The Baptist Beacon

SALVATION EXPERIENCE OF ANGELA BINION

I was saved on May 19, 1972. It was during the spring Revival at Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. Elder Thomas Carter from Lafayette, TN was assisting Elder Calvin Perrigo in the Revival. It was on the Friday night of the meeting. I'm not sure who did the preaching or what they preached on. I had been taken to church all of my life by my mother. She had talked to me often about being saved and I knew what to do when the time came that I realized that I was lost. During the preaching that night, I believe I had been playing TIC TAC TOE and Hang_Man with my cousin. After the preaching was over, an Altar call was given and many people went to the Altar. I was not affected by this at all, possibly because I was not paying attention. During the course of the Altar service, a friend of mine began seeking the Lord across the church from me, in the A_Women's corner. This event troubled me deeply. She and I were the same age (10). My first thought was "I'm lost too". My second thought was "No, I'm not lost, I'm just upset because my friend is". My third thought was "Go to the bathroom and get away from this feeling". I immediately did the "Sinner thing" and went to the restroom. While I was there, my heart seemed to have stopped pounding so hard and I didn't feel so scared and confused. I played around in the restroom for a little while, and decided that the feeling had passed and it was safe to go back out into the service again. I returned to my seat, and that same pounding in my chest returned. This time I just did what I knew I had to do. I started toward the altar. The entire altar and the area around the altar was filled with people seeking the Lord and those that were praying for them. I managed to squeeze in between some people at the end on the right hand side of the mourner's bench. I then began to cry out to God. I prayed and screamed and cried for quite some time before even noticing who was around me or what was going on. At some point I left the bench and got down in the floor. I remember people talking to me and asking me what was standing between me and God, asking me what I was holding on to, and telling me to turn it all over to God. I remember briefly trying to search my mind and find out what I was holding on to, and then wishing that they would stop bothering me and leave me alone so that I could pray. Some time during my seeking, someone had called my grandparents at home and I remember them coming to the church and praying with me. I remember "coming to" in various different positions and places on and around the altar area. Mostly I remember just praying until I was so tired and discouraged. I remember stopping praying and looking around and realizing I was laying flat on the floor. Things around me had gotten very quiet. Everyone seemed to have prayed out, sang out, and done everything that they could think of doing. Everyone else had left the altar and most people had already gone home. I had been seeking hard, with everything that was in me for at least 2 hours. My mother helped me get up and I just sat on the altar. People were looking at me anxiously, probably thinking that after all the crying and carrying on that I had done, surely I had gotten saved. We just sat there for a while longer. I didn't really want to leave or even stop seeking the Lord, but I was just so tired. We finally got up and started home. I felt burdened, helpless, sick, empty. Back then, late at night they turned the traffic lights from their normal red, yellow, and green mode, to a flashing red mode. My mother drove a Mustang Fastback, the back seat was let down into a bed and I remember sitting back there scared, thinking that if someone ran through one of those blinking lights and hit us, I would die and go to hell. My father was out of town that weekend, so when we got home my mom said that I could sleep with her. I went on to bed and she stayed up a little while. I didn't go to sleep, but lay there scared and still feeling very burdened. When she came to bed, she must have known that I was still very upset, and she must have asked me if I wanted to pray again, because I remember getting down beside the bed and starting to pray again. I don't know how long we prayed, or how I got there, but I remember ending up out in the hallway. During this time my mom had put on an album of the Thom's 4 and I remember hearing the song "Searching". In the song it says "I kept on searching till I found him. I then became determined to keep searching until I too found him. I remember saying "Just save me now Lord. At that point I fully put my trust in Him that He would save me, and in that instant, all the trouble, grief and heartache that I had felt just went away. I joined Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church the following Sunday night, and was baptized in June by Elder Calvin Perrigo.