by Joe Walshe
My name is Joe Walshe and
I have been asked to give a ten-minute testimony about my life with the Lord. In
preparing for this I thought, "Well Lord, you've been so involved in my
life in so many ways" so I just kind of did an outline and thought I would
just touch on the highlights.
I was born in 1953, in
Denison, Texas. I was baptized at St. Patrick's there. I never lived there, it
was my mother's hometown. I have lived in Texas pretty much all my life except for
15 months that I lived in Oklahoma City. I was raised Catholic. I attended St.
Augustine School in Houston for eight years and in the eighth grade my parents
were going through a divorce. At the end of the school year, my mom took me and
my four siblings and moved us back to North Texas, where her roots were. We
moved to Irving, and that would be 1967. I was 14 and shortly after we moved to North Texas I quit going to Mass, and I quit going to Mass for the next ten
years.
While in high school the
rock music and the hippie culture had an appeal for me and I kinda went down
that path,... not kinda, but I did go down that path. In my world there were two
kinds of people; there were people like you that we called "straights,
rednecks and goat ropers" and then there were people that I hung with. We
were "hippies" or as we affectionately called each other
"freaks" because that is the term society had given us, and so we
were "freaks." In my senior year in high school, at age 17, I became
involved in the drug scene and I did so for about the next seven years. More
and more I became like the prodigal son in the parable that Jesus gave us.
What changed my
life?
What changed my life? Why
am I here today? It started in 1974 for
that little brief period of time that I was living in Oklahoma City. One night
I couldn't sleep and I needed something to read. I went across the street to a
little convenience store that had a rounder full of paperback novels. I looked
at every title and I narrowed it down to two, I don't remember what the title
was that I didn't pick, but the book that I did pick I took back to my
apartment and read it from cover to cover that night. At the end of reading
that book I got down on my knees and I prayed for the forgiveness of Jesus and
I asked him back into my life. The book that I read that night, I don't know if
many of you ever heard of it or read it, but it was called "The Late Great
Planet Earth" by Hal Lindsay. It changed my life.
I began to read the
scriptures. I didn't yet go to Church because I was maintaining ties with my
friends who were still "freaks" and still into the drug scene, but I
knew something had changed. My faith was growing. I was being bolder about my
faith and talking about the scriptures and Jesus to my friends and they thought
I had flipped out and become a "Jesus freak" and I had!
In late 1976 I just
sensed that God was calling me to a deeper relationship with him. I knew the
only way that was going to happen was if I got away from my friends. I still
love them and I still see them from time to time, but back then they were like
an anchor in my life and I knew I had to break free.
Charismatic Baptists
An opportunity came for
me to move to Stephenville, Texas. There I met, of all things, a group of
charismatic Baptists who invited me to their little church. They called it
Western Hills Baptist Church because they had helped get started by Howard Conatser
and Beverly Hills Baptist Church here in Oak Cliff. I was there every time the doors opened --
Wednesday night, Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon -- and I still looked like a
hippie in this church full of rednecks, but they loved me just the same. They discipled
me and helped me to grow in faith.
The next big event in my
life came along. They asked me, "Do you want to receive the Baptism of the
Holy Spirit?" I said, "Yeah!" I remember that night they prayed
for me and I received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. The scriptures came alive
like never before. Also my Catholic roots were awakened and I saw Catholicism
in a whole new light. I heard the Lord saying, "You know, what you have
found here, you need to return to the Catholic Church because there are people
who don't know about it and you need to share what you've experienced and
learned.”
The path to Life in
the Spirit
In 1977 I returned to the
Catholic Church. It's a good thing, too, because that's where I met Kathy at
St. John the Apostle in Fort Worth. That's another big event in my life --meeting
her and getting married and starting a family. That was in 1978. In 1980, we
moved into Good Shepherd Parish in Garland and then came the next big event. It
must have been around 1984. A couple of men from The Christian Community of God's Delight were sponsoring a Men's Prayer
Breakfast once a month on Saturday and I decided to go. That's where I met Mark
Hennes and Ralph Jones and they latched onto me big time. They loved me,
explained to me that there was more to the spiritual life than going to Sunday Mass. Mark and Barbara
Hennes invited Kathy and me to come here,to Mount St. Michael, and we started coming and our lives
have never been the same.
We started going through
the Life in the Spirit seminar. Kathy was pregnant with our daughter Rachel at the time. We didn't know
if we were going to make it all the way through Life in the Spirit because of the due date of her delivery and getting prayed for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit were pretty close, but we did. That was a
big event again, both of us being prayed over for the Baptism of the Holy
Spirit.
I think later that year,
later in 1985, we joined the Community and we became active almost from the get-go.
