Hope Beach

“The way I became an Adventist was when I was dating my now ex-husband. We were just out of high school, and on one of our first dates he took me to his church because he was working with the AV equipment for a revelation seminar. So, that was my first introduction to the Bible and to a church that reads the Bible. And the funny thing was, when he finished working on the equipment, he came to sit down with me, leaned over and said, ‘Don't break up with me because of this.’

At first, I went to the seminar because I wanted to spend time with him, but then I was really interested in what they were saying. I couldn't believe what I was hearing; it was total opposite of what I had already learned in the Catholic Church. During the seminar I was given a Bible, and that was the first time I had a Bible of my own. I still have it today, 35 years later.

His grandmother taught me everything I know about how to read the Bible. In my house we had a huge Bible that sat on a stand. It was open, but we never read it. It was just more like a decoration. So, she literally taught me how to read the Bible, how to open it up, how to look things up. It was just so refreshing to me to learn about God and learn all this stuff that I had been missing out on.

Since coming into the faith, I think my life has been more full. I was kind of empty before, but I didn’t know what I was empty from until I started to get to know God. You know, I've been divorced six years now and it was a hard thing to go through when you've been married for 29 years. But God led me to not just become an Adventist, but to become somebody that believes in Him and follows Him so that I was prepared to go into this time in my life. I'm thankful that He placed me exactly where I needed to be.”

- Hope Beach, from Franklin SDA Church in Franklin, TN.