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My Testimony

Hello! My name is Terry Bourbonnie and this is my testimony.

In my formative years, I went to Sunday School at a denominational church in the community where my family lived. My mother took us (my siblings and me) to church regularly on Sunday morning. When I was about nine, I went to the church camp where I recited a scripture and they told me I was saved and I believed that until I was fifty-one years of age. I quit going to church at about the age of twelve. Three things that I remember from attending church and what my mother taught me are: Jesus is coming back, that I need to be baptized to get to heaven, and to pray to God before I went to sleep.

I had great parents who taught me that hard work and having an education was essential to success. I was gifted academically and athletically so I sailed through school and played almost every sport imaginable. As far as education was concerned, I ended up getting a B Sc., in Civil Engineering and started my engineering career at the age of twenty-three. I got married and had two wonderful daughters.

So what went wrong with this "good-sounding story"? Alcohol! I started weekend partying in high school. I spent a lot of my life drunk on weekends. I was an alcoholic but I would never admit it. I was unpredictable as an alcoholic; sometimes a happy drunk and sometimes a mean drunk. Over the years it took its toll on my relationships. Even though I was an alcoholic, somehow I prayed the Lord's Prayer most nights of my life.

When I was fifty, I started going to a community church in the Calgary area and was baptized (immersed) in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Nothing changed though, I still was a weekend drunk.

A year later, I was in the living in the USA and I read the first book of the "Left Behind" series. After reading the book, I remember saying to myself, If Jesus comes back tonight, I will definitely be left behind. Simultaneously to that, I found an invitation on my car door to a church that was across the street from where I was parked. The following Sunday, I went to that church, where I heard people speak in tongues for the first time in my life. It was a Trinitarian Pentecostal Church. I had started reading the New Testament and when I got to the Book of Acts (specifically Acts 2:4, Acts 10:44,45,46 and Acts 19:6), I saw clearly that people spoke in tongues when they were filled with the Holy Ghost. I also realized that I was not saved like they told me when I was young. I was still drinking at the time and not repentant about my lifestyle. I had definitely not surrendered my life to Jesus.

About a year or so later, I was fifty-two and I moved back to Canada, within a block of a United Pentecostal Church. At that time, I really didn't know the difference between a Jesus' name Pentecostal Church and a Trinitarian Pentecostal Church. I started attending the church and fourteen months later God filled me with the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Two days later, I was baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of my sins. That is me being baptized in the picture on this page. At that time, I had obeyed the Gospel of Jesus Christ by obeying Acts2:38. I was truly born again, born of water and of Spirit (John 3:3-5).

My life then turned on a dime! The last time I had a drink was the night before I received the Holy Ghost. I also quit smoking and doing many other things that God didn't want me to do as I had truly surrendered my life to Jesus, and by His grace, I am still submitted to Him today. When God sets you free, you are free indeed. After living a life of freedom for twenty years, my testimony today is that it is a glorious life, living for Jesus Christ, the one and only God, the God that is One.

My testimony and that of other testimonies of the saints of the Most High God, include the words of the Apostle Paul:

This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of His great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in Him and receive eternal life. All honor and glory to God forever and ever! He is the eternal King, the unseen One who never dies; he alone is God. Amen. (1 Timothy 1:15-17 NLT)

Hallelujah!