Hi, I'm Barb from Florida. I was born into a Catholic family of multiple generations, went to Catholic schools, attended their rituals every Sunday except during my college wild days. Married in a Catholic church building according to their rituals & raised my 4 kids strictly Catholic too, even so much as all 4 of them were altar servers (old terminology was altar boys, but my oldest is a girl!) and I was the altar servers coordinator for our church. (I hate using "church" to describe their pagan temples, but I do so in the common, deceived sense). I also used to teach infant baptism classes, held Catholic marriage meeting groups in our home, went on several Catholic retreats, etc. I was in pretty deep.
In 2012 the company I worked for was sold & I lost my job. In my sudden free time during my 3 year unemployment I began chasing down truth through many conspiracy rabbit holes, including the Mayan calendar end of the world deception. (Hey, I was lost and I had to keep seeking til I accepted or turned around at a dead end!) So my mid-life crisis, my curiosity for seeking truth thru unraveling conspiracies, plus the end of the world made me realize I'd better find out who the real God is & what he wants if we were all going to meet him at the end of the calendar 2012!
My unemployment and my curiosity were worked out in countless hours on the internet. (Thank you, Lord, for providing this medium for me to seek you out!) I found a midwest preacher online who taught me about the true word of God in English (AKJV) and a wonderful word search software to use for study. Not being able to get enough of God's words by reading them on paper (I hate to read) I took the lazy man's route and bought the audio version on CDs read by Alexander Scourby. I played them in the car whenever I took the kids anywhere (mom's taxi) and on one drive by myself to North Carolina, I listened for 14 straight hours. What I learned was so astounding to me (as a Catholic we had zero bible reading, except one or 2 repetitive paragraphs during weekly rituals) that I couldn't get enough. When I finally did get a full-time job and commuted an hour each direction 5 days a week, I'd listen to the entire bible end to end multiple times over the next 8 years. I still keep the disc in the car player and it comes on whenever I turn on the key, wherever he left off. I also listen to a book each night as I go to sleep.
There was absolutely no way to remain a Catholic after I heard the Truth and saw how diabolical the Catholic cult is. I was saved somewhere in 2012 listening to the Prophets (probably Jeremiah or Isaiah, since they still show the terror of the Lord to me as I hear them today!)
Back in 1986, I had married a man outside my race against my parents' and family's advice/warnings/threats. I thought I knew what I was doing and I was going to prove them all wrong. I wore the pants in the family, not knowing a woman's place according to God's will. I worked and provided for the family. I did major home repair & maintenance myself, I took care of running the household. But I resented my husband's non-participation and in truth, I never really liked kids and certainly didn't want to be saddled with being the 24/7 mother to raise them, feeling so alone in the marriage. As time passed, my husband did less & less. I did more & more, and burned out. I regressed into my college habits of drinking and smoking pot as a way to escape the responsibilities of motherhood & the life I had created for myself. Of course time kept marching on and I was growing more distant from the kids, and they were learning my husband's ways of being unhelpful non-participators. Our family deteriorated and I had failed them as a devoted mother. When I heard God's wrath being poured out in prophesy, I knew I was in trouble eternally!
Jesus saved me & forgave me but I had created a mess. I stayed at the house which was growing in violence and spiritual oppression the more I listened to scripture & the more sermons I played in the dining room computer speakers. The spirits which had set up roost within that house (mostly through their incessant video games & television) were growing more aggressive toward me the more I learned and grew in biblical knowledge and spiritual understanding. I tried finding a KJB church but the few I found and tried all taught some heresy or another, (not to mention the trap of all being 501c3's!) from which God protected me because I was in his word. I had started to take weekend trips in a homemade camper I built to Bluegrass festivals where I found some temporary relief for my numerous regrets.
After 3 years of temporary escapes, the music and bands were also proving to be too worldly. So I started just going camping in my homemade Cottage Camper by myself. My husband and family didn't mind at all during this time, because if I was gone for the weekend, they wouldn't have to hear preaching coming from the speakers. And the hatred for me was getting "tangible" anyway. Once the kids were all "of age" and it was obvious that none of them wanted to get saved, and it had become common knowledge in the family that my husband chose pornography over me habitually, it became apparent to all that I was not welcome in my own home, indeed, I was driven out. I took my little Cottage Camper to my favorite campground and began to commute to work from there. Over the next 2 years I built myself an 8x 20ft Tiny House on wheels where I currently live with my 6 dogs. I constantly feel the Spirit stirring me to witness to the lost, and indeed, I sometimes feel accounted as sheep for the slaughter because there are so few who will hear.
My 89 year old mother is still a die-hard Catholic and refuses my (constant) attempts to slide in scripture verses into our daily conversations. My 3 grown siblings and their spouses are all either die-hard Catholics or have turned away from religion all together. (so have I, by strict definition, but that's not the common use of the term). None of them will bend an ear. My whole life is foolishness to them. (Praise God!)
So currently I listen to a few preachers, but one thing I know for sure is true:
Let God be true but every man a liar. I have not heard one person who preaches/believes all that is in that Word, no, not one. Sooooo many false doctrines! I can't be emphatic enough: Listen to scripture! Listen to scripture! Listen to scripture! PLEASE LISTEN TO SCRIPTURE !!!!
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God!!!
To spread the truth to those I encounter feels like an orchard groundskeeper in an autumn windstorm without a rake ... picking up one leaf at a time, putting them into a bag with holes.