Diana (DeeDee) Lindsay

I was raised in a family in which only my mother would attend church.  She was a mom who found her true happiness in Christ not others.  We hardly ever missed attending church.  I learned a lot from watching her grow in faith as her life wasn’t an easy one.  In junior high I publicly showed my faith as Jesus my Savior when I was baptized at the United Church of Christ in Arlington, Iowa.  That was just the beginning of my life with Jesus.

Leon Lindsay

I was raised in a Christian home by saved parents.  I don’t remember ever not knowing about Jesus.  I understood and accepted Jesus as my Savior at an early age.  I publicly professed Jesus as my Savior when I was eleven and followed His command to be baptized at that time.  I have grown closer to Christ during my adult life and I know I am His.

Richard Bakken

When I was eleven years old, the Appletons had a crusade in the old National Guard Armory when it was located in downtown Owatonna.  I went to the front after the service and asked Jesus into my heart.  As a teenager growing up I struggled to live a Godly life.  The prayers of my mother never let me stray very far from God.  As a young man my prayer was that God would give me a Godly wife.  God answered that prayer and gave me Mary.  How very blessed I am, we have a most blessed and happy home.

If you are looking for people who are perfect to become members, please pass me by.  My prayer is that I might become more like Him, and that He will use me to help the hurting and lonely, and those who are struggling in their walk with God.

We have been attending Bethel Church for eleven years and I want to say thank you to Bethel for the spiritual healing and freedom to worship Christ we have found here.  May God’s blessing be on Bethel and may we be unified as a body and have as our goal to reach the lost and build each other up in the Lord.  I Corinthians 12:12-31.

God Bless,

Richard Bakken

Sue Bergsieker

“Jesus knows me, this I love.”  It’s been a long journey, and the best is yet to come.  Since coming to know Him as my Savior during my junior high years, I’ve been in this wonderful relationship where He allows me to be who I am, and that is so freeing.  Through all the mistakes of my past, He loves me.  Through all the times I’ve wandered, and fought Him, and put myself first, He treasures me.  Through all the heartache I’ve caused, and in my humanness, He sees value in His creature.  I cannot express my gratitude.  I do not understand His grace, but I embrace it.  I am thankful for His mercy, which humbles me.  I praise His holiness!

I am thankful for Bethel church and the people here who have helped me grow in Christ.  What an awesome place to worship a holy God!  Each Sunday, I believe I experience a tiny taste of what heaven must be like – the fellowship of believers, the worship music, the message from His Word, and the joy.

I look forward to this continuing journey, with friends, family, and other believers where we can challenge one another to walk with Jesus and get to know Him better day by day.

Robin Scurlock

At a very young age of 17, I decided to join New Hope M.B. Church of Chicago, Illinois.  I joined the choir, did Bible study and then I decided to turn my life over to God on April 29, 1979.  I wanted to live for the Lord without sin.  I got a new clean soul and lived my life for Jesus Christ from then on.

Russell Scurlock

I, Russell Scurlock, came to know Jesus Christ our Savior at a young age.  God is real and I trust in Him every day.  He has brought me through a lot of things in my life.  God knows my heart.

Jeff Bruessel

... I had my moment when I was 21, about to graduate from college and facing the next part of my life without any answers to the questions that really matter.  These questions were ones I really didn’t want to admit I had, but this was my moment and I asked God the questions.  He had conveniently made sure that the Bible I received in second grade VBS was under my bed.  I opened it up and it fell to Psalm 139.  As I read that Psalm and in that moment, Jesus Christ became my Savior.  No preacher, no alter call, no friend witnessing.  It was the power of the Word of God that transformed my soul and it was the beginning of my life.

Carla Bruessel

Growing up in a traditional church, I knew of God and heard many Bible stories.  His Word was planted in my heart through VBS and Sunday School teachers.  But it was when I was sixteen years old, that I was faced with a decision.  Hearing for the first time that God loved me just as I was and that He desired to have a personal relationship with me, my unworthiness was so apparent.  All the yuck in my life made me feel so far away from God.  The pastor continued to say that my sin was separating me from our Holy God and that His son Jesus had given His life as a sacrifice, covering my sin so that I could be reconciled to God.  That night I asked Jesus to be Lord of my life.  Many changes began, first in my heart and then in and through my life.

Over the years, my faith journey has had some amazing high points as I’ve experienced joy and sweet communion with the Lord as well as some very low points when I knew His loving hands were all that were carrying me to walk on another day.  He continues to redeem, restore and garden my soul.  I am so thankful that He calls me His child and that nothing can ever separate me from His love.

Romans 8:38 says – “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”