DEBBI BRYSON V1057
Testimony 38min
Debbi’s husband plants churches in Russia. Once a year she takes a team of women from the USA to run conferences in Russia. She thinks it’s important to have fun together.
She says testimony is important. Draw three circles - in them write your life and circumstances before coming to Christ; the factors and influences that brought you to Christ; your life since coming to Christ.
Revelation - the accusations of the Devil are overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the testimony.
Debbi loves to collect testimonies, to hear people’s stories.
Debbi grew up in a home where they believed in God and went to church occasionally. The church services were Liturgical, not very helpful for developing a relationship with God.
Lived in Missouri - huge tornado hit the city - tearing down the church her family went to and many other buildings. As a result, her family went to a Baptist church which she liked better. She was given a Bible with a zip; she carried it to church but never undid the zip to read it.
Stopped going to church in her teens.
First year at University 1968, took a class “Philosophy of World Religion.” When the professor held up a Bible, Debbi meekly put up her hand to say she believed it but the professor said his goal was that by the end of the course no-one would believe the Bible.
Religion, he said, was all about you; fulfilling yourself - which agreed with the way Debbi was thinking.
She bought all the books he recommended (mainly on Eastern religion) and tried to read them. She found them boring but got a high grade.
At the end of the course, she quit her job and studies, withdrew her money from the bank and went down to the jungles of Mexico on a search for purpose and meaning. After three months, she decided there were no answers there so went back to the USA and kept travelling. These were the two darkest years of her life.
Went back to Mexico and travelled to an island with friends.
Creation - birds and fish - started to make an impact. Watching sunset one evening she fell on her knees on the beach and said, “God, I can see you are real and I don’t know you.”
A few days later she went back to the USA to a wedding where a Christian girl offered her a tract and said “You’re looking for Jesus.”
The following month was a terrible time. She realized she had to change; but had no power to change. She kept thinking of the comment “you’re looking for Jesus.”
Eventually she went into a Christian coffee shop - after several visits, someone asked if she wanted to accept Christ. She tried to say “no” but felt compelled to say “yes.” Now she felt free and sensed the presence of God.
She became aware of God guiding her and the joy of responding. A little later she moved into a house run by Christians then joined a group visiting a Bible study in another city. There she met, George Bryson, the man she later married.
George visited the Christian house where she was living. When he saw her struggling to understand her concordance, he offered to help. They married a few months later.
George was pastoring in these Christian houses. Many teenagers were travelling the country - they would pick them up off the street in their van and take them home for a meal. Known now as the “Jesus People Revival.”
Her formula for revival is: revival is sparked by repentance in the people of God who are prepared to clean their own house (lives made clean by the blood of Christ) and fanned into a flame by the Holy Spirit.
This was the Vietnam era - George filed papers as a Conscientious Objector but willing to work in the community. Debbi was pregnant and the Judge sent George to jail - where he witnessed for Christ. Debbi, only 21 years old, went home alone to the house where they were looking after 30 teenagers. On the way home, God gave her a strong sense that all was well.
God supplied everything she needed for her new baby. George was shifted to a minimum security jail in another state where the Chaplain gave him free access to his library. In the time he was there (nearly 6 months) he became an expert in creation, apologetics and the cults.
Debbi is convinced God is bigger than the worst that can happen to us.
Now when she meets people she looks for hints of what she used to be - cool and self-assured on the outside by crying out for meaning and purpose on the inside.
