Who is Cap'n Don?
I am so glad you asked!
We were Children's Pastors at our church, Salisbury Foursquare Church, Salisbury, North Carolina, for almost five years. We were known as Cap'n Don and Miss Penny at Victory Station (we had a railroad motif). Prior to that, we worked at PTL (for those not old enough to remember: Jim & Tammy Bakker, television ministry) for about three and one half years, and have many great memories from that time - 1983-1987.
And, since you were about to ask: I've been a Red Sox fan since 1948! And Penny was born and raised in Chicago; she's a diehard Cubs fan. We're looking forward to the Red Sox and Cubs in the World Series one day!
Don's Testimony
It was March of 1980. My second(!) wife and I had decided the previous month that we were not going to make it in marriage , so we separated. We were both happy for the first time in a very long time! At least, I thought so.
I worshipped at the bar of my choice during the week and at the disco of my choice on weekends. It was during one of my regular "worship services" at the disco that the Lord opened my eyes to see that I was becoming just like the guys in that disco. I almost got into a fight over something very stupid!
I went home to my empty apartment, where I slept in the living room rather than endure the assaults of Satan in my bedroom (he or one of his own would sit on the side of my bed and scare the bejeebies out of me!). So, in order to avoid this, I simply slept in the living room with the light and the television on all night long - playing, of all things, horror movies!
Well, this particular Sunday morning was going to be a bit different from others.
I went to sleep around six and woke up at nine thirty. My first thought was to write a letter to my estranged wife to let her know how I felt about my situation. And to this day, I don't even know why!
My first statement after the usual amenities was, "I used you as an anchor in my life, and that was all wrong." Then I said, "No, that's not right: I used myself as an anchor in my life; and if I'm going to be the anchor and the ship, then I'm destined either to sink or to drift aimlessly." I then stated, "Maybe I need God." I didn't know what I was really saying, but the Lord did - and I'm glad He did!!
I began to seek Him in an old Bible I had been given in 1948 when I joined the Methodist Church at age 12. It was hard to understand, but I knew I had to get in touch with Him. That same Sunday night a new television drama about the life of Christ was airing, to be aired on two subsequent nights, and I watched and cried. After Tuesday night I was open for whatever the Lord had for me.
On Wednesday I was channel-surfing and found the local Christian channel where they were discussing church things. I didn't want church! I wanted Jesus!! I looked in the TV Guide and found a program entitled "Teach Us to Pray". That's the ticket! I don't know how to pray! I'll watch this program and learn how to talk to God.
The interesting thing about that program is that it was listed in Thursday night's offerings: I was looking in the wrong listings!
So I turned to Channel Forty-Four and, much to my surprise, there was Pat Robertson and Ben Kinchlow cutting up, having fun. Christians don't have fun. What was this? Then Pat asked the audience to pray a prayer with him. I said, "Okay." And I prayed the sinner's prayer.
When he said "Amen", he asked those of us who had prayed that prayer to call one of the numbers on the screen, and I did. I got a fellow at Channel Thirty-Eight and told him I had just prayed that prayer with Pat Robertson and wanted to know more about "my new life in Christ", as Pat had put it.
The counselor asked me a question I had never heard before and haven't since: "Is there any obstacle between you and Jesus Christ?" It was as if someone shoved my head into my shirt pocket! "Cigarettes," I said, "but I'm getting rid of them right now." (That was about three and a half packs a day!)
"Don't throw them away, if you don't mean it", the counselor rejoined; "They're expensive."
"I know what I want," I told him. " I want Jesus."
That was the cry of my heart, and God heard me. The counselor prayed that the Lord would remove the desire for tobacco and nicotine, and that night (April 2, 1980 at 8:30pm) He did!
I was a new creation! Old things had passed away; all things had become new for me!
I like to tell people that I was forty-two years old when I woke up and realized that Someone loved me more than I did!
The Word
The importance of the Word of God, the Bible, in my life cannot be understated. I had walked through so much garbage over my first forty-two years that I needed an overhaul of my spirit, mind and body!
I went to a retreat weekend in Wisconsin about five months after I had gotten saved, and this precious brother, Doug Detert, spoke to us about having the Word of God as a priority. I dug out the audio tape of that talk some six years later, and it blew me away!
One thing he stressed was having the presence of the Lord in our everyday lives. He talked about the one hundred nineteenth Psalm - 176 verses long, 172 of which are talking directly to God. Having read it many times over the intervening years, I'm convinced that Psalm 119 needs to be an integral part of the committed Christian's prayer life. I choose to experience that Psalm with as many senses I can, so I read it out loud. I experience it with my eyes, my mouth and my ears.
There are 22 octets (a set of 8 verses); that's one octet for every weekday during the month - sometimes more, sometimes less. But you get my point. I need God's presence every day when I go out to face what the world throws my way. In my Bible, I numbered each octet next to the little Hebrew letter (aleph, beth, gimel, etc.) so that I could keep up with it each day. Eventually, I began to read Psalm 119 through every month. And I still do! I still need His presence.
