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My Personal Testimony
I was not raised in church. I can remember visiting the Baptist Church occasionally while growing up, but I hated
the inconvenience of having to get up on the weekend! As it worked out, my parents got offended by something trivial
and quit going altogether. Of course, I didn't shed any tears over that! However, i was in a very loving and good
family, just not in church.
I began playing drums at an early age with my neighbor, who played guitar. We practiced together and "cut our
teeth" in the music world. Later, I began to perform in rock bands at any location that would have us. I worked
department store promotions, battle of the bands, later moving into one night stands at fraternity and sorority parties.
 My aspirations
were to be a famous drummer travelling full time and I thought I was well on my way. I auditioned and was selected for
a show band out of Columbus, Ohio. We traveled the country and played mostly state fairs and conventions. I forfeited
my college education for this lifestyle.
My next move was to form a similar band of my own. We traveled, playing mostly night clubs, supper clubs, hotels and
motels throughout the US. Although I looked as though I drank and used drugs, I never did due to the fact that I
saw so much drunken atrocities in the clubs I worked. I declared I would never bog down with such garbage.
 My focus was
on making money in show business and I had no time for anything that would impair my thinking or possibly destroy
my plans. It was now a business, not just for fun.
As time progressed, I was offered a management position with a small theme park in Benton, Kentucky. The
park owner's wife was a born again, Spirit filled Christian. During my years out of church, I became very callous
to the Gospel. I can remember people witnessing to me with tracts and I was so mean, I would tear them up in front
of them and throw the remains on the ground. (Little did I know that the Lord would evantually lead me into a tract
ministry where I would meet my "old self" many times over. Praise the Lord!). It was my opinion that those who went
to church did so as a "crutch". In other words, I felt they were not "real" men or women, but
emotionally crippled and needed religion or God as something to lean on. I believed that there was no God. Yes, I
had slid so far that I openly confessed Atheism! No heaven, no hell; when a person died, they just went back to
the earth, nothing more, nothing less. Thank God for His mercy!
Nevertheless, it was here at the theme park that I began to seek the Lord. The park owner's wife, Jan Sill was witnessing to me
and I was watching her life.  I could argue with religion, but i could not argue with a changed life. Her life exemplified Jesus
so much that I knew what she found was real!
Because of my life's ups and downs, I began experiencing severe attacks of fear and anxiety. It was getting very bad. I found myself afraid I would get sick,
or someone would break in at night. I slept with a loaded snub-nosed 38 special under my pillow every evening. I carried a shaving kit
bag full of medicine everywhere I went in case I got sick. What a life!
Jan and Walter moved to California and left me with the park. I began attending a singles Bible class at a
Baptist church in Paducah, Kentucky, still unsaved. I had not yet accepted the Lord into my life, but I was close. The
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Copyright © 2007-2008
Faith International Christian Center
2001 9TH STREET WEST,
Bradenton, FL 34205
www.ficcwordchurch.org
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group was challenged to read "The taste of New Wine" by Keith Miller in order to discuss it at the meetings.
Now, the Lord was in this without my knowledge. You must understand that I hated to read! Throughout school
I did my book reports from cliffs notes or classic comics. I had never read a book cover to cover, yet, in my mobile
home on the park grounds one evening, I began to read this book. I could not put it down! I read it in its entirety
on that evening.
In this book, I was challenged to pray this prayer: "Lord, if you are real, help me to want to want to
know you..." I figured I could do that, so I slid off my bed, knelt down and prayed that prayer. Little did I
know what the Lord would do with my meager effort to find Him!
This was the beginning! Soon thereafter, I felt within myself that I had been born again. The Lord impressed
on me to find the book "How to be born Again" by Billy Graham so I would understand what happened.
Please understand that I knew nothing of Billy Graham, nor did I know that there was a book out there
with this title! It took me some effort to find this book. I had to go to a bookstore on a college campus in the
neighboring town called Murray, Kentucky. I found it, read it, and understood my salvation by his simple explanation
of the Scriptures.
Daily, I became more hungry for the Word of God. I could not get enough. Every time a church door was open, I was
in it. I just wanted to know more about my Savior Jesus.
My hunger led me to the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, where I was immersed in the Power of God.
Again, the Lord used my dear friends Walt and Jan. I was visiting with them when Jan and I went to
a Charismatic prayer meeting in someone's home in the San Bernardino Mountains. They prayed over
me for the Holy Spirit baptism. I can remember thinking in the midst of the prayer that I wished
they would hurry and take their hands off of me. Not being ugly or rude, but they wanted me to
speak in tongues, and they were determined. Although I did not speak in tongues at that moment, I
did receive what I was after… an anointing like I had never had before, the mighty Holy Spirit!
As Jan and I walked home, this sentence came to me: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words will never
pass away." Jan told me that it was a prophecy after receiving the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah! Confirmation of my
baptism! I remembered that in Acts, when they received the Holy Ghost, they spoke with tongues and
prophesied! It wasn't long after that experience that I received the gift of tongues. I soon
felt the call of God to preach.
Since I obeyed God's call to evangelism, He has taken me to Africa, Central America, Mexico,
India, Pakistan and the Caribbean to preach and teach His Word. My burden is for the third
world countries and the suffering church. It is my desire to teach the Word of faith to hungry
hearts and break down the walls of religion that have bound people through deception for ages.
The Lord has given me an international prison ministry where He enables me to reach the
incarcerated here in Florida, as well as the other countries He takes me to.
I operate by faith. The Lord speaks to my heart as to where I am to go; I take Him at His
Word, act upon it and go. He has never failed me. Where He guides, He provides.
Pastor Chuck Kennedy
PO BOX 14931
BRADENTON, FL 34280
Phone Number: 941-447-4538
Also visit my other web site:
www.sundaysermons.ficcwordchurch.org
Follow me on:
Pastor Chuck's facebook.
FICC's facebook
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