MY PERSONAL TESTIMONY - ZACK MARTIN!

1 Samuel 1:8 - Then Elkanah her husband said to her, "Hannah, why do y weep? Why do you not eat? And why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?"
1 Samuel 1 : 11 - Then she made a vow and said, "O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head."

In this text of Scripture we see Hannah making a promise to God if He would give a male child! Long story short, Samuel was born to Hannah and Elkanah, and Hannah was true to her word giving Samuel to the Lord! I have a similar story in my own life!

In 1951 there wasn't all the modern marvels that exists today. When the time of my birth came, there was only a town doctor, Dr. Bush, available for my parents to have assist in my birth. I was a breach birth, which meant that I was turned wrong, and I had to be turned in order to be safely horned. The doctor worked many hours trying to do this so that I might have a chance to be born alive. Not only was my life at risk, but also my mother's life. As the day passed the situation drew more dire. Finally in the eve of? a new day, he got me turned enough that I could be horned. He cautioned my parents that he didn't know if I would live or die. So on March 3rd, 1951, I was born just before midnight.

After my birth, I was so bruised that when my oldest sister saw me, she burst into tears. Even after I was born, the doctor had doubts that I would live. Here is an important part of my story! I didn't learn of this until after I accepted God's call to me to become a minister for Him. My mother prayed to God for my life and promised Him that if He would allow me to live, that she would give me to Him. Like I said, I didn't know about this until after I accepted His call to be His minister at the age of 20. My mother knew that she had given me to the Lord when I was born.

So she raised me in this light, and she made sure that I knew so many things that would make me good in whatever work that God should choose for me. As a family, we always had our evening family devotion time every night before we went to bed. She would take time to explain things to me about what we may have discussed during our devotion time. We were just a poor farming family and had my mother and dad, four children, and my grandmother living in a two bedroom house. Well, that meant we had to double up. Since I was the baby (youngest) of the family, my bed was in the same room as my mother and dad's room. We shared that bedroom, so many nights mother would lie down on my bed with me, and we would discuss the Bible and stories from r Bible. At that time I didn't know why we discussed the Bible and stories from it, but she was preparing me for a life of service for Christ. When most children would have bedtime stories read to them, I would have Bible stories read to me. My brother and sisters thought that she loved me the most, but that wasn't true. She loved us all equally, but I think that because she had given me to God at birth, I became a work in progress for her, and we did become very close. But, you know, I was always a kind of daddy's boy. I loved my dad, and was always around him too. He taught me so many things. How to hunt, fish, and about work ethics. I always helped him on the farm. Because I was the youngest by several years, all of the others had graduated high school and left home to be on their own before I did, so I became daddy's biggest helper on the farm during his failing health years, and finally the realization that he couldn't continue to farm. These were also learning years that would help me in my walk with Christ.

After daddy wasn't able to continue farming, my mother got a job as cook at the local hospital. Mother was always a good cook and knew people who worked there, and they knew her and how well she could cook. It happened that there was a house practically in the parking lot of the hospital available, so we rented that house. Our yard and the parking lot joined one another. I know because I cut that yard on many occasions. Anyway this began I part of my life when God would claim a servant that my mother promised Him when I was born. While living on the farm, we went to the local community Baptist Church where our farm was. We ha a pastor that my parents really liked, in fact he performed my oldest sister's wedding when she got married. His name was Bro. Marx. Anyway, after we moved into town, we found out that he was the pastor of a new mission on Lee Street there in Enterprise. So we started attending Lee Street Baptist Mission. In the beginning there it was just the education building, where everything took place. Curtained off Sunday School Rooms would be drawn back to open up a larger room where the preaching service took place. We we joined Lee Street Baptist Mission. It was constituted into a Church a couple of years later. So it became Lee Street Baptist Church, which it still is today, and that is where my membership is. I went for all of my high school years and the church grew tremendously, built a sanctuary and more educational space.

