"And he reported to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, and saying, 'Send to Joppa, and have Simon, who is also called Peter, brought here; and he shall speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household.'" Acts11:13-14



I sat there in my high school auditorium a little puzzled. I was a senior, but I had never met people like these. They did skits and sang and shared about how their lives had been changed by Jesus Christ, but it wasn't just that. They seemed so real, so different. Something really attracted me, but I couldn't figure out just what it was. I thought, “they are an odd piece.”

So, I started showing up for their Bible study at lunch time and again after school. Those Bible studies were held at the Strickland's house, right across the street from the High School. There were several people on the team, but Harold and Grace are the ones I remember most. Harold led the team and Grace, who was from New Zealand, spent a lot of time talking with me. One of the girls on the team had a guitar and they would sing a lot.

They were there for about two weeks and while they were I soaked up everything I could from them and I even remember praying. I was at the Strickland's all the time - every spare minute, but the day came for them to leave and I still hadn't surrendered my life to Christ.

Fortunately for me, just because they left didn't mean that God stopped dealing with me. I kept going over to the Strickland's. Now that I knew they were real Christians I was drawn to them too. Grace kept writing to me. She wrote to me often, for more than a year.

Not long after the team left I decided I wanted to be a Christian too. I had watched the lives of the team and I knew they didn't smoke or drink or party, so I just decided to reform myself. When I failed at that and slipped back into the rut of my old habits guilt hung over me stronger than ever. I didn't go to the Bible studies any more and I avoided running into Donny Strickland in the halls at school. I was just sure he would ask me where I'd been. No matter what I did, though, God wouldn't leave me alone.

I did go back to the Strickland's for a Bible study right before my senior trip. Nello and Dorothy were such sweet, hospitable people. Their son, Donny, was a great Christian too. I remember that evening someone prayed that if there was any drinking on this senior trip that everyone who did would get so sick that they would never want to drink again. I thought that was an odd thing to pray. I knew there would be a lot of partying on that trip.

Sure enough, I got sick as a dog. And not just me, but other people did too. Right in the middle of it I remembered that prayer and it only served to reinforce the conviction that I was feeling.

About a year after the team had come, the Holy Spirit's hand on me grew so heavy that I couldn't take it any more. I kept telling my boyfriend David, "Something's got to happen in my life. God has got to do something in my life." Well, he wasn't a Christian and he didn't know what I was talking about.

We'd be watching TV and I would just start crying; or on our way to a dance and the words to one of the Agape Force song's would start running through my head.

"I must have Jesus in my whole life. I must have Jesus in my life. In my walking. In my talking. In my sleeping. In my waking. I must have Him in my life."

I would hear church bells all over town that I had never noticed before. I was under heavy, heavy conviction for almost a year.

Finally, broken and weeping, I went to my parent's. They knew that something was definitely up. I was not the emotional, extroverted type. Even though they were not Christians, they believed that I was really seeking after God.

Through the Strickland's they arranged for me to be able to go through six weeks of Agape Force training in Lindale. But they wanted to check this place out so they drove me there themselves.

When we got there they really liked what they saw. They liked the grounds. They liked the people too, but they were determined to keep an eye on me, as well as this group, and so they came up every weekend. They would stay all day Saturday, get a hotel room for the night and then go to the Sunday morning Church services that were held on the ranch every week.

As for me, I was wonderfully converted my third day at the school. That afternoon I went out under a tree and cried out to God, "God, this is hard for me, but I'm gonna do it. I don't understand You. I don't know why you're making me hurt."

Then God spoke to me so clearly, so sweetly, that I could hear the emotion in his voice. It was as if I could hear His voice breaking. "Mary, I would never hurt you," He said. "All I want is what's best for you."
So I gave my life to God under that tree. The next thing I did was call my boyfriend, David, and broke up with him. "I've fallen in love with God," I told him. "I'm getting to know Him, someone I've never known before. I just can't give Him up." David was devastated, but I prayed that he would come to understand and come to know the Lord himself. I didn't have long to wait.

Then it was as if a chain reaction started in my family. My mother got saved at one of the Sunday services at the ranch in Lindale. The week after that my father went to a Full Gospel Business Men's meeting with Nello Strickland and got saved. When I came home after my six weeks training and was praying about whether to go back for another six weeks, God opened the door for me to share with my brother, Joe. "What's all this God stuff," he asked when he saw me. I was disappointed because, although he listened and asked a lot of questions, he wasn't that receptive. Later, as planned, he went out on the town with his friends.

None of us knew how heavily Joe was involved in drugs. That night, after I talked to him, it was as if the devil was trying to destroy him. Every kind of drug you could imagine was offered to him. The next morning he woke up at a nearby lake. "Where am I, and how did I get here," he asked frantically. That experience really scared him. That night he went to a Full Gospel meeting with my Dad. During that meeting Joe started crying. He cried and cried for hours. He gave his heart to Jesus that night.

The next night was Sunday. David's turn. Newly saved and off to another meeting, my Dad invited David to go. At first he refused, but then changed his mind. He surrendered to God that night and soon was making plans to quit his good paying job and attend DTI himself. Everyone thought he had flipped.

So when I returned to DTI for my second six weeks of training, David, came for his first. My parents still came every weekend and now they were bringing all the rest of our large, extended, Hispanic family. Manuel led my Grandmother to the Lord. Then another of my brothers, several uncles and an aunt got saved. After a while I didn't even know the full impact off all the people who had gotten saved.

When I finally moved back home I started counting. At the very least 75 to 100 people had come to the Lord as a direct result of my conversion and, of course, before that, the Agape Force outreach team. Several are working full time in the ministry. Some have gone to Mexico to work for the Lord. One of my aunt's, who got saved during this time, has 13 kids. 10 of them are serving God and some preparing for the ministry.

My Mom and Dad have reached so many. My brother, Joe, joined the Agape Force as well and God used him mightily both here in the U.S. and in Mexico.

At first, when Dad brought Mom up to visit every week, he said he just wanted to make sure I was all right. We're such a close knit, family that when something happens to one of us, everybody takes notice. But God certainly knew what He was doing.

And my family wasn't the only one effected. David's family thought he was a little crazy when he left for Agape Force so they came up sometimes to see him on weekends too. They came up to check us out and ended up getting saved. David's brother, Robert, had a radical conversion.

I'm really thankful to God for the obedience of that first Agape Force team. They left thinking they had accomplished little, but so many people's lives have changed because of their witness that they have probably literally changed history. I know they have changed my history. Before they came I had never met a real, committed Christian. Because they came I became one.

Mary Holleman