Darryl Denson’s Testimony

When she met my father in Honolulu Hawaii, my mother was on assignment with the Southern Baptist Foreign Missionary Board. My father was a submarine sonar man in the U.S. Navy. This was around 1947 and before Hawaii became a state (August 1959). To marry my dad, she had to give up her SBFMB commission though she continued His work around the world as we traveled to different duty stations. My sister Pat was born in Hawaii and I was born three years later in San Diego. From there it was off to Adak, Alaska via Seattle for a few years, then on to Nicosia Cyprus after a stop in Glen Bernie, then Bremerhaven Germany, retiring from the Navy in Key West, where I turned fifteen before moving north to Ocala, FL.

From an early age, my mother talked to me about the Lord. At age 5, I accepted Him because my mom wanted me to. When I was around seven, I was baptized in a German Baptist Church in Bremerhaven. Attending base church, I received the pin with a wreath and plaque under it for three years of perfect attendance in Sunday School. I had nothing to do with this achievement. My mother, Erlene, led the hundreds-strong vacation Bible school every year and was always heavily involved in our church communities.

After a few years in the First Baptist Church in Key West, I became bored with it all. You might say I had a drug problem. My parents drug my sister and me to church every time it was open. I was getting into trouble and failed the seventh grade. Not till I moved to Ocala did my head begin to clear. I learned I was smart enough to pass a class and became convinced that I needed the Lord. By osmosis and personal investment, I knew the Lord was working in my life and He would make me whole. I began to earnestly seek Him and again, was baptized.

After the usual ups and downs of my teenage and young adult years, wondering how life would turn out, I grew closer to Him as events of great importance began with His will. The beautiful and Godly woman he provided in my life, the jobs I found, and the children we eventually were blessed with. I began teaching Sunday School in my thirties and found the best part of teaching was learning. With no small amount of intentional awareness, nothing draws me closer to hearing Him than preparation for class. Now in my late sixties, I resolve daily to stand firm in the knowledge that regardless of my limitations and shortcomings, He has placed within me an ability that must be used for His kingdom. As I step out into His will with trepidation, the only perfection I may have is what He provides. When I follow His leading, there is joy found in the work.

My parents planted in me the desire to serve Him. A probability but not a promise, my life echoes the proverb, Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.

As challenges continue to come, I remind myself to rely on Him. I cannot imagine living alone, adrift in a sea of uncertainty, without a lifeguard. The future will probably not turn out the way I imagine yet I know that whatever comes, I will trust in His eternal care.