty Moore's in Destin. I really appreciate your book, "OLD DESTIN Through the Eyes of A Child." Three of us have read it since last Friday. My mother in Virginia wants me to send it to her as soon as possible. She and Dad loved meeting you at St Andrews many years ago.
As promised, here is a brief testimony for your blog:
On a beautiful Saturday afternoon Nov 1st, 2003, I found myself laying in a ditch beside a highway near Tyler, TX in excruciating pain and bleeding to death. I had been on a long distance bicycle ride and was struck by a speeding truck. As my life blood flowed out the main artery in my thigh, a nurse stopped and began treating me for shock. She was shouting, "Terry! Stay with us!" I thought to myself, "Do I have a choice?"
At the opposite end of my excruciating pain from compound fractures to my arm, leg and ankle, I was enjoying the most wonderful presence of Lord Jesus. I was thinking, "so this is the way my life is going to end...this is REALLY going to be GOOD!" Why no fear of dying? "There is no fear in love; but (His) perfect love casts out fear." 1 John 4:18
Let's go back a few years. On May 19, 1966, I attended a Billy Graham event where I was presented God's message of his love for me in sending His only Son, Jesus, to die for me so I could have eternal life with Him. The message was, and is, very simple: God loves us, we have a problem (sin), Christ Jesus died on the cross for us, and we ask Him to forgive us for our sin-problem and come into our heart. I was instantly new-born, and you can be too! Don't miss Him!!! "He who has the Son has the Life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the Life." 1 John 5:12
I could go on and on about my life since 1966, however, I must mention the four years, 1974-1978, I was stationed at Hurlburt Field, FL, and attended St. Andrews in Destin. There I met a mighty man of God, Captain Ben Marler, a fishing boat captain who loved Jesus as much as I did. Ben understood the urgency of getting the simple Gospel of God to as many people as possible by any means possible.
I joined Ben Marler and a small group of Christians from St. Andrews who met weekly at his house to study and seek the Lord in how to be an evangelist. I remember Ben describing how the Gospel is the medicine that cures death in humanity. Imagine being in a hospital where everybody was dying of a disease, and we had the medicine that would cure them. However, we just went from person to person doing good deeds to help them feel better, but we wouldn't share the cure. How selfish!
I continued through the years with that urgency to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to everyone who would listen. I married a young school teacher, Nina Long, from Ft Walton Beach in 1976, and was soon assigned to Hellenikon Air Base in Athens Greece. There we worked with the founders and pioneers of Mercy Ships as they acquired the MV Anastasis. This was the most comprehensive way we had ever known to get the Gospel to people. This hospital ship ministry offered the two hands of the Gospel. Mercy Ships offers one hand to meet peoples physical, felt needs which opens the door of their hearts to receive eternal life through the love of God through Christ Jesus.
As I began to consider what to do in retirement, after 24 years in the US Air Force, I had many great job opportunities. However, one Sunday in our church in Montgomery, AL I announced that I agreed with Isaiah in answering God's call, "Here am I, send me." The next day I received an email from Don Stephens, Mercy Ships founder and president, asking us to come to East TX to be Director International Plans for Mercy Ships. Through the years with Mercy Ships, I was able to serve the Lord in ways that exceeded all my imagination.
Therefore, as I lay in the ditch bleeding to death, I was content to go on to eternity with Jesus as I considered the nurse's scream, "Terry, stay with us!" I had just returned from leading a Mercy Ships team to Central America where many received Christ as Savior through our ministry with the Jesus Film. A new church was starting in a hard-to-reach community in Belize. I had recently signed my will, and that morning I had paid all our bills. I was ready to go to Heaven!!!
However my wife, Nina, arrived on the scene before the medical helicopter took off. She laid hands on my head and prayed that I would live. She is a mighty woman of faith, and then I knew I would live. However, it would have been easier to die. After surviving hours of surgery, days of intensive care, weeks of hospital, and months of therapy, God had given me a testimony of hope and healing. God's love has made me fearless, even of death. My faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is stronger than ever.
Pacheco Pyle from Mercy Ships brought me the Bible on cassette tapes to listen to while recovering in the hospital. I could not tolerate television while in pain. Only God's Truth would satisfy my soul. "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ." Rom 10:17.
I know that a faith that has been tested is a faith that can be trusted. 1st Peter 1:6- says, "In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ...you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory."
Of course I continue to fall short of His best. I fall short as a husband, a father, and as a Christian worker. But don't look at me! Look at the Lord Jesus Christ. He never fails. You can rest your life on His promises. He never disappoints. He loves you and me, and His grace is sufficient for however we fall short. If you don't have the faith to believe it, read His Word, and get the Truth. I pray 2nd Timothy 2:25, 26 for you that He would "grant you 'repentance' leading to the knowledge of the Truth, and that you may come to your senses and escape the snare of the devil."
On that beautiful Saturday afternoon Nov 1st, 2003, I left home for a two hour bicycle ride. I didn't come home for six weeks. I almost didn't come home at all. Life is shorter than you might think. Don't gamble and miss a relationship with the one who loves you more than you can imagine, and wants you with Him in Heaven for eternity.
In His Amazing Grace,
Terry Howlett
19 October 2011
