The
story of our conversion begins about 14 years ago, around 1989. Up until
the age of 11, I had grown up Amish. Both of my parents, Ray and Wanda
Mullet, had been born and raised Amish(Old Order Amish), and they raised
me and my siblings that way. But my dad sells herbs and somehow had
come in contact with a Apostolic lady. This lady, Sister Carol Wells
would drive to our house to pick up her herbs. She would always talk
with my mom and dad about the Bible and the Lord, and she left literature
for them to read. Around this same time, she was coming over and giving
Bible study to my mom, the Search For Truth Bible study from the United
Pentecostal Church organization.
From her talking and the literature my
dad saw that they had not been baptized. The Amish poured water over
their heads and pronounced, "in the name of the Father, and the
Son, and the Holy Ghost." But the Bible commanded immersion in
water(the Greek word transliterated baptizo, the word for baptism,
by definition means immersion) and baptism in the name of Jesus.
"Father, Son and Holy Ghost" were only titles for Jesus (see
Acts 2:38, John 10:30, Isaiah 9:6 and many others). Plus, this lady
would be our driver to go places and when asked if she could do something
she would reply that "Lord willing" she would be able to.
My dad wondered how someone "in the world" could say these
things.
As soon as Ray was aware of the lack of
baptism he said to my mom, "Wanda, we need to be baptized."
I believe it was the next Sunday that they were baptized in the Name
of Jesus! Ministers and the district bishop of the Amish tried to come
over and persuade them to renounce that new baptism and come back to
the Amish. Being new in the faith, my dad didn't have the answers for
their arguments and was getting discouraged. After this went on he prayed
that the Lord would send help. An Apostolic minister, who had been converted
from the Mennonites came out to our house the next day without anyone
having contacted him. The Lord answered prayer. When the bishop and
the other Amish preachers came out again Bro. Mishler showed them out
of the Scripture the way to be saved. If I recall correctly, that was
the last time they came to our house.
But the bishop put the ban (excommunication)
on my parents. My grandparents, aunts and uncles and the rest of the
Amish relatives couldn't have anything to do with my parents. It seemed
like all their friends and family had been cut off. It was hard on our
family, but mostly my parents. We weren't invited to reunions, weddings,
holiday get-togethers or even eat with them. This was all a very big
part of their lives. Looking back it makes my eyes moist when remembering
how wonderfully the church body made up the difference. We were invited
to have Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with families from church.
And the friendship and love shown were just overwhelming.
My parents then started seeking to receive
the Holy Ghost. On weeknights with no church services they met and had
prayer meetings at the houses of different members of the church. And
at one of these meetings Ray received the Holy Ghost with the evidence
of other tongues. Then a week or two later Wanda also received it.
One
of the most amazing parts of this story is this; when my dad was a teenager
he would study the Bible and pray. He tried to live according to his
conscience and the best he knew and had been taught. He prayed and asked
the Lord that if there was anything more to this (the Bible and salvation)
that He would reveal it to him. And it wasn't until 30 years later that
God answered that prayer. God saw the sincerity in his heart and led
him to truth. Praise God!
