Hey everyone!
This is the first time I have ever done a blog so we'll see how this goes.
First let my tell everyone about myself. My name is Cathleen Martin and I'm 16. I am about to be a senior in high school (which is kinda scary!). My parents are Gene and Shari and I have 3 younger siblings: Rebecca who's 15, Gene Junior who's 10, and last but not least Faith who's 9. My parents have brought all of us up in church from the time we were born. For most of my life we lived in Victorville, California (for any of you that don't know where that is, it's about 2 1/2 to 3 hours north east of San Diego). We went to Bible Baptist Church where my dad was the head custodian. For a little while we lived in Washington State because my dad was in the military for 7 1/2 years. In fact, that's where Becca was born. But we always came back to Victorville.
Almost 4 years ago we my dad canditated for a church in Bartlesville, Oklahoma and they unanimously called him to be the pastor. So at the end of July, 2006, we moved there. My dad was the pastor for 14 months when things started going downhill. Things just weren't working out and so my dad decided to resign his position as pastor. At that time we started going to Baptist Temple while we were waiting for God to tell my dad what He wanted Him to do next. Right after we had started going to Baptist Temple my youth director gave her salvation testimony. She had said that she had gotten saved at a very young age but when she got into her teen years, she couldn't remember getting saved so she decided to get her salvation settled. When she gave her testimony it got me to thinking because I had "gotten saved" at a young age too but I couldn't remember doing it either. So I talked to my mom about it and she said she didn't care when I got saved as long as I really did. So right then I gave my heart to God and my life has not been the same since.
After about 6 months at Baptist Temple my dad decided that the Lord wanted us to move down to Oklahoma City so that he could attend Heartland Baptist Bible College. So we moved down here in April of '08. We joined Southwest Baptist Church the first week that we were down here. My dad took a couple of Summer classes at Heartland and then started a Fall class and then all of a sudden he started skipping classes and stopped going to church. He didn't go to church again until Christmas time and he went for one service. Then he stopped going again. Then one day in May he picked up his Bible and just opened it to start reading it. He opened it to Matthew 7 where the Bible is talking about how not everyone who calls God "Father" will be able to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and my dad realized that it was talking about him. So one Wednesday night he went to church with us and called on the Lord to be his Savior at the invitation. We were all sooooo excited!!! God is just so good!!!!!
Now my family is faithfully serving the Lord together. Both of my parents teach a Sunday school class; my mom and 4 grade girls' class and my dad a 5 grade boys' class. Both my sister, Becca, and me are very involved in our youth group and love staying busy for the Lord. Jr. and Faith are both involved in the Patch the Pirate Club and enjoy being in church every chance that they get. It is so wonderful being able to serve the Lord with my family!!!!!
Well, I think that's pretty much my life story. : ) hehe