God put together quite a great youth department and it was through this experience that I was called to be a minister for God. We had 40 - 50 youth, and we developed a Friday Night Youth Activities, where we would gather at the church to have fun, and play games, but also we had a worship service time. This is where I saw my calling from God pen up. We would invite others to come to these youth activities meetings, and some Friday nights we would have 50 or so young people playing games like basketball, volleyball, and other outside games, and inside there was table tennis (ping pong), cards, and other table games. Then in the fellowship hall we would have food like pizza, hot dogs, etc., and would eat and then have a time of worship where the pastor or youth director would preach, or have a devotion from God's word. The point is, we had fun, but we also worshipped God. Every Sunday we usually had someone joining the church and being baptized because they had been saved at one of the Friday Night Youth Activity Meetings. Most of the time it would be a youth from our church that would lead others that came to our youth activities meetings into salvation. That is where I got indoctrinated into the ministry, and in 1972 I was licensed into the ministry by Lee Street Baptist Church, fulfilling a promise that was made to God in 1951 by my mother. I was 21 years old when I was licensed into the ministry. I got my formal education at Wallace Community College and then Baptist Bible Institute in Graceville, Florida (Now called The Baptist College of Florida). But my mother had schooled me in God's word all of my life because she had given me to God when I was born, if He would let me live. Guess what? It was then when I accepted His call to the ministry that I first found out about mother's promise to God! So began the fulfillment of a life long promise to God.

One of the things taught to me by my mother was her love and knowledge of music. Mother loved to sing and play the piano. I would sing lead, and she would sing harmony (alto) backing me up. We use to sit around the piano with her playing and sing hymns. So when I entered BBI, I majored in theology and minored in music, but I had a God given talent of singing. For the next 35 years I would serve God as minister of music and youth pastor. I also pastored one church for 4 years.

Because I could sing so well, I was asked to lead the music for many revivals. Sometimes when you are good at something it can go to your head. That is exactly what happened to me. I was doing so many revivals and also regular church and was traveling many miles from week to week, that I TOLD GOD, NOT ASKED GOD, that I needed a new van to travel in to all my revivals, etc. So I had to be taught a lesson in humility. You see, I went ahead and bought that new van that I wanted and TOLD GOD I NEEDED. Man, I looked at myself and said, "I'm good, look at what I did and what I can do!" BAD MISTAKE!!! One morning, very early in the morning before daylight, I was on my way to a destination of service in my new van. Even though it was in 1975, I remember it like it was yesterday. It was a two lane highway at about 4:30 in the morning before daylight. I had just passed a car and was pulling back into my lane , and there were three black cows in the middle of the road. I swerved to miss them, and I did miss two of them, but the third and biggest one, I planted in the side sliding door of that van. I turned over on the cow, and then I flipped end over end. When I flipped end over end, I was thrown from the van. I went out through the pop out windshield that vans had as a safety precaution. It worked pretty well, because I slid across the pavement on top of that windshield, saving me from being peeled to the bone by that pavement. I was knocked out, and when I came to, there was a lady standing over me praying for me. She was from the car that I had just passed, and she said that she was a Pentecostal preacher. I never saw her before that morning, and I haven't seen her since, so to me she was like an angel sent by God to me! My van was in the ditch and on all four wheels, but, the top was smashed in over the driver's seat all the way down to the top of the seat. If I hadn't been thrown from the van, the State Trooper said that I would have probably been killed. I was taken to the hospital in Troy, and spent several days there. Then I was transferred to a hospital in Phoenix City because the specialist I was to see was from the Hughston Clinic just across the river, and State line in Columbus. I was badly hurt, in fact they didn't think that I would ever walk again. I spent eight months lying flat of my back on my bed. Well, I realized that first, I wasn't suppose to have that van, and God took it away from me, and second, it wasn't me doing all that stuff in those revivals that gave me the BIG HEAD, saying, "Look what I've done! I am the best thing that God had had in a long time!" In fact it wasn't me at all, it was God using the little talent that I had to win souls for Him. NOT ME AT ALL ----- IN FACT I WAS A TINY PART OF GOD'S PLAN! And I had a long time to think about everything! But, God instilled in me not to give up, and I didn't and later I was able to walk again.

