My Years at NFCC - Part I

                                                                   By:  Pat Stillwell

Call to Another Place - April 1, 1995

     My wife and I had made the biggest move of our lives seven months previously. With our three children we left our home in Seminole, Florida, for the open country of Branford, Florida.  My wife, Carol, left her job of nine years, cashed in her 401K, and I sold my lawn service business I had  for seven years.  Carol would be a stay-at-home mom for the first time.  I had just grown a lawn service business to two full days a week  in nearby Lake City. 

     Just when all was starting to settle down, I felt the Lord said, “I have something else for you.”  After seven months of spending all we had and more, I was not ready for another change.  Being fairly new at this Christian walk business and believing fully in following the direction of the Lord, I began to fast and pray.  God said, “I have a place for you where they need you.  You will get paid once a week.  They will love you.  In one week, Retha Garten called for an estimate on my lawn cutting service.  When she told me what the place was about, I told her, “I think I am supposed to work there.”  I thought my wife would not go for it, but she said o.k.

That’s a Cult...Be Careful! - April 1995-October 1995   

      “They all live together in one place.  They a woman pastor.  Be careful.”  This is the advice I got from well-meaning friends.  I knew people had their reservations about NFCC, but I was certain God was calling me there and I had no evidence from the Bible that anything the Center was doing was wrong.  So, April 17, 1995, began my first day working for NFCC as the maintenance man.  If they were a cult, they couldn’t hide it every day of my 40-hour work week, month in and month out!  The first person I met (other than Retha) was Jean Moody  who is the church pianist.  As she walked toward me I didn’t know what to expect but she didn’t hesitate to warmly greet me with a smile and a hug on the sidewalk outside the office. 

      As the weeks went by I found they could not hiide their true character.  It became plain to see in this place, these people were living closer to the lifestyle the Bible calls for than any group I had seen before.  All my reservations were gone after six months.  I began to immerse myself in what I longed for:  in-depth teaching and instruction on Christ and the Bible.  I was like a kid in a candy store who couldn’t get enough.  For 6 l/2 years my knowledge of and heartfelt closeness of Jesus grew with leaps and bounds on these heaven-protected grounds.

 Instruction, Peace, Rest and Patience

      The next 6 l/2 years were a major growth period for me.  It seems just when you think you have an understanding of this Christian walk and you have it all together, you come into another phase or level.  Before you know it, you are growing again and the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ and the Word of God are instructing you in new areas.  This is what NFCC did for me.  I was taken to another level of relationship and understanding with my Lord.  Through the different instruction mediums - books, audio, video and the many godly people that live at the Center and visit there - the Lord was able to grow me into greater levels of relationship with Him that I had longed for but didn’t know how to reach.

      Personally, my transition in relationship with God went through phases at the Center that I label as instruction, peace, rest and patience.  The funny thing was I believed I was sacrificing myself  for God for the betterment  of NFCC because my job there was during the prime money-making years of my life (35-45).  Little did I realize it was me who was given the valuable prize - the bargain deal, so to speak.  As the years went sweetly by, I realized how fortunate or blessed I was to be given the opportunity to work at NFCC.  Driving through those gates every morning, I observed the dew on the grass, morning mist hovering just above the trees, birds merrily singing as they went about their day, cows in a nearby pasture mooing...alone with God’s creation on such prayer-soaked grounds allowed time for meditation as I went through my daily duties. 

      Enough cannot be said of the positive influence of the godly people going through their day at the help you.  It is not by what you think but what you know God says (Hebrews 4:11,12). I knew it was God’s answer for keeping me in my job at the Center.   Immediately, I went to the office, got the concordance and looked up the word ‘fear.’  I was looking for the Scripture to memorize that gives us the promise to overcome this opposition to our faith.  I feel it was apropos the day of that breakfast men’s meeting that God inspired me to commit His Word to memory was the day before Easter Sunday...when we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection.

      So...that day in April 2002 God started me on a most exciting and revelation-filled time with Him.  It was and is everything I desired from God.  A closeness and personal relationship developed that caused me to know personally Christ as the One who sticks closer than a brother.  I loved to read the Bible but my time was limited with work, sleep, husband and father responsibilities, etc., etc., like most working people today.  When I committed the Bible to memory, I could then ‘read the Bible’ as I drove the car, in the dark, in the shower...anywhere and anytime.  Since Jesus is the Word (John 1:1,14), memorizing Scripture resulted in more close time with Him.  Faith overcame fear since faith comes by hearing the Word of God….

Retha’s note:  Pat’s heart overflowed with so much to say when he wrote this, I will have to continue his story next month.  Watching Pat grow and develop spiritually, has been a joy to observe.)