Leslie Wittenmyer

Leslie's Life - His Testimony

I would have to say my testimony started with my mom. She felt an unction from the Holy Spirit to get back into church. Because of that, she got my sister and I ready and off we went. When I was seventeen, I was baptized. Eventually we stopped going to church. After college I moved to North Carolina. It wasn’t until my latter years living there that I started going back. I had felt lonely and didn’t know what to do with the situation I was in. My family was in Ohio, and I felt like I had nowhere to turn. I walked into that church and the praise band team began singing “Not Alone” by Keri Job. I immediately began to cry. The pastor’s message that day was about how no matter where you were, God was with you. I felt Him take my loneliness that day. I knew that what the pastor had preached was true. I went to church from that Sunday forward. Eventually I moved back to Ohio. I visited from church to church until I finally found my home church. From there, God has shown up in so many beautiful ways in my life.
 
The story that comes to mind that I would like to share with you is the story about the birds. I had decided to memorize scripture. I had picked Matthew 10:29-31 (NKJV), “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

It was shortly after that I had found an article about birds in the bible. It sounded boring to me, but I decided to read it anyway. It talked about the meaning of sparrow in Hebrew also meant small birds. Back in Old Testament times, people didn’t care for the small birds, they were a nuisance. But when you put it in the perspective of our Father, He cared enough about them not to let one fall to the ground apart from His will. His love for me and for you is amplified so much more than the little birds.  I had used this information to do a ladies devotional to encourage the ladies God placed in my life at the time. The next day I had gone through a break up. I didn’t understand why. I spirit of heaviness had come over me and I couldn’t even get out of bed to go to work. One of my beautiful friends came to my apartment and got me out of bed and encouraged me to go to the lake to fish (she knew how much I loved fishing). So, I did. I poured out my heart to God. I was out there fishing for over an hour and still had the same worm on my hook that I started with and had caught no fish. I was hurting and frustrated so I put my fishing pole away. I laid down over the rocks and when I looked up into the sky, two little birds flew over me. I knew in that moment that God was reminding me of His love for me and that He would take care of me.
 
A short time later I had a missed call and voicemail on my phone. When I checked the voicemail, it was from a lady at the church I hadn’t met before. This is how I KNOW that my God is real and He is alive! She wanted to meet with me because she had something for me. I met her in the parking lot of a Family Dollar. She came over to me with a quilt in a bag and explained how she was making it for a friend from out of state for her birthday. In the midst of making it God had told her to give it to Leslie. She didn’t know who Leslie was. God assured her that He would show her.  One Sunday morning, I was passing out hugs (this was before COVID-19) and I walked up to this lady and said “I’ve not given you a hug before. Let me give you a hug.”  She told me that nobody at the church had ever given her a hug as big as I had. She knew that was God showing her who Leslie was. Once she knew, she began to pray for me as she worked on this beautiful quilt. When she got to the backing God told her not to put the purple flowers on that would have went so perfectly with the quilt.  So she asked Him what He wanted on the back. He replied with “Birds.” She turned the corner of the quilt over and I saw the birds and began to cry. I had never told her about my birds or what they meant to me. I am so thankful for her obedience to the Lord. Just when you think that God has done enough to show His love for you, He takes it further than you could ever imagine! God’s love is true, it is faithful, and it will never fail you! Thank you Father, for your love that heals every part of my brokenness and gives me hope for another day!