It was during this time in my life that I met the woman of my dreams. We began dating and then I began walking, first with crutches, and then a walking cane. We fell in love, and I asked her to marry me. She said yes! We were trying to set a date, but I was still using a cane to walk with. I told her that I would walk up on that stage on my own two feet when we were married. So on December 2nd, 1977, I walked up on that stage on my own two feet and we married the Debbie, the woman of my dreams. And, we began the real ministry that God had called me to do. We had a great time serving God together and ministering for Him. My mother told me every time that I saw her that she was praying for me everyday, and I felt those prayers. I had 35 years of service for the Lord and I enjoyed ever minute of it. It was not a bed of roses, but even in troubles and trials, and everything, God was by my side daily and I know that I was doing His will for my life. I may have had a shaky start, but God taught me that He was the one in control and my job was to spread the Gospel to the people that needed His saving grace. And, PRAISE GOD, I'M STILL DOING THAT EVEN THOUGH I AM IN A NURSING HOME. My earnest prayer is that when it comes my time to go be with Jesus in heaven, that I will be witnessing for Him with my last breath!

Most of you know about my testimony of coming here to Wesley Manor, but it was this way. My health had gotten to the point that I could no longer care for myself. I needed help bathing and dressing myself, and my sister's health was also failing. A physical therapist was at the house evaluating me, and because I couldn't do the things that I needed to do to care for myself, he asked me had I ever considered a Nursing Home? To which I abruptly answer NO! He went on to explain to me that he thought my quality of life would be so much better in a nursing home. I began to pray about it, and God instilled in me that I would be entering a new ministry. So, I asked my daughter to check into the availability of nursing homes in Dothan closes to her and my son. Wesley Manor had an immediate opening. So we began the process of qualifying me for y nursing home here. I entered Wesley Manor on August 15th, 2015. Only two weeks had gone by when I was asked to do the Sunday Morning Services on South Wing Hall where I live at 11:00 am, and then again at 12:00 noon on Martin Hall. I did and they came to me and asked me would I take the job permanently. I remembered that God had said that this would be a new ministry, and I accepted the job. Almost immediately I began to pray that God would open up an opportunity to have a worship service in the chapel for the entire Nursing Home. We did a trial run on Easter Sunday, and everything went great, so about six weeks ago we began having a full worship service in the chapel for the entire nursing home, including Assisted Living, and we are growing every Sunday! PRAISE GOD! I am sure that this is God's will for Wesley Manor, and I promise to you and the Lord to be a willing servant for Him here. Since the beginning of the service we have baptized one! Which I have been told was the first in memory for about 20 years. Praise God and I pray that it won't be the last!

I've had some difficult times to consider as of late, a little while back they had to put a stint in what is called the Widowmaker Artery that was 90% blocked. This was a difficult placement but was successfully done. Then a couple of weeks back I had two more stints placed in the left ventricle artery, and they were also difficult placements. But before they did this, my doctor decided that the risks of doing the heartcath was going really to just go in and do another one. This being because of me being alergic to the dye used in doing the heartcath, and also with me being in permenat A-fib the medicine used for the stress test would make my A-fib go into uncontrollable A-fib. Also it is believed that I could not survive by-pass surgery, so it was decided to try and use medicine to control the angina pain, but that didn't work,so it was decided to do another heartcath with the understanding that they wouldn't promise that anything could be done even when they found what was wrong! So itt with this understanding that we did the heartcath. It was found that it had two blockages in the left ventricle artery and they were also difficult placements, but they were able to successfully do the placements. So I now have 9 stints, and anymore are still VERY QUESTIONABLE! But until then I am cleared to take it slowly and do Sunday Morning Worship Service taking it very easy. I am a firm believer that God is in control so this is how I'm approaching it. This is how I approach each Sunday. I pray daily to be in God's Will in this! And I know that God will not put me in a position of harm. Thank You Lord for Your guidance and direction.

I invite you to come and be a part of our Sunday Morning Service here, and also to bring someone with you to church! We encourage you to invite your family to come and worship with you here in our chapel. Thank you so much!


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In His Name,
Rev. Zack martin Sr.
updated by @zack-martin: 11/11/17 02:50:05PM