Then, I recognized my need for wisdom for each day. I had had enough of my wisdom - it always got me into trouble - and the worlds' wisdom - that worked just so far, and I was in trouble again! What I needed was God's wisdom...
The Lord led me to the book of Proverbs. There are "coincidentally" 31 chapters in the book - one for every day of the month! Obviously, some months there would be less, but you get my point. I could read chapter 10 on the tenth of the month, the eleventh on the next day, and so on. By the end of the month, I will have read the book of Proverbs all the way through; by the end of the year, I will have read it through twelve times, at least.
Without the wisdom of God's Word and without His presence, as experienced through reading Psalm 119 the way I do, plus reading through the Bible once through every year, I would still be scratching around trying to find my place in this world that doesn't seem to want me to make it. Without the Word, my roadmap in life, it would be impossible to live a productive and successful Christian life.
And it's God's love letter to me. I recommend starting with the Gospel of John, then the New Testament, then from Genesis to Revelation. Why?
I'm glad you asked!
1) John was the disciple closest to Jesus; he knew Him best, he knew His heart.
2) The New Testament shows the full story of Jesus and those who follow Him; in addition, the book of Revelation reveals "the rest of the story", as Paul Harvey puts it: our side wins!
3) The Old Testament gives the believer and the non-believer alike the opportunity to look for signposts pointing to Jesus throughout. A great background!
I began memorizing certain portions of Scripture several years ago, because I am convinced (my personal feeling) that, with the direction this country is headed, one day the Bible will be outlawed. Those who know it will have it; those who don't won't. The Word is to eternity what Mapquest is to earthly travel.
"The Baptism"
I began to seek the Lord earnestly from the beginning and discovered something called the baptism in the Holy Spirit. I wanted whatever God had for me, and the sooner the better!
I attended church of some kind six days out of the week. The only reason I didn't go to a Bible Study on Friday was that I couldn't find one!
On Wednesday nights I would go to an Assemblies Church in Mundelein, Illinois, where I lived at the time. One Wednesday night in May of 1980, the Pastor was speaking on the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and that's what I wanted! When he had an altar call for those who wanted to receive the Baptism, I went forward.
I was the last person in the line of people waiting for prayer. I had heard his words of instruction to all the people in line and , by the time he got to me, I could have quoted it back to him.
He began to quote scripture or something, and I just reached out and grabbed him by his lapels and said, "I know the Scriptures! Let's pray!" He was not a little disconcerted by my action; he turned a bit red and said, "It's good to have someone who is eager to receive."
He prayed, and I received! And, needless to say, I haven't been the same since! It's the only way to fly!
Don Neal
Penny's Testimony
As a child, all I wanted was to grow up, get married, and have a baby. I married at a very young age. After having given birth to a son and three years later to a daughter; I knew I had "arrived." Each night, I went to sleep thanking God for my little family. (Included in my prayer was, "if there is a God and if He could hear me...." It was my way of trying to reach out to Him.
My next-door neighbor had been witnessing to me for some time. I always had an answer for her. Anyway, she gave me a book called, "Clap Your Hands," written by a Catholic and I promised to read it, (just to make her happy.) I thought, since I was raised in the Catholic Church, this was something I could relate to. The book was a young man's testimony as to his salvation experience and how personal his relationship with God was through Jesus Christ. It all made sense to me and when it had the "sinner's prayer" at the end of the book, I prayed it at home in my living room. This was an ordinary day in March, 1976, but, God changed my life forever, never to be the same. When Jesus came into my life, it was peaceful, quiet experience. The Bible, just a short time prior to this prayer being just a book, had suddenly come alive to me. The words literally jumped off the pages and God was really real and He spoke to me through His Word. Everything seemed to tell me to be baptized. So, I asked my friend about this and she agreed that baptism was an important step.
I also read another book explaining the experience of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. I became very fearful and apprehensive. Strange things started happening around my house. The enemy was fighting me with his Number One tactic of fear - to keep me from receiving all that God had for me. My friend explained all of this and I truly knew God was real and so was Satan. I wanted the power to overcome the enemy in my life and asked Judy to pray with me to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
This prayer was also a quiet prayer. I felt really bathed in love! I remember that nature even looked more beautiful than before: trees looked greener and the sky looked bluer! The whole experience can really be compared to when I was a young child of about seven years old and put on my first pair of eyeglasses. Everything became suddenly brighter and clearer...now I was given a spiritual eyesight! I did not receive the gift of speaking in tongues immediately. Although, I prayed and prayed and praised God. One word came at first and then, just as I did my routine vacuuming, I was praising God in English and then the words flowed in tongues. God had blessed me with this special gift of praising Him in a heavenly language!
Penny Neal
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