The Testimony of Glenn & Karen Griffin

I was born into the world (physical birth) on January 22, 1957. I was the 12th child of 16 in the family of John and Mary Griffin of Westbank, BC, Canada. I was born again (spiritual birth) April 25, 1970 and was baptized August 1, 1971 in Okanagan Lake. I was married to Karen J. Fertile on August 4th 1979 and was restored to the Lord in October of 1979 at the time of the death of my father. Karen was saved in October of 1979 at the end of a week of Gospel Meetings.

My parents were Christians so we were brought up with a reverence for God. From a child I was taught the Holy Scriptures and attended all the meetings on a regular basis at the Highway Gospel Hall. I learned from my father that sin must and will be punished. Rebellion and disobedience to my parents and thus to God brought immediate punishment. My parents loved us and gave us the best that love could give, the Word of God and the knowledge of God. Each night after supper the Bible was read and we knelt down to pray and Dad prayed for the salvation of each one of his children and thanked God for each one that was saved.

God’s salvation changes lives and eternal destiny!

In our rebellion some of my brothers and I purchased and installed a television out in the garage against our parent’s wishes. The Sunday afternoon of April 25, 1970 I was out in the garage watching television by myself. On the show there was a lady singing a song where the words were “If you pray to God, He’ll do wonders for you”. God used that little phrase to speak to me about my salvation and to bring it to a full focus. I knew I was a sinner before God and needed to be saved. I shut the television off and walked to the door. Wanting to be right with God and to know my sins forgiven I knelt down right then and there and acknowledged my sin to God. It was at that moment that God revealed to me the purpose why the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God had died on the cross. It was to pay for my sins personally and I received Him for my own Saviour. There was no vision, no voice, no lights, just a peace upon believing giving God credit for what He says in John 3: 16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

I was baptized in Okanagan Lake the following year in August but I did not live out my baptism in reality that I was dead to the world and walking in newness of life with Jesus Christ as Lord. After a time I quit reading my Bible. My friends were becoming more important to me than God and the peer pressure was winning. I got a job working at a gas station after school and soon had a car and some spending money. I stopped attending all meetings at the Highway Gospel Hall, and focused on sports, parties and riotous living with no time for God. I met Karen on New Years Eve 1977 and we were married on August 4th, 1979. Already in June of that year we had quit drinking and smoking as we began to see the pitfalls and the snares and the terrible damage drink had done to others and was now doing to us.

In October of 1979 it became apparent that Dad had a heart condition and was in the Kelowna hospital waiting for a transfer to the Vancouver General Hospital for open heart surgery. The next day he went to Vancouver for a triple heart by-pass. He died a few hours after he came through the operation of another massive heart attack. God spoke to me very loudly by the nearness and reality of death. Sin had hardened me and I would not weep but God was graciously speaking to me and the truth of scripture became real in my life.

Ecclesiastes 7:2 “It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.”

The reality of death was being laid upon my heart by my gracious Father in heaven. The funeral service was held in the old Highway Gospel Hall. Mr Alex Stewart and Mr John Abernethy conducted the funeral service. During the service, God was again speaking to me and I said within my heart, “I will serve God”.

There was a week of Gospel meetings that followed with Mr Alex Wilson and Mr John Abernethy when the reality of my salvation was confirmed to me by God, through His Word and the preaching of the Gospel by these men. Karen was saved during the Bible reading the following Sunday convicted by Romans 8:9 “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” She realized that though she had searched for God through religion in her younger years she was not saved. She received the peace of God that she had been searching for upon believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as her Lord and Saviour. I look back on those meetings and give thanks to God for saving Karen and for speaking to me so personally, powerfully and plainly.

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” John 3:36