We were mainly active with youth activities -- Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Girl
Scouts, Junior Catholic Daughters of America, Youth Ministry -- and then later Community Life Team. But in
every one of those activities we developed relationships with friends who well,
they just weren't friends anymore, they were brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Dust of the Rabbi
leads us to Iraq
The next big event
happened in the spring of 2012. I me a friend that I had worked with for lunch
and she gave me a DVD. I probably had it for two or three months and I thought,
"You know, she is going to call me up wanting this back and she is going
to want to talk about it and I haven't looked at it." I decided one night
to look at it and it changed my life. The name of that DVD was "In the
Dust of the Rabbi." This was one of many DVD scripture studies by Ray Vander Laan. I saw the terms "disciple and discipleship"
in a whole new light. I don't know how to tell you brothers and sisters how
that affected us, It affected Kathy and me to the point that it laid the
foundation in our lives for future decisions.
Later that year when an
opportunity came to go to Iraq, we said "yes." We quit our jobs and
went to Iraq. We didn't know what was going to happen, we just knew God was
leading us. We were there for 7 seven weeks and then we came back. I still get
teary-eyed talking about that experience, I think I left part of my heart in
Ankawa, Kurdistan. But we simplified our lives. We simplified the things that we need. We
cleared out a lot of things that we owned. That was four years ago.
Holy Ghost
documentaries
As I mentioned earlier
tonight, I became a Kindergarten teacher and that was a lot of work, not just for
me, but for Kathy also because, well, she was my best aide ever. And so we had
been kind of plodding along. Then one Friday night this spring, Kathy and I
didn't have anything to do, and we were browsing Netflix and a title caught my
eye and I didn't even ask, her I just started playing it. She says, "What's
this?" I said, "Well, it's called "Holy Ghost." Let's watch
it." We watched it. It dramatically changed our lives. It's a documentary
produced by a fellow by the name of Darren Wilson. Then we discovered that this
isn't the only thing he did, that he has produced five of these documentaries
about the faith of people all over the world and how the hand of God is moving
all over the world in the lives of people who put their COMPLETE TRUST in HIM.
We watched them all in
the order that he produced them. We didn't just watch them once, we watched
them two times, three times because every time we watched them it was like the
Spirit of the Lord was in this, just grasping us and saying, "This is how
I want you to live your life.” So what is the message of these documentaries
we've been watching? It might sound a little bit like the messages here on
Sunday gatherings: “Trust God. Do not be afraid to act. Trust God; have
expectant faith. Love everyone. Trust God, Forgive everyone! Passionately, Passionately
love the person in front of you at any moment in time. Be humble. Trust God,
love God, love everyone, have expectant faith”. The people in these
documentaries have a Reckless, Raging Fury of God's Love and that's what I want
in my life.
In preparing for this
talk I was reminded of one of my heroes, Rich Mullins. He was a contemporary Christain musician/songwriter who was killed in an auto accident September, 1997. He wrote a song. I'd
sing it, but I think I'd start crying and wouldn't be able to sing it. So I am
just going to read to you the last couple of lyrics because in these
documentaries I am telling you about or sharing with you, there are a host of
people who trust in God and love God with all of their hearts. They love everyone around them in such a
way that you just say, "Okay. These are models for me. If they can do it,
I can do it!".
Here's a couple of verses
from Rich's song: "Boy Like Me, Man Like You"
You was a boy like I was once, but was you a boy
like me?
Well I grew up around Indiana, You grew up around
Galilee.
And if I ever really do grow up, Lord I want to grow
up and be just like you.
Well did you wrestle with a dog and lick his nose?
Did you play beneath the spray of a water hose?
Did you ever make angels in the winter snow?
And did they tell you stories 'bout the saints of
old?
Stories about their faith?
They say stories like that make a boy grow bold.
Stories like that make a man walk straight.
Did you ever get scared playing hide and seek?
Did you try not to cry when you scraped your knee?
Did you ever skip a rock across a quiet creek?
And did they tell you stories about the saints of
old?
Stories about their faith?
They say stories like that make a boy grow bold.
Stories like that make a man walk straight.
And I really may just grow up and be like you
someday.
Brothers and sisters I recommend that you try to view these
videos to see how people all over the world are responding to the promptings
and guidance of the Holy Spirit. I have
no doubt that you will be challenged!
Are you up for a challenge to grow deeper in your faith? The world waits for your response!
Community Gathering, August 21, 2016
Darren Wilson
Documentaries:
2007 Finger of God
2010 Furious Love
2012 Father of
Lights
2014 Holy Ghost
2015 Holy Ghost
Reborn
