Hi. My name is Gayle, and this is my shot at a testimony.

I am 50 years old, and if you don't think that didn't hurt the day that number rolled around, then you should have been in my shoes. Really, I don't feel fifty, and everyone tells me I don't look it (on a good day).

I attend Victory Chapal Church in Bakersfield, California, a Full Gospel Pentecostal church. I was raised Catholic but never had a relationship with the lord. I didn't know I could have one, and I sure didn't know you could talk to Him like a regular person and He would hear. Actually, all I ever did was say a few hail Mary's and a quick Our Father, and I was done till the next Sunday.

I was 43 when I first started to go to Victory Chapal. It's about a half a block from my home. I hadn't been attending church because at age 18 I started to have panic attacks, which eventually turned into agoraphobia, and Victory Chapal was a pentecostal church. I couldn't go there because of that reason. I had heard about THOSE kinda people, running, screaming, ,jumping, an occasional one flying through the window. Now that scared me.

But in November, 1993, the Lord started to speak to me. I didn't know it was He at the time; He had never spoken to me before. (I just thought I was some kinda nut.) Anyway, I could hear this little voice in my spirit (I didn't know I had one of those either).

Anyway, I would hear this, "Just go and try it. Just try it. Just go."

That went on for about a month,and I finally just said, "Fine, but just once."

I mean to tell ya, I was scared to death.

So, I went on a Wednesday night, and the praise and worship music was totally awesome. I mean the walls shook. It was the music that kept me coming back for awhile, but I began to notice these people raising their hands and talking funny (tongues). Their hands would shake, and some other stuff, but I figured if I stayed in the back row by the door, I could bale out if it got too weird.

After two months, I realized that I was actually raising my hands and singing my heart out. There was something going on here, and I knew what it was. It was their water. Every time I went to the church, I would walk in the door and head straight to the water fountain.

Well, I figured them out. I was gonna continue to come, but don't touch their water, and especially don't drink it!!!

So, for the next few weeks I brought my own water bottle in my purse, and when I would get thirsty, I would duck down and get me a quick drink, and who would be the wiser? God.

Well, one Sunday night my hand began to shake as I had raised it during praise and worship. I quickly shoved that puppy in my pocket. It still shook. So I sat on it, and the rest of me began to shake. I had heard about the Holy Spirit while I was going there, during Pastor Noel's sermons there, but still I was not prepared for this.

I had become friends with a few women there, and they explained what was happening to me. Basically, I just thought, "Hmmmm...we have here a few of those Fanatics I was warned about while I was growing up."

Any way, one Sunday morning I felt a little strange during praise and worship, and decided to go up and sit with my friend Sharon. Maybe this is just a different kind of a panic attack I'm feeling here, so I'll sit with someone whose aware that I have this condition and could help me in a pinch.

Well, Sharon helped me, alright. It had been a year now since I started going there, and I decided I wanted the Holy Ghost. And let me tell ya, I got it that morning, and I haven't been the same since. It was the most awesome thing I have ever experienced in my life. Before this, the first time I heard someone speak in tongues, I was glad I was far enough away from them. I thought, "Man, some nut in here is speaking incantations and that preacher's going to stop his preaching and throw him outta here." Not...

Anyway, I'm saved, filled with the Holy Ghost, with the evidence of speaking in tongues, and on my way to heaven. Praise God. He knew what he was doing all the time, and here I thought I was just a visitor, just here for the music. That's me.

I praise the Lord for revealing Himself to me. I bet He had some serious laughing going on with all the strange things I thought, and I know He has a wonderful sense of humor just by the way He showed me to go.