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| Kathy and John Wagner |
I
was born in Watertown, NY and lived in the little hamlet of
Harrisville, NY (about 40 miles NE of Watertown). When I was 5 years
old my parents died as the result of a car accident. My sister and I
moved to a dairy farm in Kingsport, TN, to live with our mother's
sister and family. How the Lord prepared me for this is another
whole story. I started calling my aunt & uncle “new” mom and
dad and my birth parents were “old” mom and dad. Very shortly
the new and old were left off and it was Mom and Dad, and my
birthmother & birthfather.
While
sitting in Sunday School about a year after moving here, my teacher
shared the plan of salvation with us. She asked if any needed to ask
the Lord to be their Savior. I realized I was a sinner but I was
scared to raise my hand and sat there waiting...on what I do not
know. Finally my teacher said that we didn't have to pray that
prayer there in church, we could pray it at our own homes. Sitting
at home that afternoon, I asked the Lord to be my Savior.
Every
morning, Daddy would come up from the milking parlor and read
Scripture and pray with us before we left for school. When Mother
would let us off at the school, she would remind us she loved us and
then the very last words she would say were, “Remember to Whom you
belong.”
I
attended Bancroft Bible Camp for at least one week every summer.
When I was 13 and able to attend Youth Week, I met this 15 year old
named John Wagner.
After
graduating from high school, I attended Bryan College (named for
William Jennings Bryan) in Dayton, TN. From there I earned my
Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education. I taught for a few
years at a Christian school here in Kingsport and then worked for an
office furniture company. While working at this office furniture
company, John and I began to think of each other as more than
friends.
John
has been a member of ISBC since the early 1990s. So when we married
in 1998, I moved my membership to ISBC. The church in which I grew
up was a very small church and had an all girl youth group. It was
very exciting (and still is) to see both teenaged boys and girls
actively participating in the church.
Since
coming to ISBC, I have had the privilege of teaching children's Bible
study classes, serving in AWANAS, working in the nursery, playing in
the orchestra and being one of the children's leaders for the summer
Precept studies. It is so very exciting to see children's eyes
opened when they realize they can study God's Word for themselves!
One
of my favorite passages of Scripture is Psalm 121. “I will lift up
mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh
from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy
foot to be moved: He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, He
that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy
keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall
not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall
preserve thee from all evil: He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord
shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth
and even for evermore.” (KJV)
Submitted by Kathy Neal
Communications Coordinator
