My Testimony

My name is John E. McGlone IV.  I grew up in the home of a drunkard  and wife beater named John E. McGlone III until the age of six with two younger sisters.  My father was an adulterer who would lash out at our mother in his drunken rages.  When he was sober, he seemed to love us but eventually he would return to his drunkeness.  Our mother was a victim of both our father and her father.  He abandoned his family in 1965 for his lusts and drunkenness. It is heart wrenching to consider what sin does to people’s lives.  Because of this background, our mother was constantly going through periods of illness both physical and emotional breakdowns.

My sisters and I were turned over to the social services system in 1966.  Our youngest sister went to our great uncle and aunt. My other sister came with me to a group children’s home.  This place was called Payton home for children in Leesburg, VA.  It was a stable, loving, and Christian place for the most part.  It was here that I first heard of Jesus’ Kingdom.  I heard this Kingdom described from the book of Revelation.  I was fascinated by the possibility that I had a Father in heaven who cared for me and knew how many hairs I had on my head.

Over the course of the next six years I was moved to different homes, usually Christian.  They would take us to their different churches/denominations.  God was using this to both show me His Word and the hypocrisies of many who attended these churches.  I read the Bible regularly, prayed, and hoped that we would be returned to our mother.

In Jan 1973 my mother died of either an accidental overdose of pain killers or had committed suicide.  She had just recently remarried to a man whom she seemed to love and they moved to California from Virginia with the promise in a few months they would establish a home and send for us.  She had an operation on her hands for carpel tunnel syndrome and was in great pain for some months.  She was found on the floor one day by my step father, unconscious and not breathing.  He did CPR and revived her and she was taken to the hospital where she was on life support equipment for a week.  Her prognosis was very bad; she was brain dead and it was decided to remove her from the machines and she died.

It was during the funeral of my mother on a rainy day in early February that I directed my anger at God for my mother’s death.  I asked my grandmother where she was, to wit she replied, “She is in a better place.”  I knew this wasn’t true according to what I had read in the Bible.  I was crushed by both her life and her death.  I began to deny God, and entered into a life of sin.  Drinking, drugs, lusting, and hatred became the food that I fed my soul.  By the time I was 16 I was a fully developed criminal who had rejected the love of my grandparents and was sent to a boys home for troubled youth in Richmond, VA.  It was here that I developed even greater criminal skills becoming a; drug dealer, fornicator, street fighter, and generally a wicked person.

My life became so bad by the time I was 19 either I joined the military or I would end up in prison.  I was homeless, bouncing from one place to another, from one sin to another.  I ran back to my grandparents for shelter, but due to my grandmother’s illness they could not harbor me.  My grandfather gave me $5 and advised me to join the service.

I joined the Navy and began to get some order and discipline in my life.  I was still sinning as I loved my sin and thought often that before I died, I would ask Jesus to forgive me for all my wickedness.  Little did I realize there are many Bible verses about what I was doing counting His love as worthless.  Beside that, I could have been killed without ever seeing my appointment coming.  Heb 9:27

I was married in 1983 to June and had a daughter, Gina, neither of whom did I truly care for as I should have.  I was not faithful as either a husband or father living wickedly and storing up the wrath of God.  My first wife divorced me for adultery in 1991.  She was right in doing so, except for wife beating I was just like my father, a selfish hypocrite.  I lived these 15 years in my shame knowing that one day I would give an account to God who created me.

I realized the life of sin I was leading was condemning me before God’s throne.  I had heard a man on television using the Bible to rebuke people about their wickedness.  I thought it was funny how this ‘loving Christian’ could talk to people in such a way.  It was over the course of eight months the Holy Spirit was convicting me of my wretched life.  I was born again by God’s grace on August 3rd, 1996.  Knowing how much I had offended God, I cried out for His forgiveness for hours.  I heard the rejoicing in heaven over my salvation as I trusted in Christ as my Lord and Savior.  I called all my family to tell them I had believed in Jesus and was saved, before I really understood what that meant.  Of all my family, my sister was the only one thrilled with my news.  Of course, she was already saved by God’s mercy, so she was thankful.  Soon after I got saved, I met my beautiful bride to be, Leonida, in a discipleship class.  After a six month courtship, we were married.

