Where should I begin, and how should I start?  You have probably read my first testimony of how God saved my soul and changed my life. But did you know that after all that  God did for me, I walked away?  Somewhere in year five of my walk with Jesus, something happened. Its been a long time so I am not sure what started my falling away.  It was most likely lack of a prayer life. My church was in REVIVAL and we just entered month three of it.  When my friends pushed me to get with this young lady from another church.  I decided to go ahead with this relationship and see where things would lead.  We dated for about a month and I was preaching along with some of the other young men of our church on a Sunday night.  My pastor called us "The Son's of Thunder",  litle did I know that soon I would fall like lightning.  the next day after we preached we headed out for Kentucky District Senior Camp 2001. 

Man I was fired up for God. I was at my all time high in my walk. But on Wednesday night, just four days  after I preached on faith, mine was tested.  I called my girlfriend and she said she had bad news, my unsaved dad had been rushed to the hospital.  I was scared to death, he had a history of heart problems and had two heart attacks already, died on the table once but was brought back.  That night I was in the dorm and I began to weep. All the brothers gathered around me, even the head dean Bro. James Williams.  They all prayed for me and my dad. I felt like   I was ok.  The next day I found out it wasn't his heart at all, but that he had diabetes.  They said at the hospital that he had one of the highest blood sugar levels they had ever seen, that they were surprised that he walked in and out instead of being taken to the morgue. That hindered me the rest of the week, I missed out on what God had for me, to strengthen me for the trials ahead of me. 

When I got home  from camp, the relationship with my girlfriend grew past where God wanted it.  I went out of His will.  Things  started getting physical. We continued in the desires and followed after the lust of the flesh.  I tried to stop and get right with God, but things went to far.  It went beyond the stages of loving touches  further and further until I had no purity any longer.  I tried everything I could thing of. Except breaking up.  I wanted my cake and to eat it too.  I thought surely we will get through this, "with God all things are possible".  But God left my relationship the first time I compromised and said in my hert that fornication is ~ok~ as long as you plan to marry.  WRONG that's not the Word of God my friends that was a lie straight from the pits of Hell and I was too far from God caught up in my own desires and lust to realize it.

Finally she came to her senses and broke off our engagement and left me without warning on May 5, 2002.  I was bitter, and began to hate my God.  In fact that day I began to curse him.  I wanted to just curse God and die like Job's wife told him to do.  Well I only got as for as cursing  Him.  I tried to slice my wrist with a P-38 (military can opener), but I barely bleed, it wouldn't cut the vain. I tried my boot knife next on my wrist and neck, but it was too dull no matter how hard I pressed with it. I tried to suffocate myself with my pillow but it was too thin and I could breath right through it.  Then I thought maybe my pellet gun could shoot through my eye and inter my brain and kill me, it wouldn't fire. I wrapped a sheet around my neck and pulled as tight as I could pull with each wrapping. I sat there without breathing for 5 to 10 minutes. The worst that came out of that was a headache. Now that I think back about things that day, I can hear the voice of the Lord saying, NO.

At this point I finally admitted to myself that yes I was backslidden, but I tried to hide it from my net friends. But I decided in my mind that my church family didn't care anymore, and I was tired of trying to be Holy on Sundays and Wednesday nights yet being hateful and rebellious every other day, so I left the house of God, and choked out His spirit.

Then next two months I lived it up.  I went back to my porn and my smoking and fornicating.  I ran from the light to sit in darkness. Sure I was having  ~fun~ but I was miserable. My life was meaningless. I had went from being a preacher to a backslider in under a years time. I lied to everyone, my pastor my friends, my parents, and even myself.  I hated what I had become. Finally I opened up my Bible and read a little bit of it. I cried remembering what I used to be, how I used to feel God
I longed for that relationship once again. you might think that two months is a short time to be backslidden, but my Lord it was the worst Hell I could imagine, and here I was mutilating  my body sinning, no conviction except wanting a relationship.

I finally came back to church a few weeks before camp. I wanted to go to camp so bad. I came to church and got a totally different responce tahn I thought. They were happy to see me.  They showed me love, and didn't throw things up at me like I thought they would.  They came over and prayed the spirit out of me. "What kinda spirit was it Trey?" probably a spirit of hate or lust, don't really know I just know its gone. But I didn't pray back through.

Monday July 8, 2002, Summersville, Kentucky, Kentucky District Senior/Teen Camp, I fell in love with Jesus all over again, I prayed through to the Holy Ghost again. I spoke with cloven tongues like as a fire. Nearly one year after I began to backslid I came back to the God of my Salvation. Bro. Harold Linder preached, "Its Your Desire that Determines Your Destiny."  That week was the beginning of a new Trey.  No longer was I Travis-Ray (my birth name meaning "at the king's  crossroad") But I took on my old nick name of Trey. My desire caused me to "cross the road" on over to be with the King. And since that week I have been more on fire for God than before I backslid.

Micah 7:8 says "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me."

The devil said I couldn't get back up, he said that the fight was over that I had lost.  But I said devil, yes the battle is over, Jesus won it for me at Calvary and you need to get your coat, get your hat, grab your luggage and don't let the door knob hit ya where the Good Lord split ya , This is My house and the Bible says in Joshua 24:15 "And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

BTW I am back in the ministry, I have been restored.  I m a leader in worship and in praise, if no one else is going to to it, I'll still do it. I will out dance David, cuz I have something that David NEVER had The Holy Ghost and fire. You know what fire I mean right?

 Jeremiah 20:9 "Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay."

Yes my God is a consuming fire that has put me through the trials and I got back up.  I no longer sit in darkness.

 Again. I leave you now with one question, do you know you need God in your life? Please, feel free to visit us at any time you need help searching for a way to get God in your life. It's the best choice you can ever make. Take it from someone who knows, God will change your life around.