Faith Bible Church

God blessed me with parents that loved the Lord, so from the time I was very small I heard about Jesus and His love for me. I accepted Jesus at the age of about 6 or 7 when my mother led me and my younger sister to believe in Him and His death for our sins. There was so much my young heart did not understand, but God was faithful to continue to teach me as I grew up. We faithfully attended a Bible believing church in St. Louis, Missouri and I am so thankful it was a church that stressed memorizing Bible verses, because I still have those verses, memorized as a child, in my heart.

I was a very shy child and very quiet about my faith in Jesus. I can still remember the guilt I felt for not sharing the love of Jesus with classmates all the way through high school. A real growing time in the Lord for me was while I was in high school, especially during my senior year. It was then that I had my first date with Don.  He took me to a Youth for Christ meeting which was a local group committed to reaching young people with the gospel message. We attended Youth for Christ meetings in St. Louis every Saturday night. Don was a returning GI from World War II and was attending college in St. Louis and the church I attended. Don was a young man that loved the Lord and had committed to change his direction in life- to one of full time service to the Lord. As we got to know each other we grew in our relationship and together, in a commitment to the Lord.

We married in June 1950 and I joined Don at Dallas Seminary in Texas. This was also a growing time in learning how to trust the Lord completely as I was finishing college and funds were very limited. We again saw how God was so faithful in meeting our needs as we trusted Him. After seminary, we ministered to high school and college kids in the 1960s at Sky Ranch, a true camping experience. It was a time when I could share the love of Jesus with so many in the troubling times of the 1960s. The love and commitment in our marriage was also such a witness and example of what God planned marriage to be. We found camping was a time of trusting God completely to meet every need financially and again He proved Himself so faithful.

Skipping many years to the present, how thankful I am for Faith Bible Church! For my personal growth, the Ladies Bible Study has been such a blessing. We, a group of ladies, have together searched God’s Word and learned what God desires in our walk as His children. Our group has loved each other and been bonded together through the study of God’s Word, through encouragement in the good times, and through challenging one another to keep trusting God when life gets tough. It was also the love expressed from our church body that sustained me through the hardest time in my life-the home going of my precious husband. I am so thankful for God’s blessings in our lives as Don and I had a deep love for the Lord, a love for each other and got to serve Him together. I can only give Him all the glory.

"Living to Make Him Known in DeSoto, Texas" - Fonnie Read