Eldon Kibbey -- Personal Testimony

Personal Testimony

Eldon E. Kibbey

I was born in Missouri, and grew up in a stable, middle-class home. My father was a tax collector for the state of Missouri, and my older sister and I had all our needs met, if not our wants and desires. School was not all that tough, and I graduated with a degree in Metallurgical Engineering with Nuclear Option from the University of Missouri - Rolla. I went to work in the aerospace industry at McDonnell-Douglas Corporation in St. Louis, Missouri, married my college sweetheart, and was prepared to pursue the American dream.

This was the Viet Nam war era, and I was called into the service. I ended up at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, in the United States Air Force Materials Laboratory, where I performed research on high-temperature materials for use in jet engines.

My wife walked out on me about 6 months into my Air Force career, and I was thrown into a sea of disillusionment and despair. I dealt with that in my usual manner -- I got depressed! I went to the pastor of my church and shared my problems with him, and through several counseling sessions began to make some progress. About 6 months later I began to wonder who was counseling whom, when the pastor divorced his wife, and left the ministry!

I wandered through 18 months of purposelessness, seeking meaning in life, when, one Monday morning, I received a phone call in my office. The caller said, "This is Lt. Col. Nimrod McNair. I met a friend of yours at church, and I wanted to invite you to a luncheon at the Officers' Club." He explained that this was a group of Christian officers and civilians that met on a weekly basis to hear a speaker.

I found a group of about 20 men, officers and civilians, which I felt were my kind of men. They were interested in spiritual things and seemed to know a lot about the Bible. The more time I spent there, the more I began to realize that, although they were "my kind of men," I wasn't exactly their kind of man; whereas I talked about having MET Jesus Christ, these men talked about KNOWING Him. My experience growing up in the church was that we talked ABOUT Jesus Christ, and we talked ABOUT the Bible; we were always posing the great questions of the day -- race, religion, politics. These men talked about finding ANSWERS, and those answers were in the Bible, which they called The Word of God, and in Jesus Christ. And it was answers that I had been seeking for 18 months

About six months later, I was invited to another meeting -- different group, different setting, same kind of people -- and one of the speakers said, "I want to share with you 'Five Steps to a Victorious Life in Jesus Christ.'" I didn't know what he was talking about, but I knew there was nothing in my life that I could characterize as being "victorious" so I purposed to take those principles with me.

The speaker said that the way to "Get honest with yourself," was to "write a letter to God." He said to get out some paper and a pen, and write, "Dear God, these are the things that bug me about my relationship with You...," and then just write those things down. So that's what I did when I went home that night. What was I writing? The speaker said that the things that I was writing down were the things that separated me from a proper relationship with God, and the Bible characterizes those as "sins."

The speaker had told me that the Bible says, All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23. We have missed the mark of God's holiness and righteousness, not measuring up to His standard of perfection. Furthermore, The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, His son, Romans 6:23.

I wrote for awhile, and then I ran out of things to put down. I signed my name, and then I talked with God. I said, "God, I have gotten honest with myself. You have known these things all along, and now I know them, and I realize that they are my sins. Furthermore, I understand that your Son, Jesus Christ, died on the cross for these very sins, and I want to accept that fact, and accept Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and as the Lord of my life. Thank you very much. Amen

I looked again at the list, realized that now that I had gotten honest with myself and I had rolled this burden off my back and onto His (I Pet. 5:7), that God had erased the blackboard of my life, and that no one else needed to know what was there. I crumpled up the paper, took it outside on my barbeque grill, and burned it. I went to bed that night with a great sense of peace, but I didn't know that I had done anything spectacular. I got up the next morning, and went about my normal activities, not noticing that anything had changed.

Over the next few days and weeks my life did begin to change. Some of the things on that list never tempted me again; others began to fade away. Some things that I had unsuccessfully tried to change for several years gradually disappeared with little effort of my own.

I began to work on step #2: Know the Pressure Points. I began to look at the "pressure points" in my own life: those people, places, things, that caused me to do the things on my list. I began to avoid those people, places, things, and spend more time in Bible study, fellowship, and prayer with people who knew this same Jesus Christ that I had come to know.

I began to "Build a Fortress of Prayer," particularly about two areas of my life. Number one, "God, who is that young lady that you want me to spend the rest of my life with?," and number two, "What is that career that you want me to go into next year when I leave the Air Force?"

As I focused my life on Jesus Christ, there was a young lady who was focusing her life on Jesus Christ, and we met in Christ and came together as man and wife in April 1971.

As we prepared for marriage, in early 1971, we began to meet on a nightly basis for prayer, and we prayed specifically for that one job that God had for me for the end of the year, when I left the Air Force. That summer I sent out 175 resumes to companies that had hired metallurgists in the past. The economy was not good at that time, and few companies were hiring engineers, so I received 125 "No's" and the other 50 didn't respond. But I only needed one job, and on the 17th of December, 1971, I left the Air Force, and on the 18th, I went to Indianapolis for the first time in my life, to begin the Environment Control franchise in which I am still involved after more than 20 years.

We founded that business on God's promise in Matt. 6:33, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." When the speaker first said, "Stand on the promises," I had no idea what he meant. He went on the say that there are nearly 8000 times in the Bible that God says that he will do certain things. He said, "If God says it, we can bank on it!" That's a promise! I began to look for those promises as I studied the Bible, and as I would find one, I would highlight it. Some I would memorize, and try to apply in my life. As I found that one would work, I would try another, and another, until I had a foundation of verses that was broad enough and sturdy enough to stand on. That's the way I live my life now, depending on God's promises to take me through the difficulties of life. God has been faithful to meet our needs for over 30 years.

My wife, Sandy, and I have learned to give Christ the credit for the bad as well as the good. He has led us through 26 years in business, and 5 years in staff ministry with CBMC. He has also comforted us and developed our character through the deaths of 3 of our 4 children. He taught us about love, grace, and hope, for which we give Him the credit. It is also a joy to give Him the credit for our 21 year-old son, Tim, who is a senior in engineering school, and who knows Jesus Christ as his personal savior.

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