I retired from the U.S. Navy in May 2001 and returned with my wife to Hawaii.  I sold vacuum cleaners for a year and then began as a letter carrier with the United States Post Office.

Unfortunately, I lived a lukewarm walk with my Lord Jesus for almost eight years.  Sometimes I was red hot for His Kingdom and many times I was cold hearted.  I heard a message called Hell’s Best Kept Secret by Ray Comfort in June 2004.  This teaching along with other teachings began to reveal my horrible condition before the Lord.  I was trampling the blood of Jesus and had a greater knowledge of Him yet, was not esteeming the sacrifice He made for my sins.  I realized I would be one that God would spew out of His mouth if I did not get right with Jesus.  As I studied the Bible over the weeks, I realized how little I understood the True Gospel of Jesus (Galatians 1).  I would wake up in the middle of the night and cry out to God for hours in prayer, seeking His will.  I began to understand what a great salvation we have in Him.  I knew I was returning to my first love: Jesus Christ and was doing so with all my heart, soul, mind and strength.

I began to step out in faith and share the Gospel with others.  Exercising my faith by witnessing strengthened my spiritually.  It helped me to resist temptations, study more, pray more and continue to seek the lost for the glory of Jesus (John 15).  As I grew, I realized that I needed to practice the righteousness that Jesus walked in.  I realized that I shouldn’t be relying on worldly teachings of men that would excuse sin in my life (1 John 3).  I realized that out of my free will, I needed to resist sin by the power of the Holy Spirit.  I needed to obey my Lord and Savior. (John 14:15)

The Lord began to move me to study open air preaching.  I found that as I witnessed to 2-3 people, others would come around and listen.  It is during this time that I attended two Evangelism Boot Camps put on by The Great News Network.  It was at these Boot Camps that I met and heard the testimony of Kerrigan Skelly.  I began praying for him back in 2005, as I believed the Lord would lead me into ministry with him.

These experiences at these ‘boot camps’ really helped me in the area of standing up and proclaiming the Gospel.  The Lord led others and me to establish The Great News Oahu evangelism team in Hawaii.  It was an itinerant ministry geared towards reaching out to the lost and training other Christians to join us in doing the same (Luke 10:2).  I spoke at a few Churches about the need of Christians to step out and share the Gospel.  Unfortunately, I found that most ‘professing Christians’, did not want to obey the Great Commission of Jesus Christ to tell the lost of their condition before a Holy and Righteous God. What a shame, people believe most are going to abide in God’s justice, hellfire, forever and they are not loving enough to overcome their fear to tell the lost the truth about Jesus.

After the God used Hurricane Katrina to judge New Orleans, I was astonished that many believers would say this could not be the justice of God against America and specifically the wicked city of New Orleans.  Shortly after this devastation there were four category four hurricanes lined up to hit Hawaii.  As I studied these storms and began asking the Lord to avert them, I realized God was telling me to move my family off the islands of Hawaii.  I began praying for a move to North Carolina.  We would be able to minister to my family that lived there, as well as do the Lord’s work there.  A few months after I began praying, I asked my wife what she thought about North Carolina.  She confirmed that she had already been praying the same thing.  Hallelujah!  This was the first of many confirmations and doors the Lord would open.  I found out the Skelly’s were moving to North Carolina also, I began to get excited.  As we prayed for a city to minister in, the Lord kept bringing Fayetteville to my heart,  Fayetteville?!?!

Meanwhile, back in Hawaii, we had also started a School of Biblical Evangelism (S.O.B.E.) study at a brother’s house.  We watched as God grew this study and worked in the lives of the people who attended.  We began to go out to Waikiki and other venues regularly to preach, hand out tracts and witness 1-2-1.  Many people got to hear the full truth of the Gospel to the glory of Jesus!  Witnessing and working in the labor field together bonds the brothers and sisters in supernatural love.  I had never experienced such wonderful relationships with God’s people before.  Sadly, some would leave due to doctrinal issues and not return to God’s labor of love for the lost.

We find ourselves in a new season in our lives.  Our family has been shunned from our fellowship for asking sincere questions of the elders.  We are no longer part of Pinpoint Evangelism or Refining Fire Fellowship.  Please pray for us as we make this transition, to be blameless and above reproach.  Thank you so much saints of God.

God bless